I CREATE MY LIFE

I have been truly blessed in my life to be touched by an abundance of wonderful teachers. I’m 4 months into my journey of “Adventure Toward Freedom” – and I’ve had the great realization it is really “Adventure Toward ME”. The emptiness that I’ve felt in my life is a void, the void of purpose.

A very wise woman who I admire and respect, shared this with me when I started this journey, “I applaud the path you are taking. It is difficult and rare in our culture to have the courage to step outside what we are told is normal/success/laudable in order to find our true Selves and find our way. I tell you with my whole heart that this is the only journey in Life that matters a hill of beans. It will require courage, which you have. True happiness and peace can only be found within, so that is where you will need to go looking.”

At the beginning of my journey my focus was on creating financial freedom and a life of travel and adventure. As time goes on – I find those things by themselves empty and unfulfilling. I have a deep yearning for something much more. Like the Monarch Butterfly, it’s time for me to “shed” my former self.

My Adventure Toward Freedom is now a journey to MY True Self. A journey to discover my purpose here on this planet and also the gift I’m supposed to share with the world.

I truly believe, when I make a decision, a commitment to move forward toward a goal, the Universe embraces me and makes available opportunities and resources that I never dreamed possible. I have experienced this many times in my life.   I’m taking this journey one step at a time, trusting in the process, facing the fear and doing it anyway.

As we’re heading to Florida for the next 2 months, I’m eager to walk on the beach, feel the sea breeze on my face and listen to the sound of the waves, sharing their familiar rhythm with me, and excited that more about my journey will be revealed.

I was re-introduced to Oriah Mountain Dreamer recently. I am moved by her words…

The Invitation

“It doesn’t interest me what you do for a living. I want to know what you ache for, and if you dare to dream of meeting your heart’s longing.
It doesn’t interest me how old you are. I want to know if you will risk looking like a fool for love, for your dream, for the adventure of being alive.
It doesn’t interest me what planets are squaring your moon. I want to know if you have touched the center of your own sorrow, if you have been opened by life’s betrayals or have become shriveled and closed from fear of further pain! I want to know if you can sit with pain, mine or your own, without moving to hide it or fade it, or fix it.
I want to know if you can be with joy, mine or your own, if you can dance with wildness and let the ecstasy fill you to the tips of your fingers and toes without cautioning us to be careful, to be realistic, to remember the limitations of being human.
It doesn’t interest me if the story you are telling me is true. I want to know if you can disappoint another to be true to yourself; if you can bear the accusation of betrayal and not betray your own soul; if you can be faithless and therefore trustworthy.
I want to know if you can see beauty even when it’s not pretty, every day, and if you can source your own life from its presence.
I want to know if you can live with failure, yours and mine, and still stand on the edge of the lake and shout to the silver of the full moon, “Yes!”
It doesn’t interest me to know where you live or how much money you have. I want to know if you can get up, after the night of grief and despair, weary and bruised to the bone, and do what needs to be done to feed the children.
It doesn’t interest me who you know or how you came to be here. I want to know if you will stand in the center of the fire with me and not shrink back.
It doesn’t interest me where or what or with whom you have studied. I want to know what sustains you, from the inside, when all else falls away.
I want to know if you can be alone with yourself and if you truly like the company you keep in the empty moments.”
― Oriah Mountain Dreamer

I Hate My Job!

I had an interesting conversation with a friend this morning. She said to me, “I hate my job. I wish I could do what you did and quit”.

My response to her was, “plan for it and make it happen.” I have a feeling there are a lot of people who are in my friends shoes. I know for myself – I felt stuck. I made good money in Corporate America, but I was not at all passionate about what I was doing. I had a lot of fear of giving it up (you know the acronym of fear – future events appearing real) – I felt stuck and miserable, but I made a plan. My friend said to me, “I just don’t know where to start…”. So I shared with her my plan of attack. I hope this can help other people who may also feel stuck.

1. Get clarity on what you want (see one of my previous blog posts to get you started — https://adventuretowardfreedom.wordpress.com/2015/07/20/how-to-get-everything-you-want/). For me – I want FREEDOM. Freedom to do what I want, when and where. My long-term goal is to create a nice passive income stream with commercial real estate. As I get closer to retirement, I also want to understand and manage my IRA funds, so I got started a Stock training program. Many people are able to take baby steps – start a part-time business or get the education they need while keeping their job for a period of time.

2. SAVE – make sure you have at least 3 months of living expenses saved. This may sound like a lot, but if you get creative, there are a lot of ways to easily get here.

Budget – know what you are spending today – and see where you can save. Eating out is a big one – can you cut this one in half or more?

• Reduce expenses – here are some suggestions — negotiate with your Internet, cable, phone companies, chances are you can greatly reduce your expenses here. Can you cut out your morning Starbuck? How about your seasonal clothes expenditure? If you want it bad enough – you’ll find a way.
• Purge/de-clutter – this one is huge. For one, it’s amazing what will happen in your life when you make space for new. If you have a lot of clutter – you are blocking the flow in your life. I started purging and set a monetary goal of what I’d like to make selling unused/unneeded items in our house (after 11 years – there was a LOT!). My neighborhood has a Facebook “Swap” page – check it out, these are great. I’d simply take a picture of the item for sale, post it on the Facebook Swap page with a price, and someone would buy it and come to my door to pick it up. It is amazing what I made doing this. It wasn’t the big items that sold easily – it was the little $5-$25 items – those items at first glance you might think no one would want, you’d be surprised. At the very least donate items – you can use the deduction on your income taxes.
• Make extra money – try this exercise – do a mind map of ALL the things you can think of to make extra money. Don’t sensor – just list them. You’ll be surprised when you’re finished of all the different options you have.

• Sell your car – if you have a car payment, sell your car and buy a used car you can afford so you don’t have a car payment. I love Dave Ramsey – if you can’t afford to buy an item (and I don’t mean with payments) – you can’t afford it. Rearrange your lifestyle to one you can afford.

3. Create a transition plan – This is the fun part. Determine when you want to “jump” and work backwards from there – what needs to happen so you CAN JUMP? I’m very fortunate to have a wonderful partner to support me. We sat down and got clear on the minimum amount of income I’d need to generate while we are working toward our long-term goals. One of the ways that we decided to generate additional income was through “Vacation Rental” with our home. Sites like Homeaway.com, VRBO.com and FlipKey.com are blowing up. Recent statistics show 47% of leisure travelers are interested in staying in a vacation home. We did some work on our house to get ready for vacation rental and the response has been overwhelming. We’ve actually had to turn away more interested renters than what we’ve accepted. Check out Playa del Dragon – we’re currently looking for SnowBird renters November 2015 – February, 2016. http://www.vrbo.com/730229.

When I did my transition plan I also asked myself a question, “what’s the worse thing that can happen?” The answer – I’ll have to get another job. I can live with that. I’d love to hear from others – what do you want to do and how are you going to get there?

Don’t be afraid to JUMP and enjoy the journey!