Journey

How would you spend your time, your life, if money were no object?

I recently came back from a short (12 day) trip from Bali and was trying to get “back” into work-mode and finding that I’m not getting motivated or any satisfaction from what I’m doing anymore. I’d start, and then get distracted, or go outside and “think”. I couldn’t get into it at all and now a week has passed with barely anything achieved, which is “so” not like me at all. I’m used to tackling many projects at once, and now I can’t seem to get motivated to do even one thing in an entire week.

I think it’s time to re-evaluate my life..re-evaluate my values and make sure that I am following my dreams.

I thought that I was already doing that by having an internet marketing business, but the main reason for starting the business was to travel and coming back to it, knowing that I’m still not travelling.. I dunno, the passion for it is gone.

It was different when I was just working on my own sites – finding out new marketing techniques and applying it for my own sites – I was obsessed and engaged in researching and applying what I had learnt, testing everything, buying everything, seeing the results – seeing success, but ever since I decided to apply what I had learnt to other people’s businesses, I’ve found myself spending the last couple of years struggling and spending 10-20/hrs a day on a computer, and not with a big smile on my face.. it’s not “living”, it’s not a life.

I skip friends dinners because I have deadlines, I choose clients over my partner and family, I’m no longer “part of the world”, I barely leave the house except the weekly grocery shop, I haven’t been to a cinema in years, dinner is rushed – I used to love poker and I’ve only played a live game “once” in the past couple of years and even then I found myself feeling guilty and wanting to get home to work. Being in business for yourself – is much harder than working for someone else.

I should’ve focused MORE on passive income but local business marketing was the path I chose, mostly because I knew that I could really help people and it made “me” feel good.

For many years, I thought that if I could have a business that could be “run from a laptop”, and totally online, that I could live anywhere – travel anywhere, and have freedom. But I’m “chained” to this computer like a slave, and there is no joy anymore. Coupled with the fact that “local business marketing” does not really suit a travellers lifestyle.. local businesses like to meet in person or at least over the phone – they are not “skype” people and they don’t trust people who live offshore.

I had more joy when I was trying to earn a “passive” income, one that didn’t require sales, explaining technical terms, or reporting to others, etc.

I love helping people but with the mass amounts of seo “consultants” out there who have ‘done wrong’ by ripping off their clients making them distrust seo companies altogether, or by clients choosing smaller once-off packages then questioning why they aren’t number 1 when they didn’t follow your customized recommendations for them in the first place, you have to first get past all these objections, and spend all your time educating them on what they need, and it’s a lot of work and effort, and when I look at how much time I spend on each campaign, huddled over the computer, never seeing the outside of my room.. I’m just … kinda over it. It’s easier to work for other marketers cos they at least know what they need and know I can do a quality job for them, but the white label project I started didn’t pan out either as I tried to expand into outsourcing to be able to keep up with demand, and found noone up to my standards, and it ended up being much faster and better for my clients if I just “did it myself”.

So, while I sit here, re-evaluating the past 10 years of my life, figuring out what to “let go” of, which sites I should delete (I have over 70), should I just get rid of everything and start from scratch? Or should I just re-focus my energies on that which will give me “joy”. I’m no longer motivated – I’m overwhelmed and stuck with a burning question again.. “what should I do with my life?”

I do think that I could still make the local business work somehow and travel, but maybe I should put my energies into businesses of countries where I travel to instead of keeping myself “stuck” here in Australia. Or re-focus back on passive incomes instead of having anything to do with the public. Either affiliate marketing, CPA or maybe even webinars/training/membership sites, etc.

It’s funny when you meet locals in Bali – the Balinese, all they want to do is live in Australia, whereas from my perspective, they already live in paradise – guess the grass is always greener on the other side? :)

Early Mid-Life crisis?
And so this week, I’ve started to notice comments & status updates on Facebook as well as doing several google searches on trying to find your life’s purpose “and all that kind of stuff” this short video was posted by a friend on Facebook and got my attention and my brain-juices flowing and made me realize that I need to question what I’m doing and whether it serves me or if it’s “keeping me a slave”.

I started finding others who are “living my dream”.. working online while travelling the world.. they are not “stuck” 10-20 hours a day struggling to get work done for a pittance, not struggling to pay the rent and they are not still “dreaming” of travelling like I am.. they are living it. Some of them make less than I do and they are still doing it. Some of them are half my age and yet they are doing it. What the heck am I waiting for? The world is my oyster, I need to just do it, spend a few weeks figuring it out and then just do it..

Seeking other entrepreneurs who are living the dream, working online, passive or active and travelling the world, I need to connect with like-minds so that I can stay focused on what I really want. I’ve found quite a few in the past couple of days, if you are interested, here are some links to others who are travelling & working online:

• Niall Doherty
• Sean Ogle
• Dan Andrews & Ian Schoen
• AJ Leon
• Chris Guillebeau

How would you spend your time, how would you enjoy your life, if money were no object?