In her new book Living Without Reservations, Barbara Singer shares how she did it and offers an arsenal of ideas about how anyone can have an Eat, Pray, Love experience themselves and reinvent and re-engineer their own lives to truly build the life they dream about.
Barbara offers up insights into what decisions need to be specifically addressed as one works through the adventure of personal discovery. Here is her roadmap for making a personal transformation that allows you to slowly and steadily develop, realize and achieve one’s own personal vision:
Get Ready Mentally
Your attitude is far more important than the check book balance. Focus 100% on creating the lifestyle that you want. Be acutely aware of how you are spending your time and money. If it is not bringing you closer to your goal, it is taking you farther away. There are NO neutral actions. You must believe in why and what you doing with all your heart.
Liquidate your home
Rent it to someone else or sell it. The goal is to travel light. You will be renting a room from someone else somewhere in the world (perhaps even several times a year in different locations), so all your possessions need to fit into a bedroom. Rent or sell your home furnished if you can. It will save you a lot of hassle of moving and selling furniture and household goods which have very little resale value.
Get Rid of Your Car
Stop your car lease or car payments sell it then buy something under $5,000 and put the minimum insurance required by your state. You will cut 2 bills with this one move. Most of the time, your car will just sit, unused while you are out of the country.
Stop all re-occurring monthly charges
If you don’t spend it, you won’t have to earn it. Stop all services like cable TV, lawn care, pool care, cleaning service, car detailing, beauty treatments, all memberships, and classes. You will have plenty of time to do these things yourself because you are not doing any of the old time wasters of the past. Eat all your meals from home. Use up all household products in your pantry, bathroom, wine cellar/bar and garage. BUY NOTHING!!
Get Healthy
Since you will be living and travelling abroad, you need to be in good shape. Get off all medications and get in your correct weight category. Look toward alternative medicine if need be. Buy catastrophic health insurance with a big deductible and shop around for the best price. The healthy you are, the cheaper your monthly rate.
Living Without a 9-5 Job
Focus on the gift of exchange.You may not have money, but you have something much more valuable, time and talent. Practice thinking of ways to get what you need without using money. Always give more than you receive in cash value. Do your best and think win/win. I trade you this X and you give my Y. Everytime you spend, think how you could get this without paying with money. You can have everything you need to live your dream life without a huge pile of money. Start in small hops. Take a leave of absence, unpaid for a month or two.
Work on the Road
Work when it’s right, then make it last as long as you can. That’s my motto. You work in season in the states and then travel wherever you want until it is time to work again. If you have skills you can freelance your self online anywhere. If you don’t, you can still find good paying tipping jobs at restaurants and resorts at during high season for a few months in destination towns (e.g., Aspen or Key West). Then you can fly to Italy or the Carribean, rent a room for a month at a time, and go on from there.
Making a Living on the Road
You don’t have to plan out the rest of your life. Break it down into little chunks. Rent a room for a month at time or plan to stay in an area for a season. If you decide to go touring you can keep costs low by staying in hostels (no longer just for youths!). There are also organizations that offer assistance to travelers, pensiones, and home stays like serva.org. Stay light and be flexible.
Hit the road. Go ahead. Decide to meet new people living incredible lifestyles. You will blow your mind and eyes wide open.
You will learn to trust the laws of the universe. You will find courage that you never knew you had. You will watch in sheer amazements as life and all its miracles, unfold right before your eyes.
About The Author: Barbara grew up in rural Lancaster County Pennsylvania. After graduating from Penn State University, she moved to Orlando, Florida. She has one daughter. Being a lifelong student of self help and motivation, she has walked on fire with Tony Robbins. She finds great joy in traveling, meeting people from around the world, reading and listening to eclectic music.
Daily Venus Diva -- Daily Venus Diva.
So well written and all so true. I felt some of those things described in this article relate to me in many levels.
Keep up the great work!
Curvy hugs,
Olga