Here are some exciting job titles I’ve had “Advertising Sales Associate,” “Death Benefits Customer Relations Coordinator,” and “Customer Service Center Representative.” I know you’re asking, “Where do I need to study to get these coveted positions?”
These are exactly the types of jobs one falls into when they don’t have a roadmap. You want this type of job, then just go to Monster.com right now and apply. There are always truckloads of these positions being advertised.
They need bodies to put in office chairs, with heads that can wear headphones, and hands that can type 55 words or more per minute. Without a goal and without a plan of action, you too can have this type of job.
Or, you could quit the race through the cubicle maze, step outside the average, and design a lifestyle you want, a career you love, and a business you can’t wait to wake up to and work in everyday. And yes you can do all this from a beachfront location with a stunning view.
I did it. You can too.
Here are the 5 top reasons to escape the cubicle, quite that job you don’t have a passion for, and work from the beach.
1. Fluorescent Light Just Isn’t Sunlight
I remember the drone of florescent light, it actually makes this annoying hum of a sound, and gave me dull feeling inside, which matched the gray rows of cubicles I used to work from. To be honest, it matched my demeanor at that time as well—let’s call it a lost decade of my life.
Large office spaces just aren’t natural. They don’t fill you with energy and vitality. The sun gives us a full spectrum of light—one that spans the whole of the visual range. It radiates with healthy warmth on your skin.
You can give your life to the thirteenth floor of a corporation or take control back. You can choose to live healthier—soaking up sun on the beach. There is such a thing as a healthy work-life balance.
The Big Move
There are moments, that in hindsight, brightly stand out as life defining.
In 2007 I gave away all my possessions. I quit my job, moved to South America, and started working online. I stopped punching a clock.
Living in a beach front town, I swam at noon, and ran on the beach in early evenings. I spent lots of quality time with my family. I lost 25 pounds in just a handful of months. I quite smoking, had more energy, and felt alive again.
I worked online, built a freelance business as a graphic/web designer, later as a writer/blogger. I crafted a business, built it around creative work I was passionate about making, and structured it to serve my lifestyle.
There is opportunity to be seized if you’re willing to make bold moves and significant life changes.
2. The Beer is Cheaper in South America
If you reduce the cost of your lifestyle, you can get by with less, and have more freedom. You can forgo Starbucks coffee or cable television in order to reduce your costs. You can move somewhere cheaper and make the transition to earning a living online quickly.
I had less than one thousand dollars in the bank. My wife and I had just had our newborn son. We had maxed out our credit cards. The winter was cold in Connecticut and my son was colic, crying endlessly for weeks.
We needed a fresh start. I was working in a customer service job I didn’t enjoy, didn’t see a future in, and paying for a lifestyle that didn’t allow me to spend quality time with my family, or give my wife the help she needed to take care of our baby.
Money Isn’t Everything
My wife is from Venezuela—a particularly beautiful part of that South American country on the Caribbean coastline.
We moved there in January of 2007, replaced snow covered landscapes for the sand of beaches. Warmth replaced cold. Time together replaced time apart. My baby son recovered, my wife recovered, and I started to shed the years of cubicle life from my soul.
It was cheap there. Our money went so much further. I only made about $20,000 my first year working online down there, but we actually got out of debt with that. In year two my income doubled and has since done so again.
Jumping online and putting all my energy into work that I care about deeply paved a path that continues to open up opportunities. But it’s not about making as much money as possible, but rather my work supporting my family’s lifestyle.
3. Beach Sand Feels Better than Office Carpeting
Working in a job that you don’t enjoy is stifling. It’s painful even. Okay they provide health insurance at your job. They should because a job you hate makes you sick. It physically hurts to be there.
Is Your Work Slowly Killing You?
If you feel the pains of going to work on Monday, then you don’t have the job you want. If you look at the next five years and see a path of uncomfortable depression, then do something about it.
I tried all kinds of remedies for depression from prescription pills to acupuncture—from modern science to homeopathy. But it wasn’t until I took control of my own life, when I was able to structure my daily schedule around my rhythms, live more healthily, and work according to my needs, that I felt a cloud lift.
Make the major shifts in your lifestyle that you need. Beach sand feels so much better than office carpet.
4. Beachfront Waves Beat Office Meetings—Every Time
On that Caribbean water coastline, near Isla Margarita, I’d walk through the surf, feel the tiny shells roll over my feet, as I listened to blue waves beautifully crashing. It’s hypnotic and therapeutic.
Even Bad Memories Fade
I’d occasionally flashback to Monday morning office meetings, the pressure of a call center—always on—never ending phone calls. A boss listening and recording every nuance of my performance.
I’d uncontrollably replay those problematic exchanges with customers in my mind. Over time those memories were replaced with the gentle crash of coastal waves.
You can craft a new career or launch a thriving business you care about from anywhere, replace a job you despise with the lifestyle of an online business owner. In time, those traumatic cubicle memories will fade.
5. It’s Just More Fun at the Beach
Working online, building a thriving business based on your creative passion is just more enjoyable.
It beats any casual Friday. Rather, you can wear whatever you want, everyday.
Wouldn’t you rather just be yourself all the time. Work when you want to work. Live when you want to live.
The First Steps of Freelancing
Before getting deeply involved in blogging and teaching business online, I ran a graphic and web design freelance business. There’s no quicker way to bringing in cash, then to sell your creative services online.
You can get started quickly, create a portfolio site, and begin adding clients and income. It’s rewarding. You provide services directly to business that need them and have the flexibility to choose your clients.
Freelancing is a job of course, but it’s so much more rewarding, and holds more flexibility than most corporate positions. You can leverage freelance experience to build all types of online businesses.
There’s a real sense of fulfillment to do creative work that you love doing.
Where is Your Beach?
My origin of getting starting making money doing what I cared about online was literally moving to the beach in South America, but really this is a metaphor. Your beach could be anything and anywhere. It’s your ideal lifestyle, business, and career designed to meet your needs. It’s your dream, your journey, and your ideal.
Where is your beach? What are you doing to get there?
You don’t have to quit everything at once like I did. You don’t have to take a huge risk or make an enormous change immediately. You don’t have to push people out of the way as you run from your cubicle.
Set goals. Make moves towards your dream. Start building an online business that supports your lifestyle goals.
If you’re having trouble taking your first steps, then reach out. Leave a comment below or email me through my contact form.
I lived down in Venezuela for two years before moving my family to a suburb of Orlando, Florida—trading sunshine for sunshine—and continuing to work online. Every story of breaking into business online is unique.
If you’re unsure about how to land your first freelance client, struggling to bring attention to your blog, trying to launch your first offer, or unsure about the next step you want to take with your online business, then reach out. I’m here to help.
Also, I’d love to hear your origin story. What was the year you started making a living online? How did you make your first dollar? How did that feel? What does it mean to you today?
Graphic Credit: Island designed by Athena Manolopoulos from the Noun Project.
