Title: I Am Homeless, By Choice Word Count: 632 Summary: When my wife and I got married several years ago, one of our biggest goals we put down on paper was to work where we wanted to live. When I originally wrote those goals, I imagined living on the beach listening to the waves crash on the beautiful white sands of Florida. It's funny how times change. While I wasn't born in Florida (I leave that distinction to Michigan), I lived most of my life in FLA. My wife is one of the rare few who was actually born AND raised in Florida an... Keywords: motivation, business, work at home, success, freedom Article Body: When my wife and I got married several years ago, one of our biggest goals we put down on paper was to work where we wanted to live. When I originally wrote those goals, I imagined living on the beach listening to the waves crash on the beautiful white sands of Florida. It's funny how times change. While I wasn't born in Florida (I leave that distinction to Michigan), I lived most of my life in FLA. My wife is one of the rare few who was actually born AND raised in Florida and lived all her life there until I was offered a job several years ago in Tennessee when we moved to Nashville. I love Nashville and to this day many believe that it is the GREAT secret of the South, and personally, I'd have to agree. I thought long and hard about where I could imagine living, working and raising our son when I started my business. Last year my wife and I took it to heart, so we spent several weeks scouting areas of the country where we suspected we wanted to live. We flew and drove throughout the South and the Northeast and finally we took a trip out to the mountains. When we arrived, it was amazing. We are outdoors people so we both loved the vistas of the mountains. Living in the South most of our lives, we wanted to be connected to friendly people, and we wanted someplace that had a business infrastructure I could continue building my businesses on. As I write you this BLOG entry, I have completed an exhausting 2 day drive to Boulder, Colorado. We've sold our house, and I'm now living amongst stacks of boxes in a hotel room until we move into temporary quarters to scout for a house. Technically, I'm homeless. What a weird feeling. We had a goodbye dinner with some great friends a few days ago, I was asked repeatedly if I was excited/scared/stupid for leaving a town that my son was born in and where I had so many great friends and clients? While my clients are still my clients and nothing more than a short flight away, the Internet has afforded us the ability to work virtually anywhere on the planet, I can even keep my same telephone numbers if I choose to. I talk to and email my clients every day and except for a few times a year for lunches and connectivity meetings, I could be anywhere on the planet, hence why we decided to do this. Want to go out on a limb yourself? Try a little mental exercise for a moment. If you're not already there, pretend you have a thriving business all your own and you have based it on a passive income stream. You don't have to be a gazillionaire, you make a solid six-figure income and could live virtually any place in the world. What would you do? Where would you live? If you already live where you want to be, how about taking a 3 month vacation and living in the Caribbean or the Fiji Islands? Are there people who really do that? When I set out to build my business, this was a motivating factor for me. I had to be able to give myself choices and CONTROL my life, it is one of the most freeing sensations in the world and I encourage you to do it too. So how do I feel now that I'm here and actually doing it? Am I excited, scared, asking myself "What am I doing?" Yes, yes and yes. But I wouldn't trade it for the world. We're out here by choice, not because I have to be. What would you do if you had a choice?