Live Life – Let Go

Dear Friend,

Do you ever wonder why we spend so much time moaning about all that isn’t working in our life?

I sure do.  Yet every hour I do this is one more hour lost.

What do you most worry about?  Is it whether you will miss out on the best that your life could offer? Do you even know what that best might be like?

I don’t.  I have been on a wandering journey all of my life.  I have never known or found any particular “place” or “role” on this Earth.  And yet, all the while, I have been a part of the lives of those around me, often having far more impact on them than I ever understood.

Live Life

Perhaps while I wait for an ideal to manifest, my real life is manifesting on its own, and I don’t even notice?

Sometimes, you just gotta let go of ideal images and goals.  Sometimes, perhaps it’s best to just accept that we really have little power over our lives and the world around us.  Instead of fighting life’s currents and cursing the fates, maybe we should just let go and marvel at all that passes by?

I mean, what passes by is what life really is.  Are we on this Earth to control and direct, or to marvel at what it already is?  Maybe both?

How about you?

What do you think about most? What worries you?  What obsesses you most days, hours and minutes?  Does it really relate to the real, concrete world that is going on all around you?  That passes you by each day?

Are you missing out on the potential richness of your life because you aren’t really present?

Let Go

I’m a natural fighter.  And I have grand dreams and plans.  Come hell or high water, I am determined to achieve those goals.

But I am discovering that, when the journey gets rough, sometimes to let go won’t take you off your path, but might just lead you back to it.

It’s worth a shot, anyway.  And the inspiration that comes from appreciation of what is, instead of determination to change what is, might be just what you need to recharge and renew your drive and energy.

We don’t make our mark merely because we make our world better than it was. What you do on this Earth may very well improve it.  I hope so.

But consider that we can make our life’s mark simply by sharing and celebrating what and who we truly are.  Each of us is unique and beautiful.  Celebrating the beauty of the rose does not denigrate the beauty of the lily.  It adds to it.

I have decided to indulge in going with the flow every so often, just to see what comes.  At least for a bit.  And to take note of life as it passes in front of my senses.

Perhaps it’s OK to let go once in a while, and just be you. It’s good for the soul, I think.  And it’s the only way to truly live.

All the best,

Hugh

Time Is Not On Your Side

Kids and Parenting

Dear Friend,

My wife and I talked the other day about priorities.

Out of that conversation came a very powerful point.  There are two things in our lives that cannot be put off, no matter how pressing are other matters.  These two things are time with our children and time with our elderly parents.

In a very short time our kids will be grown.  And no matter how hard to believe, the chaos in our lives will end.  Things will soon be much quieter.  And more lonely, too, I suspect.

In too few years our elderly parents will be gone.  This is the last time that we and our kids will be able to spend with semi-active grandparents.

No matter how bad the economy, or how pressing other things might be in our lives, we really have no choice.

I like to imagine myself in the distant future, wondering what past decisions that I might regret, or might see as short-sighted.  The one decision that screams out at me is whether we seize this fleeting opportunity with our loved ones.

I’m sure that you face a similar situation.  Most parents with young children do.  This is a big reason why we have chosen to live such an unconventional family lifestyle.

Today I can confidently say that I know my kids pretty well.  And they know me.  We have discovered it all – the good and the not-so-good – about each other.  And we experience all sorts of wonders through each other’s eyes.

Do we need a break from each other once in a while?  You bet.  But that’s easy to arrange.

Every time I think about being at some desk and missing out on this part of my life, I celebrate the fact that I left that path.  At this moment in my life, I am with my loved ones, where I’m needed most.

I hope you are able to craft a lifestyle that maximizes your quality time with your kids and your parents.  As much as I hate to hear it, the clock is ticking, and time waits for no one.

Best of luck,

Hugh

Dealing With Family Finances

Dear Friend,

My crew has been hanging out in suburban Houston, Texas, this past week.

While we were here, we bumped into a guy washing RVs. He had the right equipment, a hard-working crew, and a go-to attitude. Considering the absolutely appalling condition of the Warrior, it was a no-brainer – he got our business.

