Mind the Beginner

I’ve had several questions lately about what certain terms are that I’ve been using here. Well, to make things a bit clearer I’m going to provide you with a post on  terms that are being used in the personal development and lifestyle design niche. It’s by no means complete though and I urge you to add more in the comments.

• Let’s start with some names first

Tim Ferris This name really should ring a bell. It’s the guy that started it all (for me at least) He’s the author of “The four hour workweek” and blogger writing about “experiments in lifestyle design”. He’s living the life so many of us want to. It’s probably why his book is so popular, it talks about a something that seems a fantasy and he claims can be reality. However, there are those who believe the four hour workweek to be a lie.

Leo Babauta Blogger over at zenhabits.net and author of the book “the power of less”. Has radically redesigned his life to what he wanted. I could explain it all but it’s easier to read this page.

Jonathan Mead Blogger over at Illuminated mind and author of “reclaim your dreams”. He also writes for zenhabits and lateral action. Someone who really kicks ass in the virtual world stating what it’s really all about without being gentle. He regularly kicks against what people think is reality and gets your head back out of the clouds.

Carl Nelson A friend, blogger at slacker reform, professional lindy hopper, vagabond, philosopher and rising start in the location independence world.

Corbett Barr Blogger at freepersuits writing about lifestyle design, another rising start in the community.

Rolf Potts Author of “vagabonding”, the second book that’s an essential read to anyone who wants to become location independent. Not from the perspective of how to get there, but on what to do when you’ve got it.

Darren Rowse Also known as problogger. A full time blogger making a six figure income through it and a huge name in the blogosphere. Anyone who takes blogging seriously has heard is name and has probably visited his blog as well. A great resource for anything blogrelated.

Seth Godin Writer of a lot of (11 so far) books on diverse subjects in the direction of market development and business.  A name you’ll see pop up from time to time, so I thought I’d mention him.

Steve Pavlina This guy might just be the original personal development blogger. He’s been blogging since 1 oktober 2004

• Some essential literature

The four hour workweek (4HWW) The book that got it all started, or at least put things on the map. In a nutshell this book teaches you how to find an online market, set everything up, automate it and reduce the number of hours you work to the bare minimum while keeping a descent income so you can spend your time on other things.

The Power of less Leo’s book, a nice summary of all his blogposts that will get you up to speed on minimalist thinking when it comes to daily life.

Vagabonding The book about extended world travel or how to “live out of a backpack” for months or yours. Perhaps even giving up a home and constantly traveling the world.

Reclaim your dreams An  eBook on getting away from the 9-5 till 65 life. You can read my review of it here

• Some often used terms

Lifestyle design Everything that has to do with living your life like you want to live it. Severing the ties that keep you from doing what you want to be doing. For most people this means quitting their job (a major timesuck where they are not in control) and setting up an alternative income through Internet. This frees up time so one can do all those things that one dreams of but never does. It’s getting rid of preconceptions that life has to be a certain way just because your parents lived that way or the education system has taught you how to live.  In short: It’s thinking for yourself on how you want to live your life and doing everything you can to live that life right now! Corbett over at Freepersuits has dedicated a blogpost to the subject that’s far more comprehensive that the definition I give here. If you’re interested you can find that blogpost by following this link. It’s a great read and will get things crystal clear.

Muse. A term used by Tim Ferris to describe the thing that generates the Internet income. His muse is a food supplement he’s selling online. Probably by now it’s also his blog and his book.

Vagabond. A person who travels for extended periods of time where not the destination but the travel is important and where at times there is no plan on where to go or on how long to stay there.

Digital Nomad. A vagabond with a laptop and other technical devices who has an Internet income and manages that through his laptop while vagabonding.

Location Independent Professional (LIP). A professional who isn’t bound to a location in order to make an income. More often than not these people generate their income through Internet and might just be called digital nomads as well. That is, if they choose to travel. Being location independent means you can go wherever you want, it doesn’t mean you have to.

Freedom business. This term is used in Project Mojave to describe an Internet business (selling an information product) that generates an income that’s significant enough to quit ones dayjob and become free. This means it consistently generates an income of some 2-4k a month depending on your needs. Also, this business requires little “maintenance” so you have an income that costs little time as well. Although you might not reach the 4 hours a week, it’s definitely doable with about 10 hours a week.

Project Mojave An online program where Clay Collins and some others teach you how to set up a freedom business, in three months or less.

