10 Quirky Steps To Living On Your Own Terms

The internet is filled with the same rehashed advice about living on your own terms.

Ditching a painful yet comfortable career for an unknown world of total freedom is a matter of inner transformation more than anything else.

Here are 10 quick & quirky steps to help you initiate this transformation.

 

1. Set The Right Direction

There is no point in quitting current job only to end up again doing something you don’t really enjoy.

Even if you manage to finally be your own boss, if every morning you have to drag your ass out of bed and painfully crawl towards your laptop, you probably lost the man vs boring job battle again.

Don’t build another prison for yourself.

Instead, set the right direction by identifying:

• Where you want to go: What are your dreams? What is it that matters to you? What is it you want to improve in your life?
• Where you don’t want to go: What do you hate doing? What drags you down? What type of people do you want to stay away from?

Once you’ve got your direction, design and drive all your life towards this goal. Do not deviate.

2. Make It Real

Sometimes your ultimate goal or dream can feel very distant. Almost unreal.

That’s because your everyday reality is just too far away from your dream.

So bring your dream forward and give it a little place in your everyday life:

Think about it every single morning (we have an exercise for this in Trailblazer)

If your dream is to live in Costa Rica, go there at least once a year.

If your dream is to coach people, offer some free coaching for a charity at weekends.

Whatever your dream is, find a way to introduce it into your reality bit by bit.

3. Make It Realistic

Dream of living on your own terms isn’t about winning the lottery. It is about funding a comfortable lifestyle by being in alignment with yourself.

You need to dream big, but don’t go for the shiny, impossible to reach object.

It isn’t about making millions, snorting buckets of coke and doing call girls in the back of your limo.

It is about finding your true path of fulfilment.

It can be rock’n’roll, but it has to naturally fit into your life. For the long term.

4. Don’t Be A Lonely Bunny

You won’t get too far on your own. And you’ll feel sad, buddy.

So share your enthusiasm with people.

Get help.

Make friends.

Partner.

Put yourself out there.

Open up.

And shine.

5. Business Ideas Are A Process

If you’re just getting started, the very thought of having to find an idea to launch your own business is very scary.

It can feel overwhelming:

“I need to find that perfect idea now! How to do it? Where do I start? I can’t!!!!!!!!”

As many of our students would say, finding an idea is not a light-bulb moment. It’s a process:

At the beginning everything seems dark and you have no clue what you’re doing.

After a couple of hours you start getting ideas.

And the more you practice, the more you get yourself into idea generation mode, the more ideas you’ll find.

And this won’t stop, ever. This is like learning to walk.

6. There Is No Money Tree

You’ll find so many blueprints, revolutionary methods out there that promise the moon, such as:

“My 5 Minutes a Day Routine To Make $162,837 per Month While Scratching My Balls On The Sofa”

;-)

I’m serious, there is really stuff like that out there.

Needless to say, this is all B.S.

There is no money tree.

Which leads me into the next step:

7. Help Them And They’ll Help You

Money comes from clients.

Clients are people, humans.

Humans will give you money if you move them, if you add value, if you offer something a bit different than their boring daily routine.

Add a bit of spice to their life.

So find your tribe, the people you want to speak to.

Give them value.

Help them.

And they’ll help you in return.

8. You Are In For The Profits

Now don’t get me wrong, giving and helping doesn’t have to mean charity work.

Whatever you do, make sure you get well paid for it.

There is nothing wrong in asking people for money in exchange for what you have to offer.

As long as you’re really helping them and make a difference to their lives, you’re worth every penny you ask for.

9. You Will Fail. Period. Accept It.

Sorry for the bad news, but you are not perfect my lovely.

Along the way, there will inevitably be things you’ll do wrong.

You might fail big time, or screw up just one thing.

Whatever it is, you will fail at some point.

Your secret weapon?

Expect and accept failure.

Get in this adventure filled with enthusiasm and a desire to learn from your mistakes.

And get people to support you:

It is vital to have friendly buddies to relight your flame after you fail (find a coach, an accountability partner, or join a community).

10. There Is A Way To Start Today

The biggest cause of failure?

Reading articles like this one and then getting back to your daily routine.

Whatever your dream is, there is always something you can do today that will get you closer to it.

Even if it is a microscopic task. Think about what you could easily do today.

And follow with another small task tomorrow.

And so on.

Unsure how you could start today?

Your path to freedom starts here.

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