I’m not on Holiday… I’m living my Dream

I recorded this video at the end of a month I spent living and working in Perth, Australia last year.
I wrote and recorded it sitting next to the pool outside an Italian style villa in the Perth hills – the day after I went for a walk and bumped into a kangaroo!

I felt inspired to record this video because a lot people I know are having a hard time getting their head around the fact that I’m not here on holiday – I’m actually here working!

Watch the video or scroll down to read the blog:

You see, when I first started my business my dream was to have an online business that would let me work from anywhere in the world.  Note I said “lets me work from anywhere”.  Not “Be able to take several months off each year to travel”.  That would be a great dream to have too – but that wasn’t my dream.

However, despite a dream of location independence, like most of us in the early stages of business I got most of my early traction through offline methods – I reached new clients, ran workshops, gave live talks and delivered elements of my higher-end programmes offline.  I ended up with a business I loved but there was a lot of in-person activity that kept me tied to London (luckily for me I love London too!)

It was only as the business became more established that I was able to comfortably transition to being fully online and I’m now probably about 99% online (I still hold a quarterly live meetups for my Business from the Heart Membership community).

Why go all the way to Australia to work?

So when I say I’m here working I know that some people don’t understand why I would come all the way to Australia to work.  Isn’t that a bit crazy?

But here’s the thing: I LOVE my business so much, why would I want to take extended time off from it?   (Now of course I do build in extended time off – I always take a few weeks over the summer and a full month over Christmas because that downtime is important for me to recharge so I can function at my best the rest of the year.  But the rest of the time I don’t particularly want to take more time off – I’m usually too excited about whatever I’m working on at the time!).

In fact, my friend Sophie and I were chatting about this yesterday as we ate lunch on our sun loungers overlooking the pool, and I said “I wonder what I’d do if spirit came down and gifted me an extra month in my life to do whatever I wanted with it?”

Yes, maybe I’d go to an ashram in India for an intensive month of yoga and meditation,  or hire a campervan and go on a road trip round the UK, or go on a walking expedition in the Alps.

But in reality?    I’d be just as likely to use it to revamp my Webinar Success Blueprint course, write a business book, or organise a business retreat for clients in Morocco or Bali.  Because that’s the stuff that I love to do more than just about anything else.

So how lucky am I?  That the thing I love to do more than anything in the world is the thing I get paid to do.

You see here’s the thing:

I work with heart-centred businesses owners.   What this means is we feel called to make a difference to others, we are passionate about what we do and the impact we have.  We LOVE our work.

Here are a few of the things I got up to while “working” in Australia this month

Call me controversial but I’m not in the least bit interested in:

• A 4 hour work week
• Early retirement
• A passive, automated income where I have no contact with my clients
• To grow quick, sell for a profit and get out.

No thank you.  What matters to me is having a business that I love, where I spend my days doing work I love with people I love.  Where I get a deep sense of purpose and fulfilment and where I’m eager to get up and get started every morning and I never, ever ever dread a Monday.

So when I receive an application from someone wanting private mentoring and I see that they say they want me to help them:

• Create a passive income so that money lands in their bank account on autopilot
• Automate their funnels so they can get sales while they sleep
• Make £10k per week with only 2 hours of client contact
• Or anything else that sounds like trying to make as much money as possible for doing as little work as possible.

My heart sinks and I know I’m not their gal.  Because this is not what I’m all about in the world.

I’m interested in helping people who want what I want:

• A business that you love, that you feel EXCITED to wake up to
• A sense of deep fulfilment from making a difference to others
• The knowledge you are living fully on purpose – every single day
• Work that you will be as in love with in 10, or even 20 years time as you are today
• Where retirement is of course an option – but one you’re not too sure you want to take up
• That pays you well enough to live your dream (maybe for you that’s a months holiday to Australia where you don’t need to work at all!)

And your dream might not be to work from anywhere in the world like me, instead it might be to create a holistic centre in your local town, or work just 3 days a week so you can spend more time with your kids.

It’s not that money doesn’t matter

It’s also important I make clear that I’m not saying that money doesn’t matter.  It does matter.  I want to be well rewarded for the work I do and I would definitely like to achieve financial freedom in my lifetime and be able to work because I choose to not because I have to (I’m not in that position yet)

But not at any cost.

Given a choice between achieving financial freedom by doing “whatever it takes” even if it doesn’t light me up,  or working until the very end of my days doing work that I absolutely love, then I choose the latter, thank-you very much.

And is it always easy?  Definitely not!

Do I have days when I feel tired to my bones and it all feels too much?  Or days when I have to do work that I don’t enjoy and feels heavy and draining and I have to push to get it done?  Of course I do!  I’m a human being too.   But luckily those days are few and far between, especially compared to the days I worked in sales in the corporate world.

So this is for all the people who don’t understand why I’d come to Australia to “work”:

I’m sitting here writing and recording this in an outdoor gazebo overlooking the swimming pool, on a sunny day outside an Italian style villa on the edge of a national park where I saw a kangaroo on my walk yesterday, with views of the city stretching out below, and the sounds of the birds in the trees.

I work for myself so I could stop what I’m doing right now and go for a walk.  Or grab a book and lie by the pool.   Or go out for coffee with my friend.

But I don’t want to.

I’m happy sitting writing this to you.

This is my work.

I’m living my dream.

Of having a business that allows me to do work I love, and from anywhere in the world.  And that’s exactly what I’m doing.

Working.

And loving it.

So don’t ever let anyone tell you that there is something wrong with “working” especially if you love what you do.  Or that you should be trying to move away from “time for money” when working 121 with clients is what makes your heart sing.   Or that you should be growing a passive income business when interacting with clients in your group programmes all over the world is what fills you with more joy than just about anything else you can think of.

Because that’s missing the point of why so many of us do the work we do in the first place – because we love doing it.   And if we love it why would we want to do it for only 4 hours a week or put it on autopilot and never speak to a client again?

And of course your dream might be very different to mine.  And that’s OK too.  The important thing is that you know what you want to achieve with your life and you create your business from the beginning to allow you to follow that dream.  Your dream (not someone else’s).

What about you? What does “living the dream” look like for you? Do you love the work you do and want to keep doing it as long as possible? Or is it your dream to work less do that you have time for other things that you feel equally passinate about?

I always love to read your thoughts so please share in the comments below.

Join me for an open Q&A and Discussion

Join me tomorrow, Wednesday 22nd May at 6.00pm (UK) where I’ll be taking questions about “Creating the businesss of your dreams”  – including the key things you need to think about  from the very  beginning to make sure you’re creating your dream – not someone else’s.   The Q&A takes place over in the Selling from the Heart Group on Facebook – Click here to join us.

With love,

PS.  If you’re interested in getting my help and guidance in building a business you can fall in love – AND stay in love with then the Business from the Heart Membership is officially opening for enrolment from 6th – 13th June.  If you’d be interested in knowing more just keep an eye on your emails over the next few weeks.