A few thousand years ago, Lao Tsu, author of the Tao Te Ching, created the symbols that were interpreted as:

Simply notice the natural order of things,
Work with it rather than against it,
For to try to change what is only sets up resistance.

Today, we simply say “Go with the flow”.

When it comes to designing your lifestyle, once you have figured out your life’s purpose you can begin developing your authentic lifestyle, your true path. One that is based on ‘what is’ — your unique life’s purpose — and that offers you little resistance.

There are any number of books aimed specifically at helping you overcome resistance in your life — Steven Pressfield’s book The War of Art: Break Through the Blocks and Win Your Inner Creative Battles is one that I highly recommend — and I encourage you to read any that catch your eye. In fact, if you know of a book that has been useful in helping you discover and follow your life’s purpose, then please send me an email with the title and author’s name — I would love to read it

In the meantime, here is a simple little exercise that can help give you a glimpse into your authentic life:

Begin by answering the 10 questions that were given in my earlier post, Finding Your Life’s Purpose. Go ahead. Answer the questions. I’ll wait .….….….….….….…..

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Good. Now that you have answered those questions, without pausing to think about it, answer the following question with the first thing that comes into your mind — don’t think about it, don’t edit it, and don’t censor it:

If you knew you could not fail, and money was of no concern,
what would you be doing right now!!

The Grand Place, Brussels Belgium. source: http://www.freedigitalphotos.net

For me: I would be standing in the middle of the Grand Place in Brussels Belgium. I would have just finished eating a Leonidas chocolate (I can still taste the chocolate, mmmmmm) and would be taking some amazing photographs that were going to accompany a travel article I was writing for the Conde Nast Traveler Magazine.

Where would you be right now, and what would you be doing?

‘Till next time
Anne

I’m sure that you have heard this before — in fact, I’m sure I’ve said this before and will say it again (and again and again): One of the most difficult aspects of creating a virtual business or trying to make enough money from blogging to enjoy an Ageless Nomadic lifestyle, is deciding what topic or subject to focus on and what niche to specialize in.

Sure, it’s possible to build a brilliant and successful virtual business based solely on what your past work or leisure experiences have been — but you have already been there and done that. For a lot of people making a change as significant as starting a mobile, virtual business provides an opportunity to explore something new — perhaps becoming a social entrepreneur, or developing a hobby. After all, if you are going to put your time and effort and money into developing a business from scratch it might as well be a business that  is based on you doing something that you really, really enjoy.

Over the next 8 weeks or so, I will be providing information that can help you explore the 8 Key Elements of Your Authentic Life. The objective is to (hopefully) help you determine what type of virtual business you would like to develop, and what topic and niche you would like to specialize in.

Enjoy

Not being able to fit in to the community in which you live can result in feeling lonely, being disengaged from the community,  loss of motivation, etc. This can be particularly unsettling for individuals who are creative (writers, photographers, painters, potters, weavers, etc.) and for individuals trying to develop an online business.

Journeywomen.com, a highly informative website of all things travel for women, recently published an article by Heather Markel, a Culture Transition Specialist, on 20 Tips to Feel At Home In a New Culture, located online at http://www.journeywoman.com/travel101/20TipstoFeelAtHomeInaNewCulture.htm.

20 Tips To Feel At Home In A New Cultures.

This article provides solid advice on how to begin feeling at home in a new culture and is well worth a read.

When you move into a new environment, what do you do to ‘fit in’ and make your new environment feel like home??

There is a trick that you can use to help move yourself towards the goals and changes you are trying to create.

The first thing you need to do is to monitor your thoughts — particularly the thoughts that involve the goal or change you are trying to accomplish. Are your thoughts positive or negative?

Negative thoughts obsess over what you are doing and constantly question what you are doing. For example, if your goal is wanting to become a successful online entrepreneur, negative thoughts would involve obsessing over what topics you are going to write about as blog posts next week or next month, or over how you are going to earn a living as an entrepreneur, or over how you are going to get clients, or over how you are going to find the time to do all of this!!! These thoughts tend to be more of the “I should do…” or “I need to do…” type of thoughts.

On the other hand, positive thoughts put you in the centre of your success. They think about you as if you have already achieved your goal or successfully completed your transformation. For example, if your goal is to be a successful online entrepreneur, then whenever you think about that goal you are thinking about how wonderful it is to be self-employed, how confident and relaxed you are with your clients, how easy it is to write your blog posts/articles/brochures, how much you enjoy what it is you are doing.

If you are interested in reading more about this, then check out my post “If You Are Trying To Achieve A Goal, Don’t Think Of A Polar Bear” found online at http://www.agelessnomads.com/2009/08/if-you-are-trying-to-achieve-a-goal-dont-think-of-a-polar-bear/

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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