I was doing my daily Stumble and a post caught my eye about a major lifestyle change.

Since I’m usually rattling on about change I thought I’d read it through . It ran through greed to politics to drugs to alternative materials – all in a goodbye letter.

I thought it such a good read – here’s the link

Goodbye and F— You

I do apologise for the headline – it wasn’t mine.

Technorati: change, goodbye to hedge funds, life change, lifestyle, lifestyle change

Let me phrase that slightly differently – “did you create your lifestyle or did it develop the way it is because of someone else’s wishes?”

I was reading a post written by Sasha Xarrian from Outrageous Mastery (she’s been a real positive influence for me) in which she poses the following question:

Are you living your life because that is what you want or because someone else wanted it for you?

I talked about this at a top level in my Mummy State post a few weeks ago. Sasha’s question, however, made me think a little deeper.

Is this about personal development – choosing what you want for yourself – or does it go much, much deeper into our childhood?

Thinking back to my childhood and my early years at work I know that I was living my life according to someone else’s rules. I was doing what was expected of me rather than what I wanted. I wasn’t happy as a result!

People pay lip service to this, with comments like “do what you want – as long as you are happy”. But, as soon as you tell them what you are thinking of doing the objections and negatives start:

• “There’s no money in that”
• “That’s a dead end job”
• “You won’t enjoy that”
• “You have to think about the future”

Because we have little experience when just leaving school we tend to fall in line with the wishes of “society” and those we know best. Not, necessarily because we trust what they are saying but because we don’t know any different nor do we know for sure what we really want. At least most of us don’t.

Those people offering the advice aren’t trying to talk us out of what we want to do because of malice. No, unfortunately, they don’t know any better – they are just copying the example of those who went before. However, the question is “did / are they living the lifestyle they really wanted or are they themselves living according to someone else’s rules?”

It’s nobody’s fault – we just see life from our own perspectives which are ingrained through teachers and parents and our own experiences. So how are we to know any better?

The answer is to be free thinking. To challenge everything we know and work out for ourselves whether there is any basis to what we are told and the information / advice we are given. Or you could choose to live your life based on old wife’s tales and outdated strategies.

We live in an age when doing what we want has never been easier.

Most of us has access to credit – so money to start a business is not normally an issue

Technology and transport means we can work from where we want.

We are no longer tied to working where the “boss” set up the factory.

Yet, many of us still live by outdated values based around the way life used to be.

It’s time to take a real close look at our belief systems and make the changes we need to life the lifestyle we truly want and not the lifestyle created for us by someone else.

RELATED POSTS

I was doing my daily Stumble and came across a great post at Today Is That Day where Aaron Potts talks about successful people and the way they do things differently. He contends the really successful ignore the rules. Although I don’t totally agree with that,  without doubt  to be outrageously successful you have to  believe differently from the norm. Great post you should read.

Coincidentally, I just looked at today’s Mind Food quote and it is spot on with this theme:-

• The indispensable first step to getting the things you want out of life is this: decide what you want.
  ~ Ben Stein

Technorati: creating lifestyle, lifestyle, personal development

You’ve made your decision – you want to create the lifestyle of your dreams!

But here’s the difficult part…

You still need to generate an income while you design your life!

You may be able to build your lifestyle around your existing job, career or business BUT – BE CAREFUL – it’s so easy to slip back into your old routine – the comfort zone you know.

For many people it’s the current job that’s holding them back from the lifestyle they crave. Either there’s not enough money coming in or the time left after the work isn’t enough to do what they want. For most it’s BOTH!

And this is where the idea of creating the perfect lifestyle falls flat on its face.

The focus is on:

“What should I do to generate the money I need”

All that leads to is a lifestyle fitted around the new existence!

The real focus should be on what the lifestyle needs to look like first.

Of course, generating an income is vital. Without money you’ll not be able to have or do what you want. But working on creating a business first will only lead to more pain.

You have to work out whether your lifestyle is based on material possessions (in which case you’ll always be wanting more) or more activities focused.

For me the process was simple but I’ve been thinking about this for a long time!

Here are my main drivers:

• To play golf when I want.

• To be debt free.

• To be able to travel where and when I want.

• To be spontaneous.

• To work when I choose and from where I want.

• To be able to generate income quickly when required.

• To be there as my children grow up.

• To be a great husband, dad and friend.

• To have time to laugh.

• To see the beauty of the world.

• To take my time.

So building a business that is dependant on me, with staff and responsibilities just doesn’t work for me. Even though a great income would be the reward there’d be little or no time for the things most important to me.