While he and his crew transformed the Warrior into something that actually looked good, we learned a bit about the owner of this little enterprise, called Rose Touch Mobile Detailing.

Laren Rose was laid off last February from his job as a police officer.  Like a lot of people these days, he found himself wondering what to do next.  While scraping up coins under the sofa cushions and otherwise making his family finances work somehow, he came up with a great idea.

There are so many expensive RVs in those upscale RV parks.  Many of their owners have more cash than the rest of us, having sold out their old homes just before the real estate crash.  And their age makes keeping their rigs as clean as they prefer rather difficult.  The gray-hair set is a close community out here, and most of these folks were raised to keep their things looking good.

Enter Mr Rose.  These days he has a custom van covered in professional advertising.  And a fast crew who just get the job done.

Many of us are facing a situation similar to Mr R0se.  We find ourselves at an involuntary crossroads in our life.  Perhaps fate is sending you a signal?  Maybe this is your big chance to stop working and start living?

Sure, Mr Rose is working – hard.  But his work is for himself – his own business.  He now controls his hours, and controls when he takes a quick break to spend time with the family.  There is a direct and visible connection between the sweat of his brow and the well-being of his family.

The economy just looks worse every day.  And I believe it will get worse, too, if that’s possible.  But it doesn’t have to get worse for you.  Join the new economy.  Join those of us for whom the future is a bright shining star.

Life’s too short to live in fear of what’s coming.  So don’t.

Mr Rose sure isn’t.  He is a classic entrepreneur.  You can be too.

Do you have ideas for a new business or way to fund your family lifestyle?  Share them with us (if you don’t mind).  Opportunities surround us.  We just aren’t trained how to look for them.  Your ideas and thoughts can help us all to bolster our family finances.

I look forward to hearing from you.

All the best,

Hugh

P.S.:  If you happen to be in the South Houston area and your vehicle in need of a good wash, you can reach Mr Rose at (713) 878-2596.

Dear Friend,

My family has traveled a lot in our short years together, though still much less than I would prefer.

But traveling requires “spare” time for most of us, and these days spare time is hard to come by.

Unless, of course, you live a mobile family lifestyle.

A Mobile Family Lifestyle

It always seems that the responsibilities that we so lightly assume today serve to tie us down so that we miss opportunities for a more mobile lifestyle.

It is also quite true that traveling with family, and especially with young children, adds an entirely new (and often difficult) challenge.

We’ve Been Around

In the traveling that I have done I have been honored to explore Argentina (for a month with my entire family), Costa Rica (five times; once with my oldest son), the Canadian Maritimes (for about two weeks and with the whole gang), Central and Western Canada (with the whole family via RV), most of the US (once again, via RV), Japan (for ten days when I was a teenager), the Bahamas (by sailboat as crew, and later by cruise ship with my oldest daughter), and Bermuda (for ten days for our honeymoon – no kids yet).

In all of this traveling the one thing that impacted me most was not the scenery (though some was breathtaking), or the cultural attractions (though many were fascinating), or the entertainment. The one thing that struck me most in my travels, and which I consider most significant when I discern the value of a travel visit, is the attitude of the people in the places I visit.

You Can Only Know This World Through Travel

We all know that individuals vary, and that mean people and nice people inhabit all parts of our globe. However I have found that some cultures have a built-in character that sets them apart.

Great philosophers of history often counseled that to fail to travel in life was to fail to understand the world. Some people today claim that this was a view true for a world where books were extremely rare and modern communications inconceivable. Today online tools like Twitter allow us to chat on an intimate level with folks on the other side of the planet, in real time. In fact, with the incredible power of the Web and media to inform us of the joys and sorrows around the world, physical travel seems almost an extravagant luxury.

I am a huge believer in the virtual power of the Internet and modern media. If I had not traveled as I have I would probably be among those who poo-poo the importance of physical travel. However I have traveled, and I have learned that our eyes and our brain’s frontal lobe are not the only tools that human beings utilize to sense the significance of a place, or a people.

