Until one is committed
There is hesitancy, the chance to draw back,
always ineffectiveness.
Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation),
there is one elemental truth
the ignorance of which kills countless
ideas and splendid plans:
that the moment one definitely commits oneself,
then Providence moves too.
All sorts of things occur to help one
that would never have otherwise occurred.
A whole stream of events issues
from the decision raising in one’s favor
all manner of unforeseen incidents and meetings
and material assistance which no man
could have dreamed would have come his way.
What ever you can do, or dream you can do, begin it.
Boldness has genius, power and magic in it.
Begin it now.

Johann Wolfgang von Goethe (1749–1832)

There are literally millions of “ghost blogs” living on the Internet — blogs where the author’s have not been fully committed to their act of initiative and creation. Many of these “ghost blogs” were founded on great ideas and good intentions but, for whatever reason, the authors abandoned their creations.

In order to be a successful entrepreneur on the Internet you need three things:

1. you need to discover your lifestyle career — a career that you truly enjoy working on. One that makes time disappear and that you would do whether you earned an income from it or not. Commitment is easier when you have a true passion for what you are doing.
2. you need to be fully committed to your business. As enjoyable as you may find your lifestyle career to be, it is a business that deserves a consistent commitment from you. And
3. you need to give your business the time it deserves to grow and become successful.

As Goethe states, once you are truly committed, you will be amazed at what comes your way in due time.

Greetings All

It’s been a while since we last connected — but Ageless Nomads is back and is gearing up to introduce some interesting and exciting material over the next little while.

If you have visited Ageless Nomads recently, you will have noticed that there have been a few changes made to the website recently. A new design, a tighter structure, some new articles — and this is just the beginning!!

If you haven’t visited Ageless Nomads recently, then please come and take a look.

Some of the new items that can be found at Ageless Nomads include:

Short videos, featuring:

1. Seth Godin speaking on the Value of Tribes, and on How the Publishing Industry is Changing;
2. Tim Ferriss discussing the 4 Hour Work Week and How to Start a Business;
3. Loic Le Meur from Seesmic speaking on Building Communities;
4. Laura Day on the Power of Intuition;
5. Words of Wisdom from Barbara Sher;
6. Martha Beck explaining how we can Unleash Our Inner Genius.

There is also an amazing vide0 called Crazy Little Thing Called Life by Garbandage — well worth watching

A couple of new articles have also been added to the Lifestyles Design Skills Section, and the Communication Skills Section.

New articles and videos focusing on helping you develop the skills needed to become an Ageless Nomad will be added to the Ageless Nomad website on a regular basis. So check us out and let me know what you think of the new Ageless Nomads site.

Cheers

Anne

How good are you at keeping motivated to write regularly on your blog over the summer?

When working from home, distractions can be a problem anytime of the year, but trying to maintain a self-imposed publishing schedule over the summer can be particularly challenging. After all, there is all that gorgeous sunshine that needs to be enjoyed, and the garden that needs to be wandered through and admired while searching for all those weeds that need to be pulled: oh, and lets not forget the beach, and the ice cream shop, and.….…. OK, so maybe I tend to allow myself a few too many distractions

If you are like me, maybe this will help.

I happened to stumble across and interesting free blog challenge while I was wandering through the Internet this morning (yes, another distraction ).

The Ultimate Blog Challenge, located online at http://ultimateblogchallenge.com/ is gearing up to begin on August 1st and seems set to offer a variety of interesting forms of support and motivation aimed at helping blog writers maintain their writing momentum through the rest of summer.

One of the really great things about this challenge is that August 1st is only a few days away so I won’t have (too much) time to get distracted before it begins.

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See you at the Challenge

In order for a nomad to also be an entrepreneur, the career they choose to develop must be portable. It can’t be tied to a physical location by clients, by technology, by products, by visas, by whatever.…..

Writing has long been the most portable of all careers. Even today, when we think of travel and entrepreneurship the image that pops into most people’s minds would be that of the travel writer or some other type of non-fiction article or book writer or  published author of some kind. Writing gives nomads the flexibility to earn money anywhere, and doesn’t tie a nomad to a specific technology — if your computer gets lost or stolen, or stops working, you can always use a pen and a notebook or a napkin or any scrap paper to write on.

(I can hear a number of you, dear readers, expressing a collective “Well, Duh!!, but please bear with me for another moment or two).….….….…

continued on the Writer Nomad’s Skills page at http://www.agelessnomads.com/the-writer-nomads-skills

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Everyone is born with natural talents but no-one is born with the skills needed to take advantage of these natural talents.

Natural talents tend to be associated with activities that are so easy for us to do that we do them without really having to think about them or make much of an effort. Natural talents include such attributes as: artistic, creative, entrepreneurial, detail oriented, mathematical, imaginative, innovative, mechanically minded,  practical, literary, persuasive, articulate, etc.

Natural talents on their own don’t really count for much. They are merely unfulfilled potential without the development of skills.

By developing a ‘skills portfolio’ you can identify patterns that can help you discover your natural talents, as well as help you identify skills that you would like to develop in order to fulfill specific personal goals.

What Are Skills?

I’m glad you asked that question. Skills are learned and practiced abilities. They are influenced by our natural talents. Skills are much easier to develop in areas we have a natural talent for. However, even without a natural talent, skills can still be developed for activities and topics that a person has an interest in.

