To be honest, I don’t either.  I don’t fully buy into it all, but when you live a life differently than everyone around you it makes sense to try to catch a phrase that tries to describe it.  Lifestyle design might not be the closest, but I definitely am not someone who can work a regular 9 to 5 job and be satisfied with that.  I suppose when I speak to people in real life I just explain that I am self-employed and trying to build my own business as a freelance writer.

Online, I feel like I most closely relate to those in the lifestyle design niche rather than the freelance writers or other groups.  Perhaps that is just my own thinking that I need to identify with anyone at all.  That is probably the most likely case of all.  I’m not trying to build followers or anything, I’m just trying to figure out my own way.  And I suppose in that this is a sometimes lonely path of working online, I’m trying to find people who are doing similar things.  Maybe I really don’t need to, all I need to do is keep living my crazy life and being awesome.   Just because I can.

But just because I’m trying to be a writer online and make at least part of my living that way doesn’t make me that different.  It is as much of a job if not more than what many people I know have.  I am constantly thinking about it, coming up with articles and blog posts I can write.  But even though it is a job it still feels like just an extension of me and what I would be doing naturally anyway.  Basically it doesn’t feel like work.  And that is something that is hard to explain to people.  But it seems a lot easier to explain to the people who write and live lifestyle design because they are the ones out there doing what they love and what feels natural (most of them).

I have to admit, I’ve been obsessed with reading all these lifestyle design/leave your job/personal development/go travel and do what you want blogs. I suppose a lot of other people have the same obsession as they all seem to have decent readerships. Perhaps it is the desire to live vicariously through people who are living boldly and doing what the rest of us only wish we could do.

I know that what drives me to read these blogs is the desire I have to work for myself. All of these people are doing exactly what they want – most of them creating an income on their own terms to finance their travel and unconventional lifestyles. Their success in creating income without having traditional jobs inspires me to do the same thing. Instead of wanting to go find a full-time job and join the “rat race” I want to follow all of these people in creating my own job so I can do what I want, do what I love.

My path probably won’t be the same as most of theirs. I’m not planning on moving to Thailand anytime soon, nor do I really want to. I’m not planning a round-the-world trip, nor do I really want to. I’m not trying to drop out of working so I can travel all the time. I probably will end up moving abroad again, partly because I love living abroad, partly because my current relationship. I love the idea of living in another country, in a beautiful location, but I like that idea of settling there. I’ve moved around enough in the last five years that I am starting to crave the stability of living in just one place. I want to work for myself and be able to travel when I want, but I don’t want travel to be my whole life. Travel just to travel, to mark countries off a list, doesn’t seem as appealing to me as it used to be.

So my path is a little different than a lot of the nomadic bloggers I’ve been reading. I’m hoping to be an expat more than I want to be a round the world traveler. I’m craving new experiences and a new culture, but I’m also craving roots. But I still find the blogs to be an amazing source of inspiration for me in regards to creating my own income online without having a job and living where I want. Watching their stories unfold as they do what they want to do helps me feel more sure that I can do this on my own terms as well.

The future of this blog will be the exploration and documentation of this journey, wherever it leads me. I’m trying to create my own “job”, earning money online through blogging and freelance writing. I’m trying to eventually move abroad and include a little bit of travel in my life as well. I’m trying to do what I want instead of what people tell me I should be doing. I’m trying to be one of those bloggers who others look at and say, “Wow, she really does do what she wants to do. That’s pretty cool.” And I know I will be, however long it takes me to make it happen.

I still own my car, but currently am loaning it out to my younger brother until he graduates college and gets a car of his own.  After weighing all the options I decided this would be the best and most sisterly thing to do.  Since I am not currently working a traditional job I have no pressing need for a car.  Everything I could possibly need is within a walking distance of four miles, I have a bike and I have plenty of friends and family members who can give me a ride if I really need one.

I’ve caught myself fighting the feeling that something is missing because I am going carless.  I’ve been without a car for three months while I lived in Vermont, but for some reason coming back home to Tennessee it feels harder.  But then in moments of greater clarity I realize what a smart decision it is to get rid of your car entirely.