We are creatures who have existed for for many thousands or even millions of years and who have evolved to communicate and experience the world with every sense we have. Until our technology allows unfettered, unedited access for all of our senses to anyplace we want to experience, we will need to travel with our bodies to fully understand it.

Discovering the World Through the Eyes of Others

When you travel with others, the complexities of your relationships with each of those people and between those people will color the way in which you consider what your senses tell you about a place and a people. Therefore, you can travel to the same place, and see the same people, many times, but if you bring different travel partners each time then each travel experience will be unique.

Design Your Own Mobile Family Lifestyle

My children are growing up fast. I could do as my dad had to do, and work long hours in an office Monday through Saturday and rest my tired bones on Sunday, just so I could take my family to Disney a few times. Or, I can wield every new technology I can get my hands on to design a life and a lifestyle for my family that allows us to experience as much of our world and its people as possible before my kids go off and begin to explore their own lives.

Writer Tim Ferriss calls this approach to living a “Self Directed Life.” I call it Creative Family Lifestyle Design. You can call it whatever you want.

That’s the life I live.

How about you?

I want to hear about what you are doing right now to achieve the lifestyle you want – mobile or not.  And I’ll bet you would like to hear from others that you are not alone.

And don’t worry that you haven’t made much progress yet.  That’s why we are all here! To kick-start that progress!

So, tell us about it!  Your starts and stops.  Your failures.  Your dreams that you want to act on someday. Anything. Everything!

Whatever you’ve got, share it here.  And let our community help guide you to your family lifestyle dreams.

All the best,

Hugh 🙂

I'm Ready!

Dear Friend,

Are you ready to transform your family lifestyle?  But you have no clue where to start?

I can help.

I want to teach you, step-by-step, how to transform your family lifestyle from dull to fantastic.  I can help you to live your life the way you really want to.

You can join the hundreds of other families who have discovered real freedom and refuse to accept a life of humdrum boredom.

But I need your help.

There are so many paths to freedom, and so many areas that I could focus on teaching you, so I need you to tell me what you most want to learn right now.

Subjects that I could cover now include the following:

• The Easy-Button/Newbie’s Guide to Transforming Your Family Life;
• Uncovering Your Life’s Purpose;
• Persuading Your Partner to Join Your New Lifestyle;
• How to Finance Your New Family Lifestyle;
• How to Move Your Family Life Overseas;
• How to Live Like a Tech-Nomad.

Or maybe you have another topic in mind? Whatever it is, just tell me!

What do you really need to know right now in order to start your family life down the path you want?

And, please don’t be shy! I really want to help!

You can either respond to this post with a comment, or drop me an email at hugh(at)hughdeburgh(dot)com.

Thank you so much for your guidance!

All the best,

Hugh

Doin' Nuthin'

Experiments in Family Lifestyle Design

Dear Friend,

Recently, my family and I have been doing nothing.

In fact, I’ve had a hard time figuring out what to write about our status, because there just wasn’t much to write.

No new and exciting scenery.  No new thrills and chills.  No 1,000 mile jaunts to yet another unique corner of North America.

Nuthin’

Doin Nuthin’ is Doin’ Sumthin’

Yet today I realized that we were doing something.  Something different.  This past month we have been experimenting at living a more normal family lifestyle “on the road.”

If traveling North America is your family lifestyle, then you are going to quickly find your family lifestyle comes to an end.  Because North America, just like any other place on Earth, is finite.

Have we seen everything in North America yet?  No.  I’m not sure that is even possible.  But, to be honest, as an ignorant visitor, I have a hard time telling the corn in Kansas apart from the corn in Nebraska.  After a while, stuff starts to look alike to me.

So, what do we do?  Just declare our journey over and go back to our old family lifestyle?  Or something else?

New Journeys?

Well, there is more of North America to experience.  There’s still Mexico, which I suspect will be so culturally distinct from Anglo North America that the experience will be quite interesting.

And if we’re feeling really adventurous, there are an intrepid few who have driven the Pan-American highway as far as Panama.  Yup, it’s been done.  There’s even a book about how to do it.

So, is that what we did for the last month?

Nope.

We didn’t do nuthin.

Why?  Are we lazy?

Yup.