As an example, if a person has  a natural entrepreneurial talent , they still need to develop specific entrepreneurial skills, such as developing a viable business plan, finding clients, marketing, etc., for the natural entrepreneurial talent to be of any value.

On the other hand, if an individual has a personal interest in becoming an entrepreneur but they don’t have a natural entrepreneurial talent, they can still become an entrepreneur by learning and developing entrepreneurial skills. The process of becoming an entrepreneur will take longer and be more challenging for a person who does not possess a natural entrepreneurial talent, but it is still doable.

5 Basic Skills Groups

For anyone interested in undergoing a major transition in their life, it is a good idea to begin by identify our current skills set, including those associated with our natural talents. Knowing our current skills set can help us identify activities we want to include in, for example:

• a new lifestyle we are trying to design (including a nomadic one); or
• a new career we are trying to break into; or
• a new enterprise we are trying to develop.

The catch here (and there is generally a catch with this type of activity) is that identifying skills, particularly those associated with a natural talent, is not an easy task.

In her book, The New Zealand Guide to Transferable Skills, Christine Dekker identifies and defines 5 basic skills groups that are very useful at helping people identify what skills they have developed.

These skills groups are:

1. Physical/Practical
   1. Working with things and the physical environment; using your hands and body skillfully.
   2. Examples of physical/practical skills include: assembling, building, fitting, fixing, installing, maintaining, repairing, restoring, ordering, using.
2. Creative/Artistic
   1. Working in a visual medium or with words or sound to express ideas/emotions; using imagination; being innovative.
   2. This group can be divided into: words and ideas; visual; performing.
   3. Examples of creative/artistic skills include: (words and ideas) writing, symbolising, interpreting, modifying, expressing, scripting (visual) color coordinating, decorating, fashioning, styling, forming, drawing, (performing) acting, composing, entertaining, modeling, role-playing, staging.
3. Communication/Interpersonal
   1. Working with people; any interaction or information exchange between people; using language; understanding.
   2. This group can be divided into: ‘key’ communication skills; teaching; relationship-building; facilitating/leading; problem-solving; marketing.
   3. Examples of communication/interpersonal skills include: (‘key’ communication skills) answering, briefing, articulating, writing, reporting, describing, enquiring, conversing; (teaching) advising, coaching, disseminating, explaining, training, instructing; (relationship-building) affirming, appreciating, nurturing, team-building, guiding, empowering, listening, supporting; (facilitating/leading) brainstorming, chairing, directing, motivating, stimulating; (problem-solving) arbitrating, conciliating, mediating, negotiating, reconciling, resolving; (marketing) advertising, representing, selling, convincing.
4. Organization/Management
   1. Bringing resources/people together; making something work together as a whole; using initiative and vision; having an overall picture or goal.
   2. This group can be divided into: to do with time; to do with resources; to do with people and tasks.
   3. Examples of organization/management skills include: (to do with time) forecasting, planning, predicting, scheduling; (to do with resources) allocating, budgeting, grouping, purchasing, sorting; (to do with people and tasks) administrating, coordinating, delegating, monitoring, networking, recruiting, reviewing, supervising.
5. Information Processing
   1. Working with facts, figures, concepts; using thinking/computing skills.
   2. This group can be divided into:‘key’ thinking skills; language and ideas; facts and figures.
   3. Examples of information processing skills include: (‘key’ thinking skills) comprehending, thinking, studying, perceiving, reading, judging, listening, identifying; (language and ideas) appraising, preparing, conceptualising, defining, reporting, editing, summarising, theorising, revising; (facts and figures) analysing, auditing, assessing, compiling, estimating, evaluating, recording, quoting, processing, mapping, measuring.

How do you know if you have identified a skill?

Skills can be so many different things. In the book mentioned above, the author listed over 300 unique skills. Each skill is identified as an action verb, and in the lists presented in the book each skill generally ended with an –ing.

To begin identifying your skills, try completing the following sentence:

I am good at _________________________.

Now that I have Identified a List of Skills, What do I do Next?

Use the skills you have identified in the 5 basic skills groups to develop a skills portfolio by identifying:

1. which skills you are best at;
2. which skills you enjoy using the most; and
3. which skills you would like to improve.

Now, using your skills portfolio, try answering the following questions:

1. Can you identify any patterns emerging from your skills portfolio? Any activities that you enjoy doing, have strong skills in, and can be used to enhance your lifestyle?
2. Are there a group of skills that you have identified that can be associated with a specific natural talent? Are there other skills that you can develop that will help you enhance this natural talent?
3. Are there skills that you can use that will help you identify activities you would like to try, new activities that you can use to help you design a new authentic lifestyle with?
4. Are there skills that you can build on in order to develop an enterprise with? One that you have already developed skills in so you know that you would enjoy doing, and feel confident you could turn into a successful money-making enterprise?
5. Have you identified any new skills that you would like to develop? Or old skills that you absolutely want to have nothing more to do with?

Tip: If you are having difficulties identifying your skills, ask friends, family members, co-workers, etc., if they can identify some of your skills for you, to get you started. We tend to devalue or overlook skills that are associated with natural talents because we find them so easy and effortless to do, whereas people who know us would easily be able to identify these skills for us.

TTFN

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