Sean from Location 180 just sold his car as he is preparing to leave the country, and he lists a great number of benefits for not having a car including financial savings, more exercise, seeing the city, and being nicer to the environment.  All are great benefits!  I personally am excited about the money I am saving by not having a car and the extra exercise that is naturally being included in my day.  For  me, the benefits far outweigh the minor inconvenience.

It certainly seems that others feel the same way.  They are luckier to live in cities that are more pedestrian/biker friendly, but happy to be carless and promote the idea too.   Sean’s post and all the comments on it are proof of that.  And then there is even more including the blog, Going Carless, and Chris Guillebeau’s great article about being able to travel or owning a car.

So for now I’m happy to be without a car.  It’s a bit frustrating at times, but putting me closer to my end goals.  And that works for me.

I’ve been catching bit and pieces of the movement for a while now and it turns out there is a whole group of awesome people out there blogging, teaching, living the principles of lifestyle design.  I love reading about their lives and what they are doing with the idea of lifestyle design.

What exactly is lifestyle design?

Basically it is the idea that you can live an unconventional life that unlocks the lifestyle of the rich and retired even now while you are still working.  It has been receiving lots of attention ever since Timothy Ferriss’ book The 4-Hour Workweek: Escape 9-5, Live Anywhere, and Join the New Rich.  While he didn’t invent the concept, he helped create the terminology and offered several techniques for designing the lifestyle of your choice. Though some have bashed the idea of a 4-hour work week, many other books, blogs, and websites have since popped up explaining how to live a life that defies the status-quo.

Tim Ferris defines it this way:

The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design (LD).

Instead of chasing money, trying to become a millionaire by working and saving, people can instead aim to achieve the kind of millionaire lifestyle.  Basically it is about trading in the drudgery of working a 9-to-5 for the things we think only money can buy including exciting experiences and exotic travel.

It’s a rebellious version of the “American” dream.

While Ferris advocates some radical ideas, the basic ideas of lifestyle design can be implemented by anyone.  It is about examining your life and deciding if what you want from it matches up with what is happening.  It’s thinking about the things you want to do and then planning to making them happen in whatever unconventional way you can think up.

It’s about choosing what you want your life to be instead of letting society decide for you.

Sounds cool, right?

Here is the thing: this is pretty much exactly what I’ve been thinking and living myself, just without the terminology.

I’ve always felt slightly bad about my decisions before now.  I felt guilty that I didn’t get a full time job right out of school.  I’ve struggled a bit financially but have been continually improving in that area without sacrificing my life to a desk.  It is liberating to learn that I’m not alone in the kinds of decisions I’ve been making or the life I want to live.  It’s freeing to know that I don’t have to work for anyone else if I don’t want to.  If I work hard enough for myself things will work out.  It will be hard work but I’m motivated by the thought that I can design my own lifestyle.

That’s right, I am leaving Memphis. I am one of the few people that actually loves Memphis and supports it when others bash it, but I am leaving the city for something new. I had been planning to move out to my own place in Memphis. I kept saving money for that occasion but I couldn’t stop the desire to be somewhere, anywhere, everywhere else. I can’t tame the wanderlust so I am surrendering to it.

I’ve been working the last few months on saving money and building online income that will allow me to do this without needing to find a job immediately wherever I settle. I am making a bit of money off my own blogs and websites now and last week I was hired for a staff blogging job. That will be a great help since it is steady income from a job that doesn’t take much time and I can do anywhere.

Since I am great at living and traveling cheap I am almost set to drop my current gig and set off. I will most likely end up in Oregon with an awesome friend after bouncing around the country for a few fun events in July. That is not set in stone, but my decision to quit my current job and pursue a location independent lifestyle is.

Working from any location has always sounded like a dream for a travel lover like me. Lately I have been reading numerous case studies of people who are already doing this. Their decision to live lives designed the way they want, without the normal ties to a certain location, has inspired me. I will always be a Tennessee girl, but there is more of the world I want to see and I am going to see it.