patchwork
Achieve your freedom by doing what you feel like doing.
For me the ultimate freedom lifestyle is one where I decide what I do each and every minute of each and every day and if that means nothing then so be it.
But we rarely do “nothing”, do we?
We are always doing something even if it’s sleeping or day-dreaming; every moment is spent doing something. When I decided to re-boot my life I was determined that everything I did would be beneficial to me or my family in some way and that it would be enjoyable and on my terms.
Not Just financially beneficial either; I don’t feel guilty if I suddenly have the desire to pick up a novel and read in the middle of the day or if I feel like catching a nap in the afternoon; I just embrace it, go with it. I believe it all goes towards making me a better person and that it helps me to feel and perform better at what I do.
This seemingly aimless approach to life eschews goals and goal setting and makes sure I am doing things at the ultimate time, the time when I am most ready and most able to do any particular task.
Contrast that with sitting in an office, or shop or factory repeatedly doing stuff that you would much rather not do; wasting your life and your mental resources so that some day you might be awarded a few years (when you are elderly) of enjoyment in retirement.
Well, apart from all of the factors at play at the moment that are conspiring against that ever happening, the chances are that time might never come; why not have the good times now and later?
This can be easily achieved by thinking a bit differently about your life and circumstances and especially about your income streams; how you make the money to pay the bills.
For now though I want share some thoughts on how you might achieve a patchwork income; because by doing so you will free yourself from the constraints of the modern hamster wheel world and achieve real freedom and a greater sense of relaxation and satisfaction into the bargain.
Patchwork Income?
This means drawing your income from as many different sources as possible while doing the things you want to do with your time and not what someone else or your circumstances dictate.
As you start to relax and take time to smell the roses, you will start to come up with ideas; try them out, don’t hold back; just dip a toe in the water if it helps but don’t let your dreams go to waste you won’t get today back once its over.
The key steps in making this happen are as follows:
- Dig a Tunnel; if you don’t feel comfortable with instant freedom, dig a tunnel first.
- One at a time; start just one idea off and give it your full attention until it is fully operational, before moving on to another income stream.
- Remember that just because the activity is something you previously considered fun or leisure doesn’t mean it’s not going to generate income for you and its going to be enjoyable into the bargain.
- Make sure you allow a enough time to follow this activity even if its just in your head; don’t let any one income stream turn into a JOB; we are not going back to that place are we?
- Choose something that is stimulating, preferably something you are passionate about or at least enjoy doing; BUT don’t let perfectionism get in the way of shipping.
- SHIP EVERY DAY; by shipping I don’t mean physical trips down to the post office, I mean get things done from start to finish as soon as you can, if you don’t complete anything (possibly due to perfectionism!) you won’t create an income stream.
- Stop getting ready and just do it.
Lastly here is a list of benefits I have gained through living this way, hopefully they will inspire you:
- Enjoy Your Guilt; at first you might feel guilty that you are not running on the hamster wheel like everyone else. It will feel weird watching everyone else going through their boring routine on the treadmill, but start to learn how that actually feels good, its just different. If you don’t feel guilty a little bit, you aren’t doing this right.
- New People; you will immediately start to be in contact with different people than you were before; the amazing thing about this is that you will start to bump into some very interesting characters; weekday people; people who actually have something interesting going on during normal office hours instead of being in an office! non-conformists. Most people on the planet are week-end people, they only come alive on Friday for a couple of days; weekday people are always alive and in the moment.
- Variety; every day will be different; try to avoid too much in the way of setting up routines; ok so you still have to pick up the kids and make dinner at a certain time, but try to allow yourself to sit with a glass of wine late at night while you do some work for 30 minutes; drop by a different café tomorrow morning while bashing something out on your laptop; go to the zoo on your own and draw a tiger!
- Interesting; your life will become a whole lot more interesting and you will start to lose interest in mundane things like collecting more stuff and gadgets (this will reduce the income you need to make and of course reduce the pressure on you to make that income). When I started out on this, I actually went for weeks without spending any money on anything, just because I could. The modern world is set up to keep money flowing out of your pocket and keep you on the treadmill to make more. How many times have you dropped by the supermarket on the way home from work (every night?) to pick up bread, but some how you come out and your wallet is £25 lighter than when you went in? I know bread is expensive these days, but come on! The world is set up to rook you and keep you treading the mill.
- Engaging; ever felt like you were totally wasted on your current job; ever thought that maybe by using all of your skills and intuition that you could have a much more enjoyable day and make money. Well you can, you just have to want it enough. You can start income streams that are designed for your current skills or for new ones you always wanted to learn.
- Time Optimised; this is the BIG ONE, because when you make the rules, you make them to suit you. So instead of missing your family growing up or being away from home on a day when you would rather be there for whatever reason you can make your new income streams. Not only can you make your new patchwork lifestyle fit around what you want to do, but everything will be done when you have the optimum energy and mindset for that task… things are just better this way.
- Disparate; this one speaks for itself; this is the opportunity of a life time for you to do all of the things that you always wanted to do. A week for me might include drawing and painting, making bread, playing guitar, organising a cult movie theme night for a friend who has a restaurant, building a chicken house with my daughter, building a website for a friend, buying books at auction, helping a neighbour lift an engine into his classic car restoration project or any number of interesting, and or profitable things.
If you don’t think you can start your own patchwork lifestyle because you have 3 kids and a full time job; you can and you can start today by giving up 1 hour of TV when the kids are in bed.
Most of all what I will leave you with is that nothing happens unless you take action. Even if you really can’t imagine how this can possibly come together think about this:
If you did one tiny little thing towards making your life change every day, this time next year you will have taken 365 actions towards changing your life and I guarantee that it will be looking a lot different long before then if you just start doing something today.
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