How I quit my job and started working from the beach

We freelancers don’t have unrealistic dreams.

We simply want a bit more freedom to work from the beach if the weather is great, instead of that dark office with stale air.

We want to be recognised for the skills we have and we want to help people and be thanked for it.

We also want to earn a modest income while we fit our work around our families rather than the other way around.

Ultimately we want to work to live… rather than live to work.

These are all modest dreams and why shouldn’t we have them? After all, they make life worth living.

Well it’s all very well having such dreams, even modest ones, but how can we really make them come true?

Is it all just wishful thinking?

Is it really possible to work from the beach if that’s what we choose?

Well that’s exactly what I’m going to be exploring here on Inspired Freelance and I’m very happy you’re here to see what I’m up to.

Throughout my childhood I remember my father working incredibly hard for a number of companies who seemed to take him for granted. He was really good at what he did but he never really seemed to enjoy it or be truly happy. He worked long hours in the week and at weekends, so he missed many things about my sisters and I growing up. He confided in me one day that he will always regret that.

I remember then deciding I would never allow my work to take over my life, but inevitably that’s exactly what happened.

How I quit my job…

Sometimes we need a life changing moment to remind us we need to seize our dreams before they completely disappear.

My life changing moment came without warning one day in 2009, when I was only 38 years old.

At first I didn’t know what was wrong. My head was pounding and I couldn’t stand up properly. I couldn’t stop being sick and was vomiting so badly I was exhausted and unable to function at all. I wasn’t making sense when I spoke and I was unable to walk. I became so confused I couldn’t even remember the names of my daughters, and one of them was only two weeks old at the time.

Eventually I suffered a seizure and ended up unconscious and on my way to hospital.

When the specialist came to my bedside and told me a brain scan confirmed I had suffered a stroke I laughed in his face. Surely he was joking… wasn’t he? But he wasn’t laughing and from that moment onwards my life completely changed.

It was during my recovery I decided to quit my job. I had been doing it for a decade, so it was no small decision to make, but when I was offered voluntary redundancy I took it.

My husband wanted me to rest and take it easy, but that simply made the symptoms of my stroke, (my bad memory, faltering confidence and inability to do everyday things) get a lot worse.

How I started working from the beach…

I have always loved to write and I found it to be the key to my recovery. It seemed to rewire my brain and heal my internal connections. So I started writing about things that made me feel better… like family adventures, childhood innocence, outdoor life, foraging in the wild, surfing and camping. All of the things I love.

This is when I started my first project: writing a children’s surfing and beach adventure novel called Beach Potato. Partly it was to help with my recovery, but also secretly I wanted it to be a blueprint for my daughters lives, which they could use to hear my ‘voice’ just in case I left the stage early.

I finished the book and decided to publish it for free as an ebook. For me, making it digital was the best way of giving it longevity and durability… something that was important to me at the time.

I knew it wasn’t perfect as I was writing it in stroke recovery, so its success surprised me. After a while I started charging a small amount for it and was surprised again when the cheques started rolling in. It got into the Apple iBook’s top 20 charts for its category and continued to bring lovely comments from its readers, despite its imperfections.

Spurred on by this and my need to keep writing, I started my next project: an information website in the style of an online magazine called Inspired Camping, again I was surprised by its success. I couldn’t believe it when I started to get significant numbers of followers on my Facebook and Twitter accounts and thousands of visitors a day on the website.

It seems that while I was healing I was also taking others with me on a journey of inspiration. One that was helping them understand what they wanted to focus on in their own lives.

Now I truly I believe that if something inspires you enough to make your head fizz and your heart pound then you should definitely share it. Ultimately it’s good for you and it’s good for those around you, and as someone who has done it I totally recommend it.

Howard Thurman put it so perfectly when he said…

Don’t ask yourself what the world needs; ask yourself what makes you come alive. And then go and do that. Because what the world needs is people who have come alive.

Before I go any further let me tell you a bit more about who I am.

I’m a bit of a quirky Brit on the quiet. I live in the South West UK in a place full of artists, creatives, entrepreneurs, inspirers and surfers… and it was only a matter of time before it started rubbing off on me.

To give you an idea of my daily inspirations… my father-in-law is building a gypsy caravan by hand. That’s his personal journey and he’s doing it because he wants to. He’s gathered the skills and materials he needs so he can produce a beautiful product, and I admire him greatly for it.

This is what I see every day that teaches me if you want something then all you have to do is put the effort in. It’s a simple equation:

DREAMS + HARD WORK = SUCCESS

 

How I Became An Inspired Freelancer…

Writing Beach Potato and launching Inspired Camping were two essential parts of my own personal journey and recovery, and I have learnt heaps and met amazing people along the way.

Over time I have gathered many valuable tips and tricks through research, training, mistakes, wasted time and through conversations with the experts. Suddenly I find I have something of value that could really help others with their own journey.

I’ve found out that behind the most complex decisions are often the most amazingly simple solutions. All you need is to be shown the way forward.

So what can I do to help you?

I’m not an expert, but over time, through trial and error, I have become an inspired freelancer and have managed to generate an income doing what I love, while also recovering from my serious illness. I am also able to visit the beach any time I like, and now love to work from the beach whenever I can.

Only a year after its launch Inspired Camping has secured thousands of followers and daily visitors, a healthy income and an additional offline Virtual Assistant business with clients who found me through my site.

With these successes under my belt I’m now ready to help you achieve your own dreams no matter what they are.

But be aware… I will be brutally honest and upfront with you. I nearly died so now I only believe in reality… NOT fantasy! Overnight success doesn’t happen without hard work. There’s no easy ‘get rich quick’ strategies… and if someone tells you otherwise then they are probably lying.

However, there are tools and useful methods you can use to get the most success you can, as quickly as you can, and thankfully most of them are totally free. All you have to do is provide the dreams and the hard work, and the success will follow.

So, what does Inspired Freelance have to offer you?

Everything on this site is going to be tailored for those in the early stages of their idea. So if this is you and you’re hungry for more information and eager to learn, then this is the place for you, particularly if you are:

• A mumpreneur or dadpreneur wanting to fit your work around your family, desperate to be your own boss and set your own hours;
• A solopreneur with big dreams and plans for a better future that allows you to break the chains to your cubical desk and releases you to work from the beach (or wherever else takes your fancy);
• Or an entrepreneur jumping from one amazing idea to another with no real focus on what you need to do to make any of it a success.

Having a dream to work from the beach can be made into a reality. I should know as I’ve done it, and it really is possible to fit your work around your family, rather than the other way around. I’ve got key strategies I’ve used to do this and I want to share them with you.

I will be giving you heaps of inspirations and tools to help you. Some of these will be top tips and trade secrets from those already succeeding in their freelance profession, while others will be simple ‘how to’ tutorials and guides.

If you don’t want to miss any of it then add your email to the subscribe box and I’ll send you regular free updates. You can unsubscribe at any time and I promise NEVER to share your details with anyone without your permission.

I am always hugely grateful when anyone gives me their time by subscribing and reading my work, so I want to show you my appreciation by giving you immediate access to the ultimate business plan template for inspired freelancers, and more tools will be on their way to you soon.

I have high hopes for Inspired Freelance. Most of all I’m hoping it will be a place where we can all learn, support and help each other.

After all none of us are experts… we are all still learning. So lets help each other and learn together.

Come on… what are you waiting for?

The beach is waiting…

Sarah