[Day 6] How to live life on your own terms [case studies in action]

Posted on / by Natalie Sisson / in Entrepreneurs / 173 comments
Day 6 of 30 Day Blog Challenge - Live life on your own terms

The prospect of leaving behind a life that you know for a lifestyle that you can only see in your mind can seem incredibly far off from where you are now.

I want to tell you that it’s not and only one thing really matters when it comes to creating it.

That’s why in yesterday’s challenge we looked at the perfect day exercise to get a step closer to your ideal lifestyle.

You simply need to make a choice. You need to choose freedom and make a commitment to building that lifestyle.

Achieving the lifestyle you’ve always wanted isn’t an overnight process. It can take months and years to get there, but if you really want it, trust that everything that needs to happen will if you put in the work.

Day 6 of 30 Day Blog Challenge - Live life on your own terms

There a lot of people out there saying that they’re living the location independent lifestyle and that it’s as easy as sending an email and raking in the cash.

I say bollocks to that. Don’t listen to those who tell you that it’s super easy and that they only work four hours a week.

The last thing I want you to do is start comparing yourself to people who aren’t being totally honest and value driven about their businesses. And just so you don’t fall into a whirlpool of comparison, read this article that was a resource from Day on what it takes to be location independent.

How to live life on your own terms

To show you how you can achieve the lifestyle you want, here are three examples of people who have made a commitment to choose freedom – from people who are single, to couples, and on to full families.

Their unique stories and many more are featured in Chapter 2 of my Suitcase Entrepreneur book and certainly serve as inspiration for mapping your own blueprint for happiness in life and work.

The location independent rebel

In 2009 Sean Ogle was extremely unhappy with his life. He’d been working as a financial analyst and had finally decided that enough was enough. He left his job, moved to Bangkok and spent the next seven months traveling, learning Internet marketing and figuring out how to make his newly-discovered lifestyle more permanent.

Throughout the next year, Sean realised that so many people were making online business much more complex than it needed to be and broke it down into three basic steps.

  • Build online skills – Learn about SEO, WordPress, Copywriting, etc.

  • Use one of those skills you’ve learned to make money – This provides income while you’re building your business and lets you know that you can secure clients

  • Begin working on your own projects

Sean’s business is built from a sweet spot of all three items mentioned as he has a blog, Location 180,  a community of entrepreneurs, and an affiliate site.

The philanthropic misfits

After AJ Leon decided to walk away from his 6-figure job as a finance executive in Manhattan, him and his wife Melissa launched a business, Misfit Incorporated, designed for philanthropy and freedom.

While they’re on their quest to travel around the entire world, which they write about at The Pursuit of Everything, they’ve also raised millions of dollars for educational and sanitary projects in Africa.

Misfit Incorporated is an umbrella organisation that runs services for web design, engineering, and content strategy. They also run a conference, a magazine, a web application, and a clothing company.

The globetrotting family

It wasn’t until Rachel Denning and her husband Greg had four children that they traveled outside of the United States to ‘suck the marrow out of life’ as Thoreau says.

It all started when Rachel took a trip for the first time and felt a flame for adventure ignite within her. She caught the travel bug and wasn’t able to look back.

All of her children were under four years old when they moved to Costa Rica in 2007 and since then have traveled from the Dominican Republic to Guatemala, equalling twelve countries in total.

Rachel wanted her children to grow up surrounded by foreign languages, cultures, and customs so they could have an out of textbook educational experience.

Greg and Rachel fund their location independent lifestyle through a number of sources, like advertising on websites, freelance writing, personal coaching, mentoring, network marketing, and affiliate sales through their blog Discover Share Inspire.

Now that you’ve taken the time to read these inspiring real-life examples, what action can you take for yourself to get started?

Day 6 Blog Challenge to accept in 3 easy steps

1. Write a response blog post to this question:

What are my three priorities for the next 30 days that will move me closer towards living life on my own terms?

Top Tip: Focus on the ones you believe are a stretch, but achievable.

2. Let us know you’ve written a blog post:

Don’t forget to copy and paste the URL of this blog post into your `trackbacks’ section under your blog post so we know you’ve written a response.

3. Embed the 30 Day Blog Challenge badge in your post:

Choose the badge you most like from right here. Then just COPY the HTML code already pre done for you, and PASTE it into the HTML tab of your post.

Read these resource posts to help you

Take a moment to be inspired by my pep talk when you read This Is The Only Battle Worth Fighting For

You can also refer to this post on what questions you should ask yourself before you decide to go location independent.

What’s next in the 30 Day Blog Challenge?

If you want to go above and beyond you can:

Click to tweet this: Are you living life on your own terms? Be inspired by these stories of those who are. #TSE30DC #entrepreneur #inspiration

Grab a copy of my Suitcase Entrepreneur book on Amazon (Kindle) or Kobo

Stay tuned for tomorrow’s blog post for Day 7 Tools and resources: All you need to create your perfect lifestyle

Round up of some of today’s blog posts by you

And there a ton more in the comments. By the way it’s great seeing more of you interacting on each others’ blogs too!