Lifestyle Design

How I Reset My Work Life Balance With a 30 Day Digital Detox

I overworked myself in 2019. There is no doubt about that.

In my first year of running my online business full-time, I hit things hard in order to increase my online traffic (and therefore income) to offset the day job income that I walked away from. I achieved this goal, but also pushed myself to the breaking point in the process. 

I was exhausted (both physically and mentally), acquired a few bad habits, and gained weight all at the same time in order to achieve this “success”. By the end of the year, I had to take a moment and reflect on why I was doing what I was doing, and I realized that my goal for quitting my day job was to have more time for me just as much as it was to have more time to work.

So, I put together a 30-day digital detox for January and stuck to it fairly hard. In this one, I wanted to share the results and lessons learned from the experience.

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I’ve Monetized My Life – So Now What Do I Do?

It has taken me over 10 years, but I have finally completed part of my lifestyle design quest- namely, achieving digital independence via blogging.

I've built my websites to the point where they provide a comfortable and regular income stream such that I felt safe to make the leap into blogging as my full-time job.

It has been nearly a year since I made that decision to go full-time on the sites, and while I'm quite happy with that decision I've found out an ugly truth: I've monetized my life, and now everything is work.

De-programming myself has been one of the hardest parts of making the leap.

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Financial Independence Retire Early? I’m Fine With Digital Freedom

I've been on a quest for digital independence for almost five years now, and only recently achieved my goal thanks in part to paying off my debts in a debt avalanche.

It all started when Angie and I were walking on a beach in Mauritius on our long-term trip that I said we should have a five year goal for digital independence.

The idea at the time was that we'd build up our websites to the point that we could sustain them as a full-time business. And while I was able to do that for myself in the time-frame, we're still on our way to working to that point for her.

Since that fateful conversation, the Financial Independence Retire Early (or FIRE) movement has taken off. Although it sounds like our story would be a case study for this philosophy, I really have to say the idea of it is, to put it bluntly, absurd.

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Conquest Maps Review – The Most Beautiful Travel Map

When we are at home, we like to have constant reminders of our travels. From the random knick-knacks to hand painted artwork we pick up on the road, our house is covered with decorations that remind us of where we've been over the years.

But one of our favorite pieces of travel art is one that does not come from our travels, but is about our travels- our world map!

For many years we were settled with a DIY travel map with push pins we made ourselves, but after a while we knew we were in need of an upgrade. We searched the internet, read countless reviews, and settled on one that appeared to be leaps and bounds better than the rest- Conquest Maps.

It was the best decision we ever made.

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