My 4-Year Journey to Costa Rica
Today I’m sitting on a beautiful beach in Costa Rica with my laptop, thinking about what the hell I’ve done in my life that’s brought me to this glorious point. It all began about 4 years ago.
I arrived home from a backpacking trip feeling very unsettled by the idea of just hopping into a 9 to 5 job. Even more unsettling was the fact that “hopping in” at all, wasn’t even an option. The country was still in a very delicate state of post-recession, and I didn’t have the skills or experience to weasel my Hello way into anything beyond a free manicure touch-up at the spa I used to work at.
I sat down with two of my best friends who happened to be in very similar positions at the time. We were all clear on one thing – we didn’t necessarily know what kind of lifestyle we wanted to live, but we knew that we wanted to be able to work from anywhere. Ultimately, knowing our end goal made everything else slide into place. My friend, Summer, decided to become a writer. One year later, she was offered a book deal with wholesale nba jerseys a prominent Australian publisher. My other friend, Shannon, decided that she wanted to create versatile and sustainable clothing for women. After doing exactly that, she is now happily running her own consulting company for other sustainable apparel brands.
Figuring Zusatzbrille that they’d both need websites to support their new career paths, I decided to become a web designer (piece of cake, right?) That one decision was the beginning of a long journey. A journey complete with a massive technical learning curve, about a million cups of coffee, a brief stint working for someone else, and 5 very important pillars that kept me focused and grounded with the eye on the prize: work. from. anywhere. Allow me to elaborate:
I’m going to encourage you to read along slowly and think about cheap jerseys your own personal and professional goals as you go down the list.
1.) Define how you want to measure your personal success.
My success: (noun) being able to work from anywhere so I can experience world travel and frequent Ways visits with my friends and family.
2.) Know exactly what makes you happy in life – say it out loud.
BUFFALO CHICKEN FINGERS AND BLUE CHEESE. Oh, wait. I mean… Relationships. Experiences. Movement. Nature.
Live in a place that allows you to be active and outside every day. Work in a job that allows you to be with your family and friends whenever you want to be. Consider owning a bike instead of a car so you can spend your car payment and gas money on an adventure instead.
3.) Live with purpose
Make a point of asking yourself “what is the point?” If the point isn’t to improve the health or happiness of you or your people, then it may not be worth the time. You’ll notice that some items, like ice cream, sneak under wholesale nfl jerseys the radar there – Health? (silence). Happiness? YES! Therefore, eating ice cream is purposeful.
4.) Fake it ‘til you make it
Since I started web design in 2010, I’ve probably repeated this phrase more than any other: fake it ‘til you make it, fake it ‘til you make it… While it more often than not serves as my uncomfortable way of accepting a compliment, it actually lives up to it’s meaning. You won’t figure it out until you try, and sometimes, in order to have the chance to try, you must fake that you already know how to do it.
5.) Be open to educating yourself
The Internet has changed how we live, work, learn, and date. In exchange for our focus and time, it offers us opportunity, introductions, education, and romance. I owe every dollar my business has ever made to the millions of hours I’ve spent scrolling through forums and blogs looking for information. I bought all of my design programs off Craigslist, hired a web design tutor on Wyzant.com, and met an entire community of entrepreneurs and designers from Chris Guillebeau’s blog and online community. To say this Internet thing’s been good to me, would be an understatement, but I won’t give it all the credit. I was open to soaking up as much free information as I could, spending every minute of my free time finding that information, and using it to propel my business.
When you’re on the path to start a new business – shit gets hard. In our reaction to difficulty, we start veering off course. We accept projects that we don’t want to work on with wholesale jerseys China people we don’t want to work with. We charge significantly less than what we’re worth, and severely undervalue our skillsets. We start to envy the job security of others, regardless of the fact that cheap jerseys we proclaim entrepreneurship to be the most stable career path we can choose. These 5 pillars are what brought me from freelancing and waiting tables to running a business I look forward to everyday, working with clients whose businesses get me excited about life, and sharing an office with turtles and monkeys on the shores of Costa Rica.
No matter what your journey looks like, insist that you stay focused – keep your feet on the path and eye on the prize. Because in entrepreneurship, just being on the path is the best possible place to start.
Until next time, pura vida 😉
If you’re feeling inspired to finally get started on a project that’s been München-Gut hanging around in your head for a while, that’s amazing! When you’re ready to discuss logistics, I’m your girl. Let’s chat web design, logos, branding and more. When are you free? Set something up here.
