When Justin and I first starting talking about this adventure we’re on – about 3-4 years ago, I was never really sure what it would entail in terms of business. At the time, a lot of people were making a lot of money on the idea of a four-hour work week, taking mini-retirements and outsourcing all their work to foreign countries. One of the many books we read made it seem so easy and so appealing (I guess) – how you could live for pennies on the dollar in other countries, make a short call to your ‘virtual assistant’ each day and spend of the rest of it frolicking in the sun. I had a lot of issues with this.
Love in Utah
First off, I’m a happily married and much-middle-aged dog-mom who loves her role as the family “Aunt” – I could hardly see me sauntering off the South America with a backpack and a smile. Secondly, the idea of ALL play and no work doesn’t appeal to me. In fact, when we find ourselves with the rare weekend completely away from computers, I miss work! I miss my clients – many of whom have become good friends over the years, I miss the interaction, the relationships – the frustration of the creative process as a whole, and I need it all!
As our dreams of traveling now vs. later in life (see our About page for more on why we do this), the idea of making additional income off of the process crossed our minds more than a few times. It’s just now, a good year or two of the planning stages and 3 months of the actual ‘doing’ that I’ve come to realize that is not what I want. Too many days stressing over how much I should write, where I should submit stuff, am I following the right people? It started to flow over into both my personal and business lives and I became lost in it all.
What I really want is to write for myself. For my family, my friends and my loved ones. I want to share the adventure we’re on without making them feel like their sitting through family slideshow night. What I don’t want is to fret about what I write, how I write it, etc. This needs to be more of a giant love letter to the people dear to me, and if our experience can help others trying to decide if a location independent lifestyle is for them, then great. If not, NBD, and my niece would say. No big deal.
So for now I’ve decided to move towards more of a travel journal, but with my everyday life infused (One of my favorite past blog entries is off the birth of my “nephew”, Austin, and how worried I was about his Mom) – and I believe that is how it should be. In the end, if I inspire the next generation of my family to swim against the stream and live life for their passions, their dreams, their desires – and not solely for the traditional ‘must make all the money I can’ route, then I’ve done my job.
