Here’s how a throw-away comment became a 10-year plan that retired me from the Rat Race

Back in 2010, I was working for Nike. Being a native Kiwi (that’s someone who is originally from New Zealand, for those unfamiliar with the term!), I was often asked: 

‘When do you think you’ll move home?’

It wasn’t a strange question in the beginning. I moved to the UK when I was 23 and always assumed I’d move home eventually.

But as the years passed, the urge to live in New Zealand again became less and less as my love for the UK, and particularly London, grew.

By 2010 it was clear - there was a high chance I might never return home. I really did not want to leave London. But then the thought of never living near my parents again broke my heart too.

So one day in the Nike offices, a colleague asked me ‘when do you think you’ll move home?’

And I said, without thinking:

‘I’m not. I’m going to find a way to split my time between London and New Zealand’

In a post pandemic world, this might seem very normal. 

But it was 2010. And the idea of working and living between two countries was crazy. My colleague laughed the sort of the laugh that made you realise they thought you were joking, and we both moved on with our day.

Fast forward 10 years… and my dream of splitting my life between New Zealand and the UK had become a reality. 

(And it was nothing to do with Covid-19. This plan came together long before there was a pandemic)

So, how did I do it? 

Well, here’s the first thing to understand: I didn’t have a 10 year plan. 

I never sat down and mapped out how I was going to make this happen. Despite conventional wisdom (and even my own belief) you can’t have a plan for everything.

There was no plan simply because the enormity of what I wanted to achieve was overwhelming. Where do you even start with that plan? 

In 2010, remote working was NOT a thing. One-person internet businesses - not a thing. Even Influencers - not a thing! Shopify, Instagram, Kajabi, Linkedin, Stripe - all the mainstream tools that enable remote businesses, they either didn’t exist or they weren’t what they are today.

So I didn’t have a 10 year plan. 

But I had a 10 year VISION.

I wrote a vision of the life I wanted, where:

• I would fly regularly between London and New Zealand
• I would run my own business that allowed me to spend chunks of time back in New Zealand
• I could have coffee with my retired parents at the beach at 10am on a Tuesday
• I would still be able to go to Glastonbury and drink in London pubs in the summer

I bought that vision to life in writing.

And I committed in my heart to making this a reality SOMEHOW. 

But I left the ‘HOW’ unknown.

Over the course of the next 10 years, TWO opportunities came my way that changed my life.

But they only changed my life because I was viewing them through the lens of my 10 year vision. Without the vision, I would have missed them,.

Firstly, I was introduced to a property investment course that promised to teach me how to make money from property investment so I could give up working.

And the second opportunity I came across was can ad for an online course to teach me how to set up a healthy profitable coaching business.

The first happened in 2015. And the second happened in 2016.

By 2019 - before the pandemic - I left my job at Apple having build a property portfolio I could live off. And in 2020, I set up my online coaching business.

I now split my time between London and New Zealand. And have coffee at the beach at 10am on a Tuesday with my retired parents, while still having beers at East London pubs with friends on warm summers nights in London.

Don’t muck around with a 10 year plan.

Create a 10 year vision. 

Commit to how you WANT your life to look. Don’t worry about the details. The details will work themselves out once you have the vision.

ACTION TO TAKE:

• Write down your 10 year vision - where do you want to live, who do you want to be with, what job do you want to be doing, how do you want your week to look.
• Bring it to life in writing and record it on a voice note in your phone.
• Listen to that voice note daily

Do this and you’ll start to see opportunities through a new lens. And you’ll pursue things that without the 10 year vision you never would have seen.

Here’s to your 10-year vision 🍾