My only option, after working out what is most important to me, was to create a business that I could run from not only home – but any location I chose.

I needed a business without staff and without premises.

Initially it needed to generate a high income -  to be debt free! – and that would be time intensive.

I made a big mistake years ago because I hadn’t put my lifestyle first. I created a business that was dependant on me being there. If I wasn’t around there’d be no income – when I returned there’d be a pile of work! A business that grew like topsy and ultimately took up 10 hours a day minimum.

That’s not the lifestyle I wanted – there was little time for life, just work.

The new business needed to be one I could turn on and off when required.

I spent 4 years messing about! Nothing I looked at really met my requirements and I quickly lost interest. I dabbled at this and that without ever focusing on what I really wanted – the lifestyle first and the money second.

It was only when I set out exactly what I wanted my life to look like it became clear to me.

I worked out how much I needed to generate to do what I wanted – it was much less than I thought and I gave up just saying “I want to be rich” or “I want to be a millionaire” or “I want to have enough money”

I now had a real focus and my energies were directed at exactly what I needed to do on a daily basis to achieve my goals.

So if you too are looking to change I encourage you to start with the end in mind – what will your lifestyle look like when your done?

When that’s totally clear to you – the route you need to take and choices you need to make will be much easier.

Technorati: create lifestyle, lifestyle

Secret talks amongst world leaders today had “a global Mummy State” high on the agenda.

Imagine the outcry…

“No one is going to tell me how to live my life”

“I don’t need someone telling me what to do”

And yet…

The vast majority of people live their lives just as they are expected to. I’d go as far as stating they are living their lives just as they’ve been programmed.

You probably know one of these people:

• Went to school from age 4 or 5
• Taught to work hard to get a good job
• Little idea of what they really want to do in life
• Study a few subjects (maybe because they like the teacher or find the subject easy)
• Leave school or college and get a job
• Work 9 – 5 (plus some) until age 60/65
• Buy a house and get in debt
• Spend most of working life paying for house
• Take a few good holidays
• Stop work and live on life’s savings – yet more time to spend more money!
• Die without doing what they really wanted to do

Does that sound like the perfect lifestyle to you?

Who told us that’s how we have to live our lives?

It’s what is expected for sure

Governments around the world encourage education – and quite rightly so. But they also set out the curriculum that is designed to put our children through the “sausage” machine and churn out adults to follow the “system”.

How many schools teach entrepreneurship?

Children who are “different” are singled out and their rough edges smoothed out. We can’t have people upsetting the system!

So maybe a global mummy state is not so outrageous after all.

Many people spend their working lives building up a nest egg for retirement and then have lost the desire to do the things they planned or don’t have the health to enjoy them.

The money isn’t spent and part is taken in taxes by the government when they die. Perhaps that’s part of the “master plan” but I don’t want to get into a political debate on that!

Too busy working to enjoy life’s journey. The beauty of the world around us is missed in the rush of modern life.

• When is the last time you watched the sunset?

• When did you last marvel at the early morning dew?

• When did you last take the time to smell a rose?

Now here’s the challenge:

If you don’t like the idea of following the pattern, you and only you, have the power to do something about it.

You have to change. You have the ability to change but…

You have already been programmed that change is not good. That change is not easy. That living your life differently to others will lead to stress and complications.

For so many, those implanted thoughts, which in my opinion have no real substance, prevent them from taking the action necessary to change their lives for the better.

For years I’ve used the phrase “Nothing Changes Without A Change” meaning until you change the input you’ll get the same output!

Right now, and I mean right this second you have to make a decision.

The decision itself is very easy to make but it will have such a major impact on your life it is the most important decision you will ever make.

Once you’ve made the decision you have then the most difficult task ahead of you.

Are you ready for this?

The decision is this…

Are you going to settle for what is expected or are you going to create a lifestyle for yourself that you truly desire?

No more dreaming. No more wishing or hoping. This is it. Are you going to do something about it?

If you are going to change you have some difficult times ahead but the rewards are so great compared to living the “state required” lifestyle you’ll be so glad you made the change.

If you’ve committed to the change then I congratulate you. You are without doubt amongst the few. But now you need to take a further leap ahead of everyone else.

You now need to take some action or that decision you’ve made will be worthless.

You need to decide what your lifestyle needs to look like.

I’m not talking about what work you will do. I mean what do you want to do each day?

Sound far fetched?