Actually, we took a different journey.  A different kind of journey.

We took a journey within.

Experimenting With Nuthin’

For the last month we have experimented with just living in one spot in our RV.  That means we have stayed in one location (Burleson, Texas) and just lived.  We went to the grocery store.  We ran our business.  We watched movies.  We even (God forbid) connected to the campground cable TV signal so my wife and I could watch “Dancing With the Stars” on ABC, and our oldest could watch his favorite show, “Castle.”

In other words, we stopped being wandering nomads for a bit and lived just like anyone else.

Our kids experimented with weird sleeping schedules. They don’t really have schedules anymore so what’s the harm? At some point there was somebody awake 24 hours a day.

Thankfully, all of us drifted back to a common nighttime sleeping schedule, but this was not pushed.  It happened naturally, and so I suspect that experiment is over.

We discovered how to live together in a small space without needing constant outside stimulation to keep us distracted.

We just lived.

At times it was boring.  There were tense moments on occasion – but surprisingly few.  The kids don’t fight much at all. Even though they still have disagreements, they rarely rise to the point of being physical, or even of raised voices!

Could we live in one place for a very long time?  A few months ago I would have said, “No.”  But now, I think we could.

Can Your Family Just Be?

Have you ever tried this?  I’d love to hear about your family’s experiences with just being.

How well can you all just be, like a family is apparently supposed to?  Or are we all just fellow travelers, sharing traveling space in life but not really focused on each other?

What do you think?

Thanks so much for your thoughts!

All the best,

Hugh 🙂

Life Takes Money - Where Will Yours Come From?

Dear Friend,

Solid family finances are a key part of a successful family lifestyle design.

As you know, I write about all aspects of family lifestyle design.  And occasionally I write about ways that you and your family might finance your new life.

My criteria for talking about a money-making method is simple – it just needs to be a method that can be used by someone who is also actively raising a family and doesn’t want the way they make money to define the way they live.

Up to now there is one method of financing that I have been silent about, even though it fits our lifestyle approach to a tee – Internet Marketing.

Why haven’t I talked about it?

Because I don’t think most people trust Internet marketers. Or any marketers, for that matter.  Can you blame them?  Personally, I can’t imagine a better way to live than as an information marketer. But there is so much crap out there, and get-rich-quick garbage, that my head gets dizzy just trying to comprehend it all.  And who do you trust?

I’ve been following this stuff for years, and even I have a tough time.  I am trained in marketing, and I’ve spent my life surrounded by this field, so I can usually sniff out a used car salesman when I see one.

I finally realized today that I’ve been doing both you and me a disservice.  Because of my shame over a few who give the industry a bad name, I’ve avoided it entirely.  When what I should have been doing is telling you what I know, and sharing with you my views about what might work for you and what you should likely avoid.

You would benefit from my experience, and, if you did decide to buy something, the seller would send me a thank-you commission for telling my followers about his product.  It’s win-win.

Does the fact I will benefit financially make my recommendations suspect?  You will have to decide that.  I promise you unvarnished truth.  I’m awful at lying anyway – otherwise I’d still be working in the marketing and law fields myself! 🙂

So here’s what I’m going to do.

I’m going to peruse the world of Internet marketing, looking for ideas and products that seem well suited to our unique family lifestyles.  Every so often, if I see something that I think might work, I’ll check it out as best I can.  If I’ve actually put my hands on it and tried it out, I’ll say so.  If I have doubts, I’ll say so. If I think it’s the second coming, I’ll tell you that, too.

If I think any of you might find the product of value, I’ll write a short piece about it. I may also include a link to that products “Buy” page.  It will be an affiliate link.  That means that if you do choose to buy it, I should get some kind of commission.  Not from you – from the seller.

Anyway, that is honestly the best way I know to help you to find better methods of financing your lifestyle.

But I need your help.

I don’t really know where to start.  And, rather than just pick some product and start chatting, I want to hear from you.

What experiences have you had with Internet related money-making products?  MLM?  Whatever?  I’m not picky.

So, now it’s back to you.

Please post a comment, or send me an email to hugh(at)hughdeburgh(dot)com.

