negringa travels

Last night I had a beautiful dream.  In that dream I was traveling, I was in Spain, and when I returned to the United States I got home, went to sleep and then woke up.  When I woke up in my dream, instead of going to my current job, I started making teas.  I was completely doing the work that I love. While reading my Zen habits this morning I came across the blog post below that completely affirmed this delightful dream nudging me to jump on the path of full self employment. 

Imagine

Editor’s note: This is a guest post from Chris Guillebeau ofChrisGuillebeau.com.

Imagine a life where all your time is spent on the things you want to do.

Imagine giving your greatest attention to a project you create yourself, instead of working as a cog in a machine that exists to make other people rich.

Imagine handing a letter to your boss that reads, “Dear Boss, I’m writing to let you know that your services are no longer required. Thanks for everything, but I’ll be doing things my own way now.”

Imagine that today is your final day of working for anyone other than yourself. What if—very soon, not in some distant, undefined future—you prepare for work by firing up a laptop in your home office, walking into a storefront you’ve opened, phoning a client who trusts you for helpful advice, or otherwise doing what you want instead of what someone tells you to do?

All over the world, and in many different ways, thousands of people are doing exactly that. They are rewriting the rules of work, becoming their own bosses, and creating a new future.

Some of these unexpected entrepreneurs found their freedom through online communities, creating digital goods that were sold for a fair price. Others took to opening retail storefronts in actual neighborhoods—a yarn shop in Portland, a coffee bar in South Carolina.

Some were natural-born entrepreneurs, determined to go it alone from a young age. But most were ordinary people of all ages and backgrounds, who transitioned to a new career after growing disillusioned with the world of traditional work.

They all did it by pursuing two twin concepts: freedom and value.

Freedom is what we’re all looking for, and value is the way to achieve it. The magic formula of skills + usefulness is how you change the world.

When you value freedom above other things, you’ll make different choices. Your priorities will shift. You’ll have more time for your family and more time for the hobbies you enjoy.

When you focus on helping others, connecting your work to their needs, that’s when value is created.

This is what it came down to for all of these people, and that’s how it can work for you too. No special skills, not a lot of money, but the willingness to imagine.

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Chris Guillebeau is the author of The $100 Startup, a new book that chronicles the rise of unexpected entrepreneurs and provides a blueprint for creating your own freedom. You can also read his free blog atChrisGuillebeau.com. 

Back home in the Beaufort.  While it  has been hard because it has served as the double mirror of travel as well as going to the place where I was raised, It feels good. I’ve been having the most intense dreams and have felt this  super moon energy, which takes place tonight, emerging in my life. It cant be ignored!  It’s in my sun sign of Scorpio and the creativity, passion, death, rebirth and regeneration are bubbling over. Here are some images from home,  more on art projects around Gullah as well as more updates on Gullah Girl Tea soon.  Pics of the land below:

The Stoop Gallery is seeking interns for the upcoming gallery season.  There will be four pop up exhibitions that will take place throughout Brooklyn on stoops this summer.  For more information on available internships click here.

I recently started a job where I work late nights and so my morning ritual has become even more important.  How I walk into the day paints what my work   will look like and generally when I ease in, I find all sorts of inspiration  , even when I’m doing work  that I don’t see myself doing, maybe 10 - 20 years down the line.  There seems to be buds of inspiration all around me when I’m awake.  And being “awake” usually requires some serious “still/quiet/me”  time before going into work. As a part of my “still/quiet/me” time, I have begun to read Zen Habits. This morning the post that I chose to read was entitled 38 Life Lessons I’ve Learned in 38 Years.  I immediately felt my heart resonate with this particular part of the post and it actually reminded me of how I am learning to integrate all of my interests into the cohesive delicious pie of life. And how while I have many interests, travel being one of them that I yearn to engage in again  and very soon, it’s okay to do one thing at a time. And to slow down:

13. You will miss a ton, but that’s OK. We’re so caught up in trying to do everything, experience all the essential things, not miss out on anything important … that we forget the simple fact that we cannot experience everything. That physical reality dictates we’ll miss most things. We can’t read all the good books, watch all the good films, go to all the best cities in the world, try all the best restaurants, meet all the great people. But the secret is: life is better when we don’t try to do everything. Learn to enjoy the slice of life you experience, and life turns out to be wonderful.

Another set of quotes from the blog that I really dug:

36. Life is exceedingly brief. You might feel like there’s a huge mass of time ahead of you, but it passes much faster than you think. Your kids grow up so fast you get whiplash. You get gray hairs before you’re done getting your bearings on life. Appreciate every damn moment.

37. Fear will try to stop you. Doubts will try to stop you. You’ll shy away from doing great things, from going on new adventures, from creating something new and putting it out in the world, because of self-doubt and fear. It will happen in the recesses of your mind, where you don’t even know it’s happening. Become aware of these doubts and fears. Shine some light on them. Beat them with a thousand tiny cuts. Do it anyway, because they are wrong.

 Yesterday at work I met a couple from Iceland who had been traveling South America for several months, I meet people who have built travel into their way of living and it is so exciting!  I met another woman who owns a travel business and she mentioned to me that she and her husband frequently embark on their own separate travel journeys. What I found amazing was that her seven year old daughter has the same traveling spirit and was on her way back from India as her mother and I were meeting and speaking about travel. People make it work all the time, so for me the question becomes ” Why let fear of not doing it all, stop you from beginning ? “