How to Create Your Dream Life as a Woman Entrepreneur
Do you know what your Dream Life looks like?
10 years ago, I first read the Tim Ferris book, “Four-Hour Work Week” and I was officially hooked. I was on vacation in Jamaica at the time, and I began to dream about actually living on vacation. Or, better stated, I began to dream about creating a life I loved so much that it always felt like a vacation. Where I could come and go as I pleased, travel the world at will, and escape the rat race of modern life. The entrepreneur life.
So, I began to study my life and analyze which parts of my current situation were limiting my dreams. I was already a budding entrepreneur at that point, but I had a long way to go really be ‘free’.
Over the years I learned that the concept of a ‘Four-Hour Work Week’ was more of an ideal than an actual reality. I also learned that most of the people who ever achieved this conceptual entrepreneur lifestyle were divorced, retired, or single MEN with no kids. Very, very few women had been able to pull it off.
However, I refused to be deterred and kept telling myself,
“Your mind is the only limitation on your reality. If you can dream it, you can do it.”
I took a number of detours along the way and had to completely reinvent myself a few times. Subsequently, there were a couple times that life got really hard and I almost gave up. But, I can honestly say now that I am truly living my dream.
Have I accomplished every single thing on my dreams list? Heck no. Not even close. And I probably never will, because each new level brings a new dream. That’s the beautiful circle of life for everyone who dares to push past their old limitations.
Looking back, I learned a few fundamental lessons from my decade of pursuing this dream. Ones that stuck with me and totally changed my life. I’d like to share them with you in the hopes that they can help you on the journey to creating your own dream life as a woman entrepreneur.
Tips to Creating Your Dream Life:
- Never enslave yourself to any boss, company, institution, or even your own business where your value is confused with your time. (If you can’t walk away and take a break when needed, then you are nothing more than a highly paid employee, no matter what your title.)
- If your business can’t scale, it’s just a job. Don’t kid yourself.
- If you can’t sell, will, or transfer ownership of your business, then it’s NOT your business. A HUGE lie and misconception, sold to a shocking number of women today in a few certain industries. If you can’t sell it, you don’t own it. Wake up!
- If YOU are the bottleneck on your own growth in ANY way, then YOU are the only one who can fix it. Look around you and be honest with yourself. Because, how long have you been stuck? What exactly is the breakdown? Who do you know who can give you direct, honest, and trustworthy input? After all, how long are you willing to settle for your current rut, lid, or threshold?
- It’s never too late to pivot from what’s NOT working and create a system that actually works for you. YOU are worth it. Your family is worth it. Your dream life is worth it. (It may be finding a new venture or additional stream of income. Or, it could be just upleveling YOURSELF to bring the rain.)
- Kids are a terrible excuse for not living the life of your dreams. Do you really think your kids enjoy confinement to a classroom any more than you want to be confined by their school district attendance policies? Since when does perfect attendance dictate life success? Wouldn’t you prefer that your kids learn from real life experiences than simply reading theories, history lessons, social studies, and geography in a textbook? I’ve learned over the past several years to EASILY overcome those types of (ridiculous and small-minded) rules by creative conversations with school administration. And when diplomatic conversations don’t work…is that really who you want programming the mind of your next generation?
Do a quick honest assessment today and ask yourself, “If I continue exactly as I am for the next 12, 24, 36 months…will I be pleased with my progress?”
Thanks to the process of digging deeper through this ‘totally unrealistic’ dream I first discovered 10 years ago, I was able to work on it enough to manifest it as my actual reality. And you can, too!
Have laptop. Will travel.
Love you!
Chaya
