Do What You Love

Image Source: Flickr: Islxndx

Happiness is sitting on my porch, a dark roast in hand, no black marks on the calendar, and my fingers typing away at my laptop.

My goals are simple: Live simply and write.

The two goals and completely intertwined.  By living simply, I have more time to write.  The more I write, the less I will have to endure other economic pursuits, which will allow me to live more simply.

What Do You Love To Do? 

We live in an age, where you can make a living doing almost anything.  Here are some odd ways I have seen people make a living:

• Rescuing golf balls from golf course ponds.  
• Writing E-books 
• Making funny viral Youtube vidoes
• Bloging/article writing 
• Treasure hinting for $40,000 18th century wine bottles at the bottom of the ocean. 
• Beach combing at low tide after hot summer days
• Gold panning 

Whatever your passion, there is a way to make money from doing it.  

Time Is Short! 

I am convinced that life is too short to be stuck doing something you hate.  You compromise, in order to get ahead, taking a job that wears you down.  Months turn into years, and years into decades.

A lot of people take jobs they don't like so that they can buy stuff that they think will make them happy.   They think that they need to keep their six figure job because it will allow them to keep up a luxury lifestyle.  However, all of that time work takes away from doing what they want.  They take a fancy job so that they can play all of the nicest golf courses, then that job consumes them and they don't have enough time to go to the driving range.  Soon, they are only playing five or six games a year and complaining about being overworked.

What's Your Ideal Lifestyle?

The cost of your ideal lifestyle is probably much cheaper than you think.

In the above paragraph I used the example of a business executive who enjoys playing golf.  Maybe if he cut back on some luxuries, quit his day job, gave private lessons to the tune of $80 and hour at the nearest country club, he would have time in between lessons to work on his game, and maybe even a few complimentary games at the club.

My Lifestyle

For me, I can live very nicely off of $35,000.  I enjoy living in small spaces, hate shopping, and have very simple and inexpensive tastes.  Most of the things I like to do are practically free: Scuba diving (I own my own gear), hiking, backpacking, day tripping.  I would love to have more time to do those activities.

So what would I have to do to make $35,000 a year, doing something I love?  That's only $2,900 a month.  How much would I have to write to make that happen?

It's not out of the question to kick my writing into high gear and produce $50/month from HubPages, $100/month from WebAnswers, and $200/month from my self-hosted sites.  I've been watching my earnings grow, and I'm convinced that if I wrote for 2 hours a day, I can pull this off before Christmas.

That leaves $2,550 that needs to be earned from other writing sources.  I've begun writing E-books this month.  How many E-books would I have to sell to get $2,550 a month.  Selling one E-book for $2.09, it would take 1200 copies to earn that amount.  However, once I have a whole collection of E-books, that amount doesn't look so daunting.

Let's say I have 15 short stories, all selling for $0.35, two collections selling for $2.09, and two novels selling for $4.49 each.  With just one novel, it would take 567 copies to make my livable wage.  That's only 18 copies a day.  If I could convince 18 people to buy my book, I could quit my day job.  Not so bad, eh?

If I sold one copy a day of each of my short stories, that would be $5.25 a day. 2 copies a day of each of my collections would be $17.96/day.  Together, that's almost $700/month.  That leaves $1750/month from two novels.  That's 389 novels needed to be sold, or about 11 novels a day.

When you run the numbers, living a free and ideal lifestyle doesn't look very far out of reach.

Minimalism and Freedom

Free Yourself
Source: Jesus Solana

My last post, The Real State of the Union, was all about the United States economy, and the holes in its ship.  What does this mean for the minimalist?

Minimalism is about cutting down to the essentials, and not desiring any extras.  Within the minimalist community, there are offshoots of Lifestyle Designers, tiny house dwellers, simple living enthusiasts, and those seeking financial independence.

 I would say that the majority of minimalists want to live small, in order to have more freedom.  Freedom is the connector to all of those communities.  Minimalism offers freedom.

Minimalism and Self-Sufficiency

Minimalists say, "Screw you" to the social order.  Minimalists see the deterioration of society at the hands of out of control consumerism.

When you are not anchored to a massive amount of possessions, you are free to move wherever you want.  No matter what the economy does, or where political unrest unleashes, the minimalist is free to move about the cabin.  When your wealth isn't tied to your possessions, then moving to another part of the country, or even across the world, can be done at the flip of a switch.

If you migrate across the world, with a backpack, working out of internet cafes, who can touch you?
If you adopt simple living, running a micro from your garage, and producing your own food, who can touch you?

On several trips out into the wild, I have had an interesting thought, what if World War 3 broke out while I was gone?  What if the stock market crashed?  What if the President was comprised?  Out there, there would be no way of knowing.  Can I even say, that out there, it wouldn't matter.

When you live self-sufficiently, you can choose what parts of society affect you.  Not all parts of it are bad.  There are great social programs that help with disaster relief, housing for orphans, and basic safety standards.  Society can offer some great benefits to the individual, but you shouldn't ever rely on them, because they are fallible.

Utlimately, you are responsible for your own health, wealth, safety, and happiness.  Become a minimalist, and free yourself.

What is Lifestyle Design?

Image Source: Flickr: Juicyverve

Lifestyle Design is a term associated with Timothy Ferris' book The Four Hour Workweek.  It is all about designing your ideal lifestyle, and taking the appropriate steps to make it happen.

One of the major points of The Four Hour Work Week, is the idea that people don't want money, they want the time that money buys.  Do people really want to be millionaires, or do they want time to relax on Lake Como with their families, learn a new language, or take exotic dance lessons?

Ferris proposes the idea that, if you play your cards right, the lifestyle you desire is completely in reach.  The catch is, is that you have to start thinking about your time differently.

The Four Hour Workweek isn't about chilling on the beach for the next 50 years.  At first glance, lifestyle design may appear like an excuse for laziness, but it is far from it. Rather, it embraces hyper-efficiency and the utilization of your highest talents.

What are you placed on this planet for?  What talents do you have to offer the world?  What job or activity would you feel fully alive doing?  These are all questions lifestyle designers ask.

If you are interested in lifestyle design, I would suggest checking out Timothy Ferris's blog. Is full of fascinating information on lifestyle design.  He frequently does tests on himself to find ways to learn quicker, get stronger, and accomplish more efficiently.

Tread Lightly

Flickr: Allesok: CC-By-2.0

“This is today! What will tomorrow bring? Life arrives and departs on its own schedule, not ours; it's time to travel light, and be ready to go wherever it takes us.” 
― Meg Wolfe, The Minimalist Woman's Guide to Having It All


Here's an interesting blog from Jenny, a young woman traveling the world as a digital Nomad.

http://www.whereisjenny.com/2010/12/11-first-steps-becoming-minimalist/