Wednesday 11 September 2013

Location Independence














Day 4 is all about location independence and what it means to us. To me it quite literally means having the freedom and independence to work from any location you want. I have never had a desire to run my own business, or work for myself but I have always wanted to work abroad, and travel the world. And now it seems the only way to make those dreams come true is to be able to work for myself and run my own business from wherever I want, even if that means coming back to the UK and working from my sofa in the future!  I don’t particularly want to travel indefinitely and part of me hopes that travelling the world will cure my itchy feet and I’ll find somewhere I want to make my home.

Natalie shares some Pros and Cons based on her experiences as The Suitcase Entrepreneur, these 3 I agree with:

  • Pro: Freedom to make decisions on every aspect of your life and business to fit with your priorities.
  • Pro: Freedom to choose what hours you want to work that suit you.
  • Con: Not having the creature comforts that make you feel at home, or being able to have everything at your finger tips for every occasion.
And these 3 I would challenge:
  • Con: Dealing with the constant challenge of changing location and planning every aspect of your life and travel. 
Does this depends on how often you want to change location? If I was truly thinking about becoming location independent on a permanent basis I would probably choose to stay in the same place for 3-6 months before moving on. Even for my initial plan to travel round the world I don’t want to sprint but take a languishing walk, sit down and stay awhile, and move on feeling refreshed not rushed, harassed and feeling like I’ve had missed out on some of the best bits a place has to offer because I’m so focussed on getting to the next place.

  • Con: Lack of routine or set working hours to your day

This is actually a Pro for me as I get bored with routine and repetition; ground hog day - yawn!

  • Pro: Living minimally and feeling free from the weight of possessions (both mentally and physically) so you can move around quickly and with ease. 

I can’t yet accept this as a pro, it is going to be extremely difficult to detach myself from physical possessions as I am so sentimental and nearly everything I own I can remember who gave it to me or where I bought it from, or who was with me when I bought it, that kind of thing. So this will actually be one of the larger cons I have to overcome before I can discover that weightlessness of possessions is positive.

The one other con that I need to overcome is the thought of being away from my family, not knowing if I’ll see my grandparents again before they die, missing seeing my niece grow up.

That’s a pretty big obstacle to overcome, and is largely why I’ve been thinking of only travelling for a year, but then I thought hey, what if I become so successful I can go back to the UK and see these guys whenever I want?

Then one night last week I left the office at 7.30pm and realised that that was another 2 hours of my life that I will never get back, that I don’t get paid for, that i don’t get to claim time back for. And coupled with not having a proper lunch break and being sat at a computer for over 10 hours those extra 2 hours probably contribute to a negative impact on my health too. And even though location independence won’t give me those 2 hours of my life back and it won’t give me 2 hours extra in a day, it does mean that I will be able to choose how and where I spend al my future hours.

What would you do if you could claim 2 hours of your day back?


<< Read Day 3
Freedom & Adventure


6 comments:

  1. Go to the Shop to buy more wine before it closed.

    ReplyDelete
  2. ha ha great answer. I never run out wine at home so i don't have to worry about the shop closing, something to think about tho - i don't think living minimally would include having a fully stocked wine cupboard at every location would it?!!

    ReplyDelete
  3. Not only am I rather pathetically attached to my things (not very Christian of me lol), I hate the idea of traveling and not being able to be a part of my family's lives. Not getting to see my littlest siblings grow up and be a role model for them, or not being there when they need me. So...if I'm ever location independent, I kind of doubt I'm going to be using it to travel the world. :/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I know, I really want to see the world, but hate the thought of being away from loved ones, i need to figure out the right balance of being at home and being on a beach!

      Delete
  4. Great post. For me family time is at the top of my priority list. Whilst I absolutely love my work and I'm happy to have my own business and be able to make my own choices I have learned to look at spending money like this. How many hours will I need to work, books, courses will I need to sell to have this. It's really helped me get a handle on what I really want . I'm also doing the 30 day challenge. I think I'm a few days behind you. If you'd like to take a look, here's today's post http://lawofattraction4life.com/2013/10/choice/

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. I like the approach of working out how many hours you need to work/products you need to sell before making a purchase, once i have an online business set up i'll definitely follow this thought process.
      Love the honesty of your blog, i'll be following to see how you are getting on with the rest of the challenge. I got stuck around day 11 but i'm back on it again now.

      Delete