Personal development The ongoing effort to develop oneself and keep learning. Learning new skills, keep questioning ones thoughts, beliefs and habits. You probably know people who do the same thing every day like clockwork. Have a dayjob, don’t read, don’t try new things or whatever. These people don’t develop any further for they don’t expose themselves to new things.

Well, that’s it for now, I hope you will all contribute to this blogpost by adding more names, blogs and terms to the comment section.  If you have any questions or if what I’ve written in this blogpost is just pain wrong or hopelessly incomplete please do let me know.

If you liked this blogpost please to give it a “thumbs up” on stumble, digg it, tweet it and use smoke signals to tell others. I’d really appreciate it.

As promised yesterday I’m going to give you another great resource: a list of fears those aspiring to become location independent suffer from and a list of the fears the already independent suffer from.

There are a few recurring themes in these two lists that were composed using the recent Location Independent and Digital Nomad Survey.

Without to much beating around the bush I’m going to give you the results, broken down into a few categories. This post might be rather boring to the casual reader but I’m sure there are plenty of you who see this lost for what it is, a treasure, a wealth of information that you can use. So what exactly are the fears that live in our community?

Let’s look at the aspiring Location Independent first:

In the knowledge department:

• A lack of knowledge (how to’s)
• Failure (this one comes back dozens of times)
• That this doesn’t work out
• Worry that I will have given up everything for something that isn’t as great as I have built it up to be
• Being less well informed (currently working in a newsroom)

Travel:

• Encountering legal issues abroad
• Being so enamored with a foreign place that I won’t be disciplined enough to work
• What to do with all my stuff, I’m not a light packer
• Getting taken advantage of
• Loosing focus or loosing interest in my work in favor of travel
• I will have to reduce my wardrobe!
• Being stranded
• Safety in third world countries
• Political unrest

Regarding money and business:

• Not having/earning enough money (a common fear)
• Failing to maintain that income/long term income stability (another common fear)
• Not being able to handle state-side matters
• The business drying up
• Losing clients
• Having no nest-egg for retirement
• Procrastination
• Money management (don’t want to rely on relatives for that)
• Connections and communication
• Not being able to get on the Internet

Social and family issues:

• Not being home quick enough if a loved one is dying (This actually is my biggest fear)
• Being away from family
• Solitude/loneliness/home sick/being isolated and alone
• Never finding a partner/inability to form deep relationships
• No home base to come back to and relax
• Feelings of detachment
• Lack of face to face social interaction with colleagues
• Being away from my children
• That my wife will get tired of the travel
• That my spouse won’t be happy
• Leaving family behind
• Getting sick or getting into trouble and not having my family with me
• That my fiance will not truly believe we can achieve this life and that ultimately it will lead to the breakdown of our relationship
• Keeping in touch with friends and family
• Judgemental family
• People’s reactions

Other issues:

• Taking to long to get back to it (former LIP)
• Not getting to the point of LIP
• Health insurance
• Being your own safety net
• Work taking over
• Missing out on the fun things that I’m doing right now
• Being forced to return home against my will and search for depressing work in a depressed economy

So far the list of the aspiring location independent. There are a few recurring themes in this list don’t you think? A quick scan tells me it boils down to knowledge (and lack of), insecurity in travel and earnings, loneliness, being away from family and friends and the fear of being unplugged (no Internet).

Now let’s have a look at the fears the Location Independent suffer from. Yes, these people suffer from fear too, they live the life we dream of, is that life a nightmare? I think not, as we saw yesterday it’s hard work though but worth it. There are a few fears here as well that keep coming back. Here is the list, again in a few categories:

Money issues:

• The costs and not making enough income
• Not having the income anymore and having to stop traveling
• Making expensive mistakes
• The money tap will stop
• Not making enough money to fund our old age

The Business

• Being out of touch when a client needs me
• Lack of trust (and therefore business) from clients
• Others thinking I’m not working because I’m not “on site”
• Losing it

Technical dependency:

• Internet failures/hackers
• Forgetting a power cord – seriously
• The Internet dies
• Loss of equipment leading to loss of work information
• Laptop crashing

The downside of the location and travel:

• Large scale disasters and being stuck in a third world country
• Visas.
• Brisbane’s abysmal broadband service
• A plane crash
• Border control
• Health issues in developing countries
• The weather
• Visa issues: That I live abroad illegally and get deported
• That we’ll get bored with it, or that life will become nothing more than cheap thrills and excitements, but bring not lasting joy
• Getting comfortable and settling (yes it’s a fear)
• Finding myself unable to stop someday

