Dec
The Rules of LIP Living And Being Location Independent
I have had several emails recently asking about the concept of being location independent - whether it’s about constant travelling and moving around to new places; whether it’s about living in one place and working with clients in another; or whether it’s about having 2 or 3 different bases around the world that you travel between.
The answer?
LIP living and being location independent is exactly what you want it to be. It’s about freedom of choice and living outside of the conventional rules that most people follow.
These are the concepts which I believe are relevant to living your life as a Location Independent Professional…
Abundance
For those of you who are a bit wary or sceptical of ‘personal development’ or ’spirituality’ - as an ex-rat racer I was too so I know where you’re coming from - the concept of abundance is about believing that there is ‘enough’ - in fact, not just enough, but more than enough for everyone.
It’s natural when you’re in the process of creating a life that is different from everyone else’s that doubts creep into your mind. You wonder whether you’re being crazy, foolish or naive; perhaps you wonder whether you’ll ever generate enough money to do what you want and whether you’ll ever have enough.
The concept of abundance answers this question for you - of course, you will. Abundance is an attitude - a belief - and it’s an important one to have if you’re starting out on a journey to live your dreams. You’ve got to first believe that there is ‘enough’ (of whatever you want) for you to have your dreams, before you go chasing after them.
Free From Possessions
A characteristic of being location independent is the flexiblity and mobility to go wherever (and whenever) the mood takes you. This means not being tied to, nor ruled by your possessions - and usually it might mean cutting down on the things you own and downsizing in several areas of your life.
That said however, downsizing is not a pre-requisite to being location independent; it simply means you’ll have to store or carry whatever it is that’s important enough to you to keep in your life.
Freedom Of Choice
The whole point about being location independent is choice. Maybe you want to travel the world and run your business at the same time; maybe you just want to move to the next state; or perhaps you don’t want to go anywhere at all, but it sure would be great to be able to do so, if you wanted.
Being location independent is about having that freedom, that ability to choose. It’s about being free to live the way you want to live - not the way somebody else or something else dictates - be it me, your boss, your extended family or even your own internal demons.
Living Your Life
As a Location Independent Professional, whether you like it or not, you’re making a statement to others about your life choices. Many readers have commented in the past about the often negative reactions from others when they’ve shared their desires to live as we do.
If you, like us, want to take control of your own life and your own future - you are making a choice to “live”; you’re not just existing but you’re really living. You are choosing to step outside of your comfort zone (because truthfully, life as a LIP is not always ‘comfortable’ and is very often challenging). You’re choosing to seek out new experiences and take a stab at creating the life you’ve always wanted. Personally, I’d rather get to my death bed, knowing that I’d at least tried and perhaps failed, than never even bothered trying.
No Rules
Many people ask “are we allowed?”Absolutely! As a LIP, you may well find yourself breaking many of life’s established rules. You have to ask yourself…”who made those rules?”
Realising that you can live by your own rules when it comes to creating the life you want is one of the biggest realisations you might make as a LIP. There are no rules, only the ones you set for yourself.
The sum of all of the above is this: It is your life; live it the way you choose.
If you enjoyed this post, maybe you'd like to subscribe to our RSS feed so you don't miss any future posts. Thanks for visiting!
Trackbacks & Pingbacks
- Pingback by brip blap » linklings, the dollar’s hard knock life on December 19, 2007 @ 7:42 am
- Pingback by do you LIVE or simply EXIST » “Every man dies. Not every man truly lives.” on January 3, 2008 @ 10:04 pm
- Pingback by NicP » Blog Archive » It all starts with changing HOW you think. on May 8, 2008 @ 3:18 pm
- Pingback by Mark McClure Today › Is This The Real life? Is This Just Fantasy? on July 8, 2008 @ 4:02 am
I think of all my possessions I would miss my books the most. Reading from the screen doesn’t have the same feeling as paper for me but perhaps traveling all over the world would compensate it
Bravo Lea!!!
Santiago - I agree completely about the books - that is one aspect I am still struggling with…
Well said Lea!
And to the ^above readers, there is no reason you can’t take a few books along with you, they don’t take up that much space. And once you finish reading a book, all the information is all stored in your brain so do you really need to keep it? Why not pass it on to someone else to read?
Books where difficult for me to get rid of when I moved from the states down to Venezuela. I understand how the feel of paper is nice. But after moving from one apartment to the next each year for a few years. I started to see them as paper weights. Or rather heavy weighted paper. So, it was difficult, but also a relief to get rid of my library.
Also, most of the web design books I owned were available in an online subscription program: http://safari.oreilly.com. I highly recommend this service to a LIP individual.
I still look forward to a good handheld device that can read pdf files.
Thx.
Hi guys & gals…glad you like the concepts!
I miss books too - but I do what Byron suggests and do sometimes take some that I then give away or leave wherever we are. Obviously if you’re going to do that, you’re best off not taking your first edition, prized possession!!
@Sean Hodge - thanks for the resource; it looks a great idea. I know what you mean about a reader that’ll read PDFs, it’s such a shame that the Kindle won’t…maybe the 2nd generation ones will…
I just came across this website thanks to Brave New Traveler. It’s been really great finding a website and community of like-minded people who have taken the plunge to LIP or are thinking about it. Thank you.
I especially like the discussion on abundance as an attitude and belief. People think we must have won the lottery to do what we’re doing, but it’s about making strategic decisions on how we spend our money. Also, we have found that the negative reactions we have received from people about our decision to leave our “respectable jobs” was normally rooted in some type of conscious or subconscious resentment of not being able to make a change in their job or life.
Hello Audrey - thanks for stopping by to comment and glad you found the blog!
I totally agree with you about being strategic with your money…like you, we find that many peoples’ initial reaction is that we’re mega rich or something to be able to do what we do. In actual fact, our businesses currently earn less than when we were both in the corporate world (although we do plan to change that!!) so we have less disposable income and yet still manage to travel to and live in the Caribbean etc.
I took a look at your site - love some of the photos - they’re fantastic. Are you still in Thailand?
Hi Lea,
Thanks for checking out our site and the feedback on the photos! We’re leaving Thailand tomorrow for Myanmar. Should be a fascinating visit - we’re not exactly sure what to expect in terms of people and government controls.
Having been on the road for a year already, we’ve gotten used to having less disposable income (for now, at least), but are able to do much more with what we do have. As you wrote, this lifestyle is not always “comfortable” - we have to remind friends that we’re not sitting on the beach the whole time drinking cocktails - but going outside the comfort zone pushes us to continually learn.
I have to say I recently heard about the term “Modern Nomad” and have been searching and searching for information on this particular subject. This website is awesome! I have found a lot of information here and just want to say thank you! I look forward to taking the plunge! Im very excited about it!