Unless you map out your life just as you want it I can assure you you’ll fall back into the old ways. That’s simply because humans usually take the path of least resistance and do what we’ve always done – there’s no chance of failure with that.

We know what to expect. It’s a way of avoiding the pain of change.

You’ll need to commit to making your new lifestyle a reality and make those changes.

So I’ll leave you with one more decision, a simple choice.

Life your live the way you choose.

OR

Accept the mummy state rules and life the way someone else has decided you should live.

I hope you choose to live your life the way you desire and if so that you’ll Bookmark this site or subscribe to one of my RSS feeds above (don’t forget you’ll get my FREE REPORT – The Best Four Letter Word) and embark on a journey to a freedom lifestyle.

Technorati: change, lifestyle, lifestyle created, mummy state, world leaders

You’ve been sitting at the red light for 5 minutes already. It’s a really busy junction and there are cars streaming through the green light and passing right across the front of your car.

You’re getting uncomfortable. Should I just drive on? Surely the lights must change in a second.

You wait a little longer. Nothing is happening. Nothing is changing.

You’re getting a little stressed. You know what the red light means. Just wait. But for how long?

It’s been 7 minutes. You want to drive on but you’d have to head out into the traffic that’s passing through the green light.

You wait a little longer. Still no change.

Your decision is made. You cannot wait any longer. The traffic lights are clearly not working correctly. They are not going to change.

You have to go.

What’s the worst that can happen?

A ticket for driving through a red light? You could probably clear that because theres’s clearly a problem.

Some abuse from other drivers? You can live with that.

A collision? Not good, but the traffic is moving slowly so you won’t die and probably wouldn’t even get hurt.

You put the car into gear and head out slowly into the moving traffic to be greeted by tooting of horns and gestures from the drivers that you’ve gone through a red light.

It’s very uncomfortable. You feel it’s a bit of a risk but you had to do something.

You could have sat waiting but nothing would have changed.

You did something. You acted. You took control. It felt scary but at the same time good that you were doing something positive rather than just waiting.

You moved into the free flowing traffic, the toots die down, the gestures stop and you drive on home.

No collision, no injury, no ticket. Not so bad after all.

Is it the same in your life?

Your stuck. Your stressed. Nothing is changing.

Little money; hate your job; hate your boss; hate your lifestyle.

Your life is at the Red Light.

Unless you change something, nothing is going to change.

It may be scary, it may be a risk but the choice is clear:

You either decide to move on or you put up with what you’ve got.

What’s the worse that can happen?

Your probably not going to die or get injured.

If fear is holding you back you need to think long and hard about this question:

What do you fear most, living your life the way you do now for the rest of your life or taking some well thought out action?

I don’t mean a leap of faith, I mean spending some time on you instead of say watching TV. Working out what to do, looking at the downside risks and taking steps to minimise those risks and maximise your chances of success.

Can you do it?

100% YES.

Stay tuned to Lifestyle Created and create the life you truly desire and is there waiting for YOU.

If you chose to stay sitting at the traffic lights do something beneficial while you’re there – read Carole Fogarty’s advice

Technorati: change, lifestyle, red light, red traffic light, stop light

Image via WikipediaDefining what this site is all about is a bit of a challenge!

Can you imagine how many millions of people live their lives according to “expectations” rather than the way they really want?

How many people watch films and quietly wish their lives were different?

The day to day drudgery of a working life: same route to work; same boring lunch; same boring work – quietly counting the days down to retirement. What a relief that will be – no more work. BUT for most people that also signifies a complete lack of money!

You can get out of this hole that society expects us to be in.

Yes, you can but you have to be prepared to take some risks, make some changes and do something differently.

LifeStyle Created is all about creating the lifestyle you want – whatever that might look like.

I’ve done it by running a business from home for over10 years. I’ve seen the good times and the bad – I’ve faced enormous challenges but also spent time playing golf when others are working .

So LifeStyle Created is about getting your mind straight. It’s about finding the real desires that will keep you motivated towards your goals. It’s about change, that’s the real big one – making changes. It’s about work from home business and it’s about the actual lifestyle you want for you and your family.

I refuse to be pigeon holed – this isn’t about Self Improvement or Internet Marketing although both are major inflences on me and where I am today. They’ll be referenced and discussed but this site is about…

YOU

I want to know about the challenges you face. The goals you want to achieve, the guidance you need and above all the lifestyle you want to create.

Sign up to one or all of the RSS feeds, the email updates, bookmark or favourite this site but make sure you come back somehow – I want to know when you’ve made it.

Mark