Social and family issues:

• It’s extraordinarily difficult to feel as if you have established roots when you’re always uprooting yourself to seek new experience. Permanence is a foreign feeling. Maintaining personal relationships requires extra care and attention, particularly when it comes to love and romantic relationships. The lifestyle itself creates no fear – only anticipation of a fresh new day.
• Not being part of a community
• Stability of family life
• Losing friends who aren’t living the same way
• Losing contact with local community and friends
• Having to head home because of a family emergency
• My partner not being able to go somewhere with me
• Never stopping and being looked at like a weirdo by my peers back home
• Loosing the ability to maintain long-term relationships
• To estrange from family an friends
• Lack of community
• That we lose connection with any social network, and cause our son to be deprived of meaningful friendships with other kids (especially any who understand what we’re doing, and why)

Other issues

• A loss of motivation or burnout
• Losing important mail

Atually, if we look at this second list there are remarcabe similarities although I’ve used slightly different categories. Money problems, loosing the business or clients, computer/internet problems, the practical problems of travel and the lack of social interaction with the home front.

Compiling this list we end up with a shortlist of fears:

A lack of knowledge

Not making enough money/security of income

Being stuck or getting into trouble abroad

Not having an internet connection

Social interaction/family ties

I actually believe these five fears sum up all the issues the entire community suffers from in one way or the other. There are however enough LIP’s who claim not to have any fears at all.

There you have it, the list of 86 fears of the Location Independant and Digital Nomad community.

Two weeks ago I asked you to fill in the survey on Location Independence and Digital Nomads set up by freepursuits.com and locationinedependent.com. Well, the two weeks has passed and the result are in.

268 people took the survey that was promoted by a group of lifestyle design bloggers. Of course I immediately took a look at the section where all these blogs were mentioned to see how many people actually know about my blog.

Among the people aspiring to become location independent (n= 174) 4 are regular readers, 10 are familiar with this blog and the rest never heard of my blog before.

Among the people who are already location independent (n=94) also knows as LIP’s 2 regular readers, 7 are familiar with this blog and again, the rest has never heard of my blog before.

A quick scan over all the locations tells me there are 4 people who are currently located in The Netherlands who filled in this survey and I’m one of them. A useless fact, but still…

Well, there are a lot of readers out there in this niche I still need to convince to read my blog don’t you think?

What more is the survey telling us

• There are only 3 people in the survey who seem to be taking part in Project Mojave.
• The vast majority of aspiring LIP’s are full-time employee and work their ass off (40-60 hours a week)
• Within the already LIP there’s a also a high number of hard workers although self-employed. So far for the myth of the 4 hour workweek.  Only 8 claim to work less than 10 hours a week. By contrast 15 work more than 50 hours a week.
• The most common  jobs among the LIP are web design, marketing and writing, Corbett (Freepursuits) wrote about 64 ways the location independent earn a living yesterday.
• One LIP is a professional poker player
• Internet is vital for the LIP to earn a living. (But we knew that already didn’t we?)

And now the most important question that was asked those who aspire to become location independent:

“What could the blogs you read provide you with or write about to help you achieve your lifestyle goals.”

Now this is where things get interesting and to me it’s one of the most valuable part of the entire suvey.

What you’ve asked for

• Motivation
• Success stories and case studies
• Money management
• Support & encouragement
• Technical aspects of the digital nomadic life
• Networking with digital nomads (Apparently there is a need for a true online community)
• Practical tips
• How to’s/tutorials

Is I’m part of the lifestyle design community it’s up to me and my fellow bloggers in this niche to answer the questions people have. Now that we have a good view on what it is you people want to know we can write more specifically about those subjects.

The two biggest fears I’ve concluded from the survey are failure and running out of funds. (although that could be called failure as well). Tomorrow I’ll provide you with a full list of all the fears people have named in the survey. This list is has a few recurring themes and  provide it just to show you you are not alone with your fears. We all suffer from them and there’s no need to give up just because of those fears.

Of course I’ll writing about stuff inspired by this survey, and as you’ve come to expect from me, I’ll make sure to put zen into it.

I want to thank everyone who took part in the survey, if there is anything else you want to know about the results that I didn’t cover I’ll gladly provide you with answers. All the participating blogs have received the results from the survey to you can expect them to write about this as well.