ICE train speedometer
It doesn’t matter what you do for a living, most of what we all do can become pretty boring and routine. I don’t care if you’re a brain surgeon, when you’re drilling a hole in your 800th cranium it likely feels like just another day at the office.
So one of the things I really enjoy about living life as a perpetual traveler is that I only have a ‘routine’ when I want to have one and the rest of the time I enjoy variety. A lot of variety. This month we’ll be spending time in six different countries and as I write this post I’m on a high speed German train moving 250 kilometers per hour (about 150 mph) between Frankfurt and Brussels on our way to London.
I know there are people who commute to work every day on trains but there is a huge difference between their routine and the life of a perpetual traveler. I’m not going to work. I’m enjoying my day doing exactly what I want to do. I’ll spend some time writing this post and answering some e-mails from a different website and that will be all the ‘work’ I’ll do today. Tomorrow I might do the same from a London hotel room or a Starbucks or a cozy pub. The truth is what I’m doing can become as routine as a welder’s job or as a surgeon’s job – there is nothing intrinsically exciting about what I do to make a living – the big difference is the terms and conditions under which I do it. They are my terms and conditions, not someone else’s.
Please don’t take any of this as boasting. The reason I created this blog is because I believe almost anybody can do what I’m doing. I don’t have any special or rare gifts that make this lifestyle possible. Chances are I’m a bit smarter than you in some areas and a lot dumber than you in many others. I don’t work very hard either. Have you ever seen people working in a rice field, or a laying blacktop on a road? Those people work much, much harder than I do. To be honest, the woman who made my sandwich today works harder than I do. All I do is leverage 21st century technology so I have the freedom to make a living on my terms.
Once that happens to a person he or she has a tendency to become a bit evangelical about it. It’s like discovering a hidden secret to a better life. If you’re a generous person you want to tell other people about it. I’m not alone on this point. There are some other wonderful blogs by people living life on their terms using the same techniques I use. Two of them are Karol Gagja and Chris Guillebeau. There are others, too.
If you have any interest in re-engineering your life so you have maximum personal freedom shoot me a message and I’ll try to answer your questions.
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Ok, I’ve been wanting to start an online business for years with the idea that it could supplement my current income at the very least and with luck, become my sole source of income at best. My problem? I don’t know how to make the internet work for me! I love gardening and I love sharing my gardening passion with others and helping them when they are stumped for what to do in their yard and garden. But how do I garden online? Advice can be had anywhere for free so, an advice column isn’t going to work. But what else could I do online with my passion? I created two websites (using templates) over the years, both of which were to hawk my crafted goods and neither did well at all. I obviously don’t know what I’m doing or how to use the internet to my advantage. I don’t want to work for the court until I’m 67! Help!
Lisa, you’re off to a good start simply because you’re willing to try something that’s new to you. Here are some points to keep in mind:
1. Gardening is a huge area of interest. You could google “top 10 gardening blogs” just to get ideas on what other people are doing. See if it stimulates any ideas for you.
2. The busiest gardening websites (not necessarily blogs) probably make their owners $1 million or more a year and I’m assuming you don’t need that much – at least right away. This is why you hear the word ‘niche’ so much in blogging. For example a blog on only organic gardening in only your state would be a niche you might have mostly to yourself. With a modest following you could create some specific information that you sell to them and make five figures a year.
3. The example above is one idea out of perhaps two or three dozen you could brainstorm. I don’t know anything about gardening so I’m no help on the brainstorming. I’m sure you could do it.
4. That said, perhaps there is another niche for you entirely. Is there something else you are passionate about? Something you would do for free if you were already independently wealthy? A dream job? Think about that and see what you come up with.
Let me know what you come up with and we’ll see if we can refine it into a plan.
LOL No, I don’t need 1M/year, but if I ever made that much, I know a few people who’s mortgages would be mysteriously paid off! I will get back to you after I do my “homework”. Thanks!