On being "Location Independent"

Caffeine overload, anyone? 

Welcome back, and thanks for joining me for Day 4 of my 30-day blogging challenge!  I'm pleased and excited about the responses I've been getting on my posts, and really appreciate the feedback--thank you for your comments!  And thanks for sharing my posts with your friends--I'm very happy that you like my work enough to share it.  I feel a little like Sally Fields giving her infamous acceptance speech at the Oscars, "You LIKE me!!  Right Now-You like ME!!" (Haven't seen it?  Check out a funny clip here: Sally Fields Oscars Speech)  And, just in case you're wondering...... today, I skipped breakfast entirely (unless you count the several cups of black coffee I've had!) so I could get straight to my writing! Can you tell I'm a little amped up?!  Why am I so enthusiastic today?  Because I think I've GOT THIS-I'm all over today's challenge "like stink on sh*t," as my hubby would say!!  So what are we waiting for, let's get on with it!

First I should explain that this blogging challenge comes from a program designed to help people like me eventually build an online business, and maybe even make a living doing what you love from anywhere in the world. In a nutshell, the program is geared towards finding YOUR OWN way to earn a living from your own personal talents.  Imagine, earning money with just your laptop and an internet connection from wherever you happen to be in the world.  Tell me, what girl wouldn't love use her writing talent to earn some extra "fun" money? Maybe get a pedicure without having to ask dear hubby for money.  Maybe go for a girls' night out at one of our favorite hotspots (like Placencia's own The Mojo Lounge & Bartique)?  Maybe do some traveling, and take the hubby or a girlfriend if I'm feeling generous--and earn money while doing it--all from my laptop. Maybe from a beach chair like the one below right? While sunning ourselves in Mexico?  Sitting by the Pacific in Costa Rica?  At a seaside cafe perched on a cliff in Greece? From a bench in St.Peter's Square in Italy?  From Central Park in New York City? Maybe even from a famous museum in Paris?  Oh, the places I would go and the things I would see!!

Taken on our first visit to Belize

But back to the real world.  Today's challenge is for me to describe & define what being a "location independent" writer means to me.  This task is supposed to help me envision what I would like my "writer's life" to look like, what my workday would include, and how the possibility of being able to work from ANYWHERE in the world would impact my work.  And the reason I'm SO excited today is because I'm pretty sure I've got this one NAILED!  No struggling to define this one for me!  To me, being a "location independent" writer would be simply be doing what I'm doing RIGHT NOW!  As I sit here writing this morning, this is my view:

These photos are not staged.  This is actually ME, this very morning, barefoot (needing a pedicure, I admit!), working from home on my deck in Placencia Village in Belize, Central America--RIGHT NOW!  That's the Carribean Sea (lagoon-side) in the background, and in the far distance are the Mayan Mountains.  A cooling breeze is starting to pick up, the colorful tropical birds are singing, and the sound of the boats & water taxis passing by is music to my ears.  The amazing & hardworking woman who comes every other week to help keep my house clean is just finishing up mopping the floors (yippee for a clean house!).  The rest of the day is MINE!  I have no other plans for the day, and no dreaded obligations nagging at me.  I am free to spend my time writing for the rest of the day right from this spot if I choose.  

Or, if I'd prefer to to socialize a little, get a bite to eat, or hang by the beach to write, I can hop on my beloved scooter, which my friends have nick-named "The Little Red Rocket," and head down to any number of my other favorite spots in the village with free wi-fi.  If, or when, I'm done writing for the day, I can put the laptop away and enjoy the sunshine and the surroundings.  I don't have to get dressed up and go to an office, unless you call getting out of my pj's and putting on shorts and flip-flops "getting dressed up."  I don't have to report to anyone else at any specific time.  I don't have any deadlines, I have no boss, and no one depending on me (except me!).  And I can write about whatever I choose to write about.  And, best part of all, I can already do this from anywhere in the world I want to--anytime I want to--as long as my precious MacBook continues to take the daily beating it's subjected to.  And right now, I choose to do this from Placencia Village.  

And that my friends, is MY definition of a "location independent" writer.  I don't have to break myself free from the shackles of a "9-5 workday," I am already free to write anything I want, any time I desire, whether that's at 6 a.m. or at midnight, from anywhere I choose to be.  What a spine-tingling realization that is!  Now, if I could just decide WHAT to write ABOUT..........!?  

What would it mean to you if you could be "location independent" and work from anywhere, anytime you choose?  Are there already some of you who are doing just that?  I'd love to hear from you and what your experiences have been!