By Pauline Hanuise, a certified Holistic Recovery & Health Coach, PaulineHanuise.com.
GaijinWorks International Business Coaching will be featuring a number of blogs from us as well as guest posters like Pauline Hanuise. You can expect weekly doses of wisdom on things like goal setting, working through joy, accountability, time management, work/life balance, financial planning, organizational skills, empowering women, the benefits of coaching, brainstorming, nutrition, exercise, yoga or traveling. Interested in guest blogging yourself? Please send your potential topic to Lauren Vanessa Zink at queen@tinyhappyempire.com.
As far back as I can remember, I’ve wanted more freedom. As a kid I was always the first one to want to get out of the house and sleep at my classmates’ places. I always wanted to see what was happening elsewhere and check if the grass was greener than where I was.
During my scholarship, I managed to study in a few different cities throughout France and my home country of Belgium. When I entered University, my number one priority was to stay in Brussels and explore the capital city and all the great things I could access over there. By that time I knew that I wanted to explore other parts of the world and live in a sunnier country than mine.
Things got a bit worse when I started commuting, seeing many gray and unhappy people every day. I always thought to myself, “This is not how I want to live my life.”. A year after starting work as an employee in a huge corporation, I left Belgium with my partner to live in Sydney, Australia, my home for 3 years and counting. During my time here, I’ve learned and evolved so much. I can now say that the experience of expatriation has been priceless. I managed to recover from many years of struggle with a full-blown eating disorder and become a Holistic Health & Recovery Coach to help other women to do the same and create a better life for themselves.
After 3 years in Australia, I realized that just because I was living in a sunnier country that I had created more freedom for myself. My partner was still in a ‘9 to 5’ job. And we were unable to visit our family when we wanted. We were stuck in the same routine as before, just with a better quality of life now. That wasn’t quite enough to meet my expectations! We already knew that the best plan for us was to become location independent.
We wanted to be able to live in the most beautiful parts of the world while leveraging our income. Earned in modern countries such as Australia, USA and Europe and spent in the less expensive ones. We wanted to be able to settle down wherever we really wanted to live. Enjoying life at its best while being able to get back to our home country when we wanted to and for as long as we really wanted to as well. Finally, we both wanted to be our own boss and avoid some kind of deadly routine.
That’s why I started my coaching business uniquely online. Which means that I was (and still am) coaching my clients via phone or Skype. When what you do happens uniquely online, you’re not linked to an office or a country anymore. As long as you have a computer and an internet connection, everything is possible. What’s great it is that most countries have access to the internet now, and that’s still increasing exponentially every year.
There are so many amazing places to visit, so why stick with our home country, right?
I’ve just been back in Europe, where I am planning to spend the rest of summer. Before that, I lived in a gorgeous villa with a swimming pool in Bali for the past 9 months. I am actually living a life beyond my wildest dreams, and it’s still the very beginning!
Here are the things you should keep in mind if you want to become location independent:
● Don’t think this is something for “others” only. It’s totally possible for every one of us. I’ve even seen many people—even those with kids—live like this.
● The first location move will be scary! You'll have to step out of your comfort zone. But like many great things in life, if you want something better, you have to change what you’re doing now.
● Make a list of all the things you have to win by taking action vs what you have to win by not taking action. Be aware that if it’s not what you want, it’s easy to get back to where you were before. But know that if you try it, you might never want to come back.
● More and more people are becoming location independent to increase their quality of life and leverage their income. And online business has never been so easy. There are many great books to help you in this process, such as “The Lean StartUp”, “The $100 StartUp” and “The 4-Hour Work Week”.
● Try to connect with people that are living where you want to live. Via forums or online communities such as B-School and IIN. And ask them about the quality of life (internet connection, cost of living, yoga studios, expat community, etc.).
● Take at least 2 weeks off work to be able to enjoy your new country and settle down.
● You'll be living in places where people come for holidays and relaxation. So keep an eye on your productivity is a great idea! In your new life, everyone has time and everyone is keen to do some ‘brain picking’... because you'll most likely create curiosity about what you do.
● At the same time, you don’t want to create this type of life for yourself and not enjoy it because you are too focused on your work, so finding balance will be your challenge [and you will definitely need some time to find it].
● Finally having a great international insurance will be very important!