Tell me what you know and what you’d like to know more about.  If you don’t know much about this area, but you’d like to make money in a certain way, let me know that, too.  I can scan the horizon for stuff that you might have an interest in.

And remember, there are many more folks out there who probably have the same questions – they’re just too shy to speak up.  So responding to this call will be helping them out, too.

Thanks so much for your feedback and ideas.  I really appreciate them!

All the best,

Hugh 🙂

Your New Life is Waiting ...

Dear Friend,

Time to talk about family finances.

Working for money sucks.

There, I said it. Life sucks when you spend most of it trying to gather lots of numbers in your bank account. It really sucks when that bank account never seems to grow much.

You were meant for better than this.  And you can have it.

Yes, I know.  Family finances are on your shoulders. You have a family and bills and responsibilities. These days you may feel your barely keeping your family out of the homeless shelter.

Perhaps you have spent a lifetime getting your career to the place it is now.  And perhaps you are getting older, and fear you may not be able to compete against younger, cheaper upstarts if you find yourself out of a job – voluntarily or not.

Obviously, you aren’t going to make a substantial change in your lifestyle if you don’t know where your next paycheck will come from.  Right?  That may be OK for 20-somethings with little invested and no responsibilities to speak of.  But for us family folks, there’s a lot riding on that steady paycheck.

So, what can you do?

Financial Security in the 21st Century

How do you get your family finances into a position that you can live life the way you truly want to?  How can you possibly get from working at your current job to having no fixed job at all while living an awesome family lifestyle?

Win the lottery, perhaps? I have a better idea.  And the odds are much more in your favor.

It’s Time for a Bit of Creative Family Lifestyle Design

How about we figure out a way to make your work skills portable? You know, where you make the money you need as you need it, wherever you might be.

And I’m not talking about moving your boring job to a spot with better scenery.  I mean crafting a way to use your skills to generate money on-the-go.  Like your own, little ATM.

Think that sounds like one of those corny Internet get rich schemes? Well, that’s just it.  I never said anything about being rich.  But you don’t want to be poor, either.

What I suspect you really want is real financial security.  That’s the knowledge and comfort that comes from knowing that you can always pay your bills, no matter what.

In the past, most people have believed that you had to be rich to have financial security.  But nowadays, there’s a better and faster way to secure your family finances.

Instead, you need to design your own business or work skill that you can use when you need it to generate money as you need it – no more, no less.

This just-in-time phenomenon is overtaking every aspect of modern life.

It’s a product of the knowledge age.

Be a Financial Commando

Be a Financial Commando

The just-in-time phenomenon has impacted the military in a big way.

In the old days, military tacticians believed in amassing huge armies in order to overwhelm their enemies in battle.

The US military has often been criticized for continuing to build massive war machines in an age where this approach is likely to be obsolete.

Advanced military strategists say that modern military technology and skill sets must be designed around 21st century-style warfare.  This means the use of Special Forces.  Highly trained experts with very specific skill sets. Commandos.

Today’s militaries utilize these small, concentrated special forces commando units to attack strategic targets for maximum impact with minimal expense in lives and money.

In the business world, in order to sell a product, you used to make tons of stuff, store it in a warehouse, and then send your army of salespeople out to sell it all.

Today, manufacturers have borrowed a page from the military’s manual.  Now they use “just-in-time” manufacturing.  They wait to make a product until just before it is needed.  Ever bought a Dell computer?  Each one is built for you, after you place your order. Dell only buys the supplies they need moments before they need them.

This commando approach to war and business is extremely efficient and effective.  It works.

Today, the same technological forces that made these changes necessary in the military and business worlds are influencing the way we all make money and finance our lives.

Living a Rich Man’s Lifestyle on a Modest Income

For most of us, the goal isn’t really to get rich, though we wouldn’t mind a few extra bucks.  Instead, we want to live the kind of lifestyle that we think being rich will bring to us.

If you are still working with the idea that you need to amass giant sums of money, you are living in the past.

What you need to start doing, immediately, is to develop your own, unique strategy for generating the kind of money you will need at those moments you need it.  You need to be a financial commando.

