’s fab new book Raise Your SQ and no more than about 40 minutes in I realised what it might be!!!”
MILC: “Eureka!”
Me: “And as soon as I started thinking about it in more detail, I became energised and excited! I realised this was exactly what my new ‘dream life’ was missing!”
MILC: “More plants?”
Me: “No! Although you can never have too many… no, MORE DREAMS! I need to Keep Dreaming!”
MILC: “Indulge me…”
Me: “Ok, so, the thing is, for my entire life I’ve had dreams…
There has always been an obvious ‘next step’, just beyond my current reach. There was always something that I really, really wanted!
The thing is, throughout life, whatever stage you’re in (and never more so than having children) there is always a nextstage, something to aim for and look forward to!
In business, there are always new bigger, better goals and a never-ending set of steps for how to reach them.
The finish line looked like Nirvana… a blissful existence of having the one thing that I’ve been craving for the last 30 years… time.
And now that I’ve rocked up to my mid 50’s, seemingly with all my boxes ticked, and my gratitude list full of my everyday life… I feel like there is something missing!”
MILC: “I thought you just wanted to drift around doing exactly as you pleased, when you pleased, a bit of writing here, a bit of gardening there, lunch with a friend tomorrow… now that you’re no longer tied to a business?”
Me: “I thought that too, but what I hadn’t realised, was how much joy the actual dreams themselves had given me over the years!
Simply day-dreaming about the next stages and putting plans in place to move towards them, has given me more of a kick over the years than perhaps I realised!”
MILC: “I believe it was Steven Tyler who once said: Life’s a journey, not a destination.”
Me: “Exactly! I need more journey!”
MILC: “What about travel?”
Me: “Ah, yes, travel. I do feel as though I should be doing more of that on my so-called ‘Gap Year’, but I’ve been to loads of places and they’re not as good as home.
A few trips here and there are perfect, but if I’m really honest with myself, I’ve no great wanderlust or a desire to hike up Machu Picchu.
And here’s another thing I’ve realised recently…”
MILC: “Wow, it has been a busy week, are you sure you don’t want a lie down?”
Me: “When you don’t have a ‘regular’ income, all expenditure is reducing the overall ‘pot’, therefore you are unwittingly living in a world of scarcity!”
MILC: “Aha! And as any manifesting novice will tell you, that is not a good place to be!”
Me: “No, it really isn’t! I have inadvertently become a skinflint!”
MILC: “Would this be a good time to tell you that my imaginary rates are increasing as of next month?”
Me: “Here’s an example… I was at the cinema recently and upon realising that I wasn’t going to finish my super large popcorn (which I obviously opted for as it was only 50p more than the standard large size), I figured I would take it home and bag it up?!”
MILC: “Jesus Christ woman, you’ll be asking for doggy bags in restaurants next!!!”
Me: “I know!!!” (But given I have an Imaginary Life Coach, an Imaginary Dog doesn’t seem too much of a stretch, so I’m not ruling that out.)
“I admit there’s nothing wrong with a bit of skinflintery, but when you start to analyse every single thing that goes out, it’s a drain.
I’ve realised that when you are earning a regular income, you can easily wish for that income to increase, whereas when you are spending from an established pot, you want the expenditure to decrease.”
MILC: “Any Life Coach, real or imaginary, will tell you that is the difference between living with an ‘abundant’ mindset and one of ‘scarcity’.”
Me: “I know! And I know which one’s a helluva lot more fun! I need to get some regular income dreams!”
MILC: “Ok. Dreams are the easy bit. Hit me!”
Me: “I miss earning money. I’ve always had a job, from the age of 14 when I did a paper round six mornings a week for the princely sum of £6, I experienced my first taste of abundance.
would agree, that first wage feels like a passport to freedom!
That was the first of many earning opportunities over the years, firstly as an employee and then within my own businesses.
An incoming stream of money has always been a constant, until now.”
MILC: “Ok, now we’re getting somewhere! So you need a new dream that will earn you a regular income?”
