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** This post was written by Tina Gibbons. Find out more about Tina below. **
While spending some time in Ubud, Bali recently, I attended some workshops called Philosophers Notes.
Brian Johnson who runs the website and held the workshops is a great example of a successful entrepreneur living a location independent lifestyle. His goal is to pull “1,000+ life-changing big ideas from 100 favorite self-development books and package them into fun, smart, inspiring and practical Philosophers Notes” – a great idea for a location independent product/business.
One of the books he discussed in the workshops I attended was “Harmonic Wealth – The Secret to Attracting the Life You Want” by James Arthur Ray. One of the key concepts James Arthur Ray discusses is that ultimate wealth and happiness depends upon bringing five areas of your life into harmony with each other. The five “pillars of wealth” as he refers to them are…
- Financial
- Relationships
- Mental
- Physical
- Spiritual
So if you’re in the process of designing your life, here is how addressing all of these areas might be the key to creating a harmonious and wealthy life…
Financial Harmony
Working from 9am until 5pm for one company, in a fixed location on tasks that are dictated to you by your boss (and that you’re not really interested in, yet alone remotely passionate about), means you are spending around 75% of your waking hours dedicated to the financial aspect of your life.
Creating the freedom to work from wherever you choose, whenever you choose, eliminates this over-emphasis on the financial aspects of our lives, which so often comes with the cubicle lifestyle.
Does your lifestyle design address this balance and ensure you’re not spending too much time in the pursuit of financial gain?
This may be hard to achieve when you’re just starting out and working all hours under the sun to eke out a living on your own – just be sure not to fall into the entrepreneurial trap where your work becomes your whole life and you’re perhaps no better off than before.
Relationship Harmony
You don’t have to spend time in an office with people you have nothing in common with – nor do you have to have people in your life who drain you (aka energy vampires). In your newly designed lifestyle, you can choose who you work with, who you play with and who you have in your life.
Whilst many people find this part the most challenging, especially if their lifestyle design has them travelling and spending long periods away from the people who love them – it’s worth bearing in mind that the people who truly have your happiness and best interests at heart will let you go and be happy for you.
Mental Harmony
Quitting the rat race, starting your own business and launching yourself into a carefully-designed location independent lifestyle are enormous steps to take and will no doubt take you well outside of your comfort zone.
You will need to learn and master new skills – and you will be called to grow as an individual if you are to make a success of your business. For once however, the freedom to choose how to apply your brain is extremely motivating – it may even be the first time in your life that you’ve been completely free to choose what to learn & when to learn it – so make the most of it!
Physical Harmony
An oft-neglected aspect of lifestyle design, your physical health is an expression of everything else about your lifestyle. By extension then, if you design a harmonious & abundant lifestyle, your physical health should reflect the harmony & abundance of wellness. But it might not come that easily – you still need to focus on providing your body with the core ingredients it needs to achieve physical health, such as good nutrition, hydration and relaxation.
Fortunately, by designing your own working days you are in a much better position to consider your physical wellbeing. You can stop eating pack lunches and cook at home, by-pass cream cakes on Fridays (if you want to that is!) and avoid excessive work lunches or dinners.
You have more control over your daily environment & routines and as a result are able to filter out some of the temptations which may have been preventing you from losing weight or getting fit. Instead of fitting your daily exercise in around your job, you can change the priority and fit your work around your exercise plan. The point is that once again, you get to choose.
Spiritual Harmony
Creating your own business provides you with the opportunity to operate in accordance with a value system you believe in. If you want to build a business that operates with honesty and integrity – and provides a service or product that delivers some benefit to the world at large – then you can. It will all be down to you – you’ll be the one with your hands on the wheel.
Aside from this, if you choose to travel you can learn about the different spiritualities of the world and if it “flicks your switch”, can embark upon your own spiritual journey whilst simultaneously running your business. You can take a break to meditate or do a few yoga stretches without looking out of place and you can even choose a desirable location amid beautiful nature that supports your spiritual quest.
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The book Harmonic Wealth has a more spiritual edge to it than some of the books we typically mention on this blog – but I’m sure you’d agree that if you’re going to design your ideal lifestyle, then it makes sense to design a harmonious, abundant and wealthy one which incorporates all aspects of your life, doesn’t it?
I loved this post – creating a harmonious life is exactly what this lifestyle is about for me and you give great examples of how to do that.
Great post – I like the idea of creating a “harmonious lifestyle”, rather than a “balanced lifestyle”, which is the traditional way people talk about this stuff. Very few people who have made a big contribution in this world ever had a balanced life. And sometimes one area of your life is much, much more important to you than the others, and worth investing more time, energy, attention and money in.
Cath
Thanks for sharing this framework, Tina. When I’m laying out goals for myself, I find it useful to set goals in a number of different areas of life (like the 5 you mentioned) and review progress in each area on a regular basis. This helps to make sure I stay balanced and don’t get overly focused on business/financial things.
I like the idea of a harmonious vs balanced lifestyle as well.Good post!
The old classic “The Game of Life” by Florence Scovell Shinn also mentions the pillars of life – which are a bit different from these and in which a career can fit into under several categories. The pillars are Health, Wealth, Love(relationships)and Self-Expression.
It is this last pillar, especially as a pillar of life, that intrigues me the most!
Blessings,
Keena
I too like the word harmonious rather than balanced because to me balanced feels like you’re walking a balance beam trying not to fall off.
As for me, I have 4 out of 5 – still working on the financial pillar.
Sharon – thanks for your comment. I’m glad you liked the post. I guess most of us want to create more harmony in our lives when we quit the rat race.. but I think it’s also easy to replace the cubicle with our laptops, if we’re not careful.. :-)
Cath – yes the concept of harmony and not balance is a big one, that is is also raised by Asher in his book. He argues that balance is bogus – and harmony is the way to go. I must admit, I’m inclined to agree. As soon as I dropped the idea of trying to create balance everywhere, I felt as though a huge weight had been lifted off my shoulders. Harmony is much more fun!
I agree with Cath on this one. “Harmony” is a much better concept than “balance.”
Great things are not accomplished by balance. Success is largely the result of extreme focus on one area of our lives.
Harmony to me, conjures images of making peace with our lifestyle design choices in each area of our life.
Great post!
This is right on target. But I must say my life has become far more harmonious since I started living in my RV full-time. I travel with my 2 Giant Schnauzers and 2 small parrots — and continue my work as a Virtual Assistant while turning down whatever road looks appealing.
After years of living as a night owl in a morning world, being locked into short vacations and more, I am finally free to spend time exploring things which interest me!
Less is more and leaving a smaller footprint while having what makes me comfortable gives me peace and harmony on a daily basis.
Tina, I really loved this post. Sometimes, ‘lifestyle design’ can be overwhelming. So many options…
I love how the five pillars create a simple way of looking at your life and focusing attention on what is and is not in harmony. Great article.
Hi Tina,
This is a great way of looking at lifestyle design, and location independence. I think as an LIP it is easy to feel like things are always changing. Your environment, work schedule, and even the norms and expectations of the country or region you are in. I am learning more and more to check in with these pillars and adapt where I spend my time and money to make sure they are aligned with my values. Anytime something doesn’t feel right, it is because I am not spending my time or money in areas that benefit these areas.
Also, as a side, I think it is great when the dividing line between work and pleasure slips away. I no longer have a distinction between what I do for work, and what I do for fun. This is my favorite part about being harmonious and feeling the freedom that goes along with it. Thanks so much for sharing!