So, enough of this analogy business.  What does it all mean to you?

Financial Commandos Have Portable Work Skills

Everybody Has Portable Work Skills

Can you be a financial commando?

Well, you have skills, don’t you?  Something you know how to do that others need?

Your skills may not be sexy, like being a commando or a “lady of the night,” but if it can pay bills, it’s on the table.

Perhaps something you already do at work can be transformed into a portable work skill?  Or maybe some old skill you learned as a kid, or as a hobby?

There may also be unique work opportunities in the places that you travel to.

Can you teach English?  Can you wait tables?  Can you do secretarial work?  Can you sell stuff on eBay? Babysit? Drive a cab? Be a consultant? Design web sites?  Be a travel writer?  Or a copywriter?

These examples may seem beneath you at this stage of your life.  But, remember that you probably won’t need to make as much money in your new lifestyle as you thought you had to make in your old life.

You may also find that skills you today take for granted could be quite in demand in other parts of the world.  So if your new lifestyle has you traveling the globe, you may be surprised at how little you need to do to pay your way.

Perhaps your portable work skill will be teaching other families how to transform their lives, just as you are learning to do now? You could very well be learning today what you need to know to make a decent living in the near future!

What Now?

It’s time to put your thinking cap on.  The sooner you can develop ideas of how to support your new family lifestyle, the sooner you can ditch the day job and start living.

I’ll dip into this subject in more detail at a later date.  For now, I just want to get you thinking.

Remember, there is always a way.  You just have to put your mind to it. Commandos can do just about anything.  But they don’t grow on trees overnight.  Your new skills will take time to perfect.  The sooner you get started, the better.

Until later, all the best,

Hugh

Dear Friend,

What stands between you and a fantastic family lifestyle?

Two weeks ago I posed a question to my readers: “What’s keeping you from living the life you really want?  Right now. Today. Immediately.”

First, I want to sincerely thank everyone who responded for your outpouring of honest frustration.  I feel for you because I’ve been there.

My point with this exercise was to get folks to closely examine their own situation and identify their real barriers to living the good life.

Below I have encapsulated the responses I received into three types of family lifestyle design barriers: 1. Ghost Barriers, 2. Financial Barriers, and 3. Relationship Barriers.

Ghost Barriers

There are two types of barriers people imagine when they consider how to transition from one family lifestyle to another.  Real and “ghost” barriers

Ghost barriers are things we just sort of assume are going to be a problem, but honestly don’t know for sure.

When we have that brief moment of consideration after hearing questions like mine, those ghost barriers are often placed right beside the real ones, creating what looks like a brick wall between us and the family lifestyle we really want.

This exercise is designed to get you to challenge your perceived barriers – to sound them out. In the end you should have a good idea what challenges are real and which are not, and can begin formulating a strategy to approach the real ones.

Financial Barriers – “Ain’t Got No Money”

Several of you noted finances as a barrier to going forward. But in most cases there seemed to be strategies and plans in place to deal with the problem.

Consider the following points while you decide how to tackle this barrier:

Surprisingly Low Cost of Living

Living your dream family lifestyle may be much cheaper than living the way you live today. So don’t necessarily assume that you will need the same income as you do now.

In our case we’ve found that while on the road we spend much less in stores and restaurants. We just live more cheaply. I’m not exactly sure why this is, or if it’s just a perception. Maybe when we are in our house it feels like the old days when money flowed, and we slip back into old spending habits? Who knows?

This change in spending behavior didn’t happen right away.  At first, we behaved like tourists. We bought lots of souvenirs and ate out all the time.  But when it began to sink in that we weren’t on vacation – that this was our normal life – we settled down and spent much less.

Renting Out Your Home

Some of you have old commitments, such as homes and other large purchases from the past with big loans attached. In today’s marketplace, it can take years to sell what before may have sold in a week.

For you folks I simply suggest that you be open to possibilities such as renting out your home to help cover the mortgage while you are elsewhere doing other things.

Many folks are renting their primary homes out these days, and with more people unable to keep their homes due to repossessions, divorce, and other issues, the number of renters in the marketplace is increasing.