Me: “Yeah, but I don’t think I want a proper job. I’d probably want to implement new systems that would piss off the owner/manager. And I don’t want a team, I don’t want to be responsible for anyone or to manage them.”
MILC: “Ok, so we’re looking at some kind of Solopreneur business?”
Me: “That’s more likely, I don’t want employees… or a premises… or fixed costs… or to have to maintain a million social media platforms.”
MILC: “Well, for someone who allegedly ‘wants for nothing’ you ‘don’t want’ an awful lot.” [Exhales deeply, whilst exuding a knowing glare.]
“Do you have any ideas for this fantasy business?”
Me: “Funny you should ask… as a matter of fact I do…”
Once I’d actually owned up to myself that although publishing regularly and building a readership on Substack is all well and groovy, actually earning a regular income from it would be the dream, that’s when the cogs really started to whirr.
‘Off on a Tangent’ is very much my flight of fancy, and I love it. I make no apology for the wide range of topics and types of post that happen here, I love having total creative control and not having to observe any parameters.
So this will stay roughly the same… how could it not when there are new Seasons of White Lotus and The Bear on the horizon, which I will be desperate to discuss with you! 😉
Not paywalling most of the content invites the largest audience into the Comments, which is where the gold is. I do love all the chitter chatter that goes on at the base of my posts, and I thank each and every one of you for contributing to the discussion.
So I’m going to leave the regular Thursday posts as free, but now I’m also going to offer my paid subs a Sunday bonus.
The Advisory Board
In fact, all my Paid Subs are getting a promotion, because I’m making you my ‘Advisory Board’.
It will come as no surprise to you that you are a fine collection of minds.
So over the next couple of weeks I’m going to describe to you the two (in my humble opinion) brilliant ideas that I’ve had, to create a regular income and we will discuss them and hopefully pick one of them for me to take forward into the real world!
And now that I’ve said it out loud, you are also my accountability group… unless I do the odd post entitled ‘Nothing happened this week… just don’t tell the others’.
I’m not going to try to build another Amazon, I just want to make a few extra quid on a regular basis and return to a mindset of abundance, rather than one of scarcity.
I will also document the ‘behind-the-scenes’ progress for you as it develops, so you can see what the challenges are, how I dealt with them, what succeeded and what failed.
Who knows, I may even experiment with stuff just for the sake of a potentially funny post… the Kardashian mindset I believe it’s called.
I must admit, I personally love reading those ‘behind the curtain’ type of posts, showing the inner workings.
I did follow the odd small biz start-up when I first came to Substack, but then the inevitable happened… they went quiet… presumably the actual business took over their time and they no longer had the bandwidth to service their Substack.
Which is why I’m going to make my new ventures very much complimentary to spending time here on Substack, which is what I’m really enjoying.
So buckle up, you’re in for a bumpy ride!
I will give my paid subscribers the details over the next two paid posts and then we can decide which one (or maybe both!) to take forward.
I wish I had known about Substack when I started MicroBarBox, as documenting that journey, from Start-up to Dragon’s Den, and then to eventual Sale, would really have given us some laughs… and taken the edge off the pain of the massive failures.
Had I done that, I might also have the first draft of a book entitled:
The Story of a Start-Up: from zero to £1,000,000 in 527 uneasy moves.
So, let’s raise a glass to new dreams!
K8x
Upgrade now to become my new Business Advisor… or steal my ideas:
Join in the comments below:
What’s your biggest dream?
Do you love a good nosey at the behind the scenes of a business?
Are you looking forward to Season 3 of The Bear?
Thank you for being here, please ❤️ (below) if you enjoyed this piece, it really helps others find it.
Not to mention my blood pressure is lower and I’m sleeping really well, so I’ve probably added another 10 years to my life with no stress! 😂😂😘
‘MILC: “Would this be a good time to tell you that my imaginary rates are increasing as of next month?”’ 😂😂 I love this!!