8 Steps to a Location Independent Lifestyle

Have you made the decision to quit your job, live on the beach, eat mangos and drink rainbow colored alcoholic drinks all day? Well before you turn in your two week notice or just decide to give your boss one day notice cause you just can’t take it anymore there are some things to consider and put in place before you cash in the 401k and buy a one way ticket to paradise. These 8 tips will help anyone to start setting up the life they desire.

• Mindset

You don’t have to wait until your retired, you can travel and enjoy life anyway you chose now if you put a little planning into place and stay focused on your goals. It takes less money than you think to start enjoying the life you desire. Dream big and believe that can change your life.

• Goals

Set clear goals with a deadline.

Just setting a goal puts you ahead of the crowd

Write down your passions, what you like to do and what you are good at

How you achieve your goals may change over time, that’s life.

• Time and Productivity

Time is not a renewable resource.

How are your spending your time?

Track how you are spending your time. You can use a calendar or excel spreadsheet to track how your activities. Figure out what your wasting time on and start doing activities that help you achieve your goals.

Create a vision of how you would ideally spend your time for a day, week or month.
Have fun with this exercise by writing it down and be as detailed as possible.

• Money and Finances

Stop buying things you don’t need- If you want to live a location independent lifestyle you must get control of your spending. Think about all the things you spend money on that you really don’t need. Do you really need the latest smartphone, flat screen TV or $6 cups of coffee?

• Track your expenses

Write down everything you spend money on for a month.

Create a budget after tracking your expenses for a month figure out where you can cut back on your spending. Create a budget for your monthly living needs, long and short term saving, retirement, and money to buy doo-dads and splurge every once and a while. Living expenses should be 50-60% of net, all other categories should be at least 10% of net each.

• Get out of debt
Pay off the smallest balances first, when they are paid off add that money to the minimum payment of the next balance and repeat until your debt load is more manageable.

• Optimize your accounts
Set up bank accounts that pay you interest, get rid of high interest credit cards, choose credit cards that give you travel awards or some other type of incentive.

• Start an emergency fund
Once you have your financial situation in order try to put away a set amount of money every time you get paid. Strive to have at least six months living expenses in the bank for emergencies.

Making the decision to become a lifestyle entrepreneur can be a scary and adventurous path to follow. To make the transition from being a cubicle drone to a world traveling mobile business owner there are a few things to consider and vital steps you must take to make the journey a little easier. Working on your mindset to change your thinking is the first and biggest step.

Changing your mind flows into the other things steps you must taking when dealing with how you spend your time, setting clear goals and what you spend your money on. Once you get a better handle on these four things you will be well on your way to creating and living the lifestyle you desire, a lifestyle by design rather than a mundane template lifestyle most people accept without question.

Photography Tips – Create Unique Art That is Truly Yours With Still Life

Photography can be an amazing medium for creating art and I love how digital cameras can take many photos quickly for later sorting and review which is great when you have a time limit to your art compared to oil painting which can take many days working in the traditional method.Today’s photography tip is for those who want to create a well known form of art called still life. Still life artwork can be created with any medium including photography. To put it simply, still life is art created from the arrangements of one or more subjects (I’ll call them objects in this article).The objects in still life can be natural or artificial. They can be symbolic or just objects of beauty. The selection depends on the artist’s views and desires for the still life work. I personally love floral still life art which has been common for centuries.Floral still life artwork typically includes one or more flowers. They can be of the same species or color. They could even be a wild mix. Sometimes they will be in a complicated arrangement as if they were wedding bouquets. Other times the focus is on the simplicity and the play of light off a few petals. The flowers could be arranged on a stand, in a drinking class, in a vase, or perhaps in an urn!There are no true right or wrong decisions when creating still life but it is recommended to arrange the objects with good composition and lighting. Natural light from a window to the side or carefully arranged lamps can all create many great effects from soft light to harsh shadows and highlights. The way you arrange your lighting will change the mood of your artwork so you will want to experiment a few minutes on each step of the still life display. Strong shadows will make objects more dramatic and give them a greater sense of depth and roundness. Extremely deep shadows will make objects seem mysterious or even sinister! Soft light will make objects more serene and peaceful and very high-key lighting can wash out colors.Most people prepare still life on a small table, but you could use any surface or even hang objects on a wall or door and use that. I find that a flat surface that can be moved is the best as it is sometimes easier to move the still life display than it is to move the source of light!Once your still life display is perfect, get your camera and take many photos while trying for the intended look. You can also use your still life setting for painting or other mediums. If you were using natural light, go back every few hours and see how it has changed.

Improve Your WordPress Blog Management – Here’s How

Maintaining a blog or a website that uses WordPress as a platform requires having a program that can help you have effective WordPress content management. One program you can use for that purpose would be a WordPress Manager.This program’s usual role is managing blog networks, but it also has other features that allow you to create and manage the domains for your blogs. Plus, this program also help you manage contents that you have on your sites. Just to give you an idea of how effective this program is when it comes to WordPress content management, we are going to take a look at some of the major functions that you’d usually find in the WordPress Manager’s content management feature.The first one we’ll look at is the capacity to do mass posts to your blogs. This function makes it easier for you to distribute all of the content you have to all of your blogs and websites whether those would be articles, blog posts, news, etc. All you need to do is simply set the details for the blog and the posts you want to use and it’ll automatically get posted there. Of course, just like a normal blog dashboard, you’ll be able to view your publish history and make changes to any posts you’d need to update.Another cool function included in the WordPress content management feature is the post repository which is a fully categorized library containing all of your posts. It’s just like the mass posting function, you will be capable of managing, updating and deleting the posts you have in the repository. Also, the post repository has a search function that can help you look for a specific post that you want to manage.These two functions are just part of a larger set of WordPress Manager feature that can increase the efficiency in performing tasks related to WordPress content management.These functions provide a lot of benefits for you. We are now going to take a closer look at 3 benefits today:1. Less Work – Since the WordPress Manager does all of the managing for you, there’s less work to be done when it comes to managing your posts. You will have more time for other things that would require your time and effort in managing your blogs.2. Total Control – A WordPress Manager grants you total control over the overall management of your blogs. Thus, you’ll be able to oversee everything that goes on in your blogs and in your blog network at as a whole.3. Improved Efficiency – This is one of the main reasons why we use programs that can perform WordPress content management. Using a program like that can greatly increase your overall efficiency, making you feel at ease knowing that your blog maintenance activities and your blogging experience as a whole will be a lot more productive.And so, if you’re still in need of a program that can offer effective WordPress content management, I recommend that you start using a WordPress Manager and reap these benefits yourself.