But where would you and your family live?

We generally assume that leaving our primary home is an expensive choice.  We’d be paying for housing twice – for our empty house as well as hotel expenses, for example.

But this doesn’t have to be true. In fact, many folks already live in exciting new locations without adding any net expenses.  And some even profit from the process!

House Swapping

Another possibility is to turn that anchor around you neck you call a house into an asset.  Consider house swapping.  It’s been done for years with impressive results.

You can trade your house with some else who wants  or needs to be where you live.  It’s not permanent – though I assume it could be if you wanted.  There is always somebody interested in living where you are tired of living, and house swapping makes that possible very quickly.

In today’s markets, there are an incredible number of gorgeous homes just sitting, waiting to be sold.  The owners would love to sell or rent, but they might be willing to swap instead, so they can speed up their moving plans.

You don’t have to swap just once.  Some folks travel the world swapping their homes for the homes of others.  Many of these are vacation homes located in exotic locales.

Check out the Home Xchange Vacations website for examples of what I’m talking about.  Registration there is free.

Working for Your Dream Family Lifestyle

You can reduce your net cash outflow while living a new and exciting family lifestyle in a totally new environment.

Be open to living in campgrounds or marinas as a workcamper, or as an off-season home caretaker, where housing could be very cheap or even free.

Relationship Barriers

“My Family’s Not Interested”

Your family may not seem as interested in your dream lifestyle as you are. There are several possible reasons for this – not all of them bad.

“It Can’t Be Done”

Most folks will like the idea of living a more carefree family lifestyle, but they may not believe that it’s realistically possible.

If this is your situation, you need to start learning everything you possibly can about ways that this transformation can happen for your family.  It will be up to you to build an unimpeachable case for your loved ones that it is possible, that people worldwide are taking the leap every day, and your family can do it, too.

For you I suggest that you study my book, Families Without Limits, read archived posts here at The Way of the Passionate Warrior, and sign up for Family Lifestyle Academy when registration opens.

You’ve got some work to do.

“They Prefer Our Current Family Lifestyle”

If you find yourself in the difficult position of having loved ones who have no interest in your lifestyle dreams, then you have some choices to make.

You may have to leave your spouse behind while you trek the world or volunteer in Africa or whatever your dream lifestyle is. Be prepared for that possibility.

It’s possible that, after watching you do this and hearing your stories and seeing the new energy and life in your eyes, their attitude will change.  This is leading by example.

If they insist that you live in their world and stop all this foolish talk about lifestyle change, then you need to assert yourself.

Your family members are being selfish.  Everyone deserves to have their dreams acknowledged and respected, even if they are not shared.  To disrespect your dreams is to deny who you really are, and that is dysfunctional.

In the end, if you decide to deny your dreams because your family prefers that you do, you are saying to yourself and the world that you aren’t worthy – which is crap.

Way too many people choose this path, and it’s a cop out.  You can blame your family, and they carry some fault.  But the real fault lies with you.  It is your responsibility to live your life.  And you can’t always do that with the ones you love.  That’s OK.

Your family does not have to sacrifice their lives to indulge your dreams, and neither do you have to do this.  It’s nice if you can take turns for short periods, but it’s not reasonable to expect these forays to be permanent if their heart isn’t in it.

Speak up.  Assert yourself.  And communicate what really matters to you to your loved ones.  If you are typically more passive in your relationships, you may not have effectively communicated how important this matter is to you.  You need to do that.

Give your loved ones a chance to respond.  And don’t let them blow you off.  Be gentle but persistent.  Conflict won’t work, but gentle persistence always does.  With this approach, you will get to the truth.

Don’t be afraid of the truth.  Don’t fear confirmation of your fears.  Nothing is worse than imagining the worst but not knowing, so find some courage and give it a shot.

It’s All About Getting There Faster

With some creativity, there are ways that you can speed up your departure date to a better life.  But you have to be open.  And flexible.

The more willing you are to consider unconventional solutions, the faster you can stop dreaming and start living!

Talk to you soon!

Hugh