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Achieving big life goals, doesn’t come without sacrifices. Getting through these challenges is what ultimately makes or breaks you.

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Transcription:

Hey everyone, welcome to another episode of My Offbeat Journey where I share with you the ups and downs of being a remote worker.

In today’s episode, I am going to be talking about how to stay focused and being prepared to sacrifice in order to achieve your goals, whether it is to get a remote job, whether it is to build your online business, or anything else with your life.

So, the last few months, honestly, the last few years has been really hectic for me and my husband, changes with our business, our jobs, and now Aaron is venturing into a new career path. So there has been a lot of challenges that has come our way and I’m sure many of you feel the same way as well.

And throughout these changes and while working on new goals, there’s been a lot of sacrifices that we had to make and currently making to achieve these goals. And I just wanted to talk to you more about this and how we’re able to keep going even with these new challenges, new changes, because sometimes it can be really overwhelming when there’s so many things that are coming your way and sometimes it’s just easier to do nothing and to kind of feel like you give up and that’s definitely happened to me where they are just so overwhelming that I just want days off sometimes.

But we can’t do that every single day and obviously we have to create some sort of systems for ourselves to get through these moments. And I know you definitely understand where I’m coming from, whether it’s really frustrating that you can’t find a remote job or maybe you are not satisfied with where you are right now and you want to transition into doing something different or maybe it’s just something in you that just wants changes in your life and you don’t know how to do it.

So a few of the things that I’ve really come to realize and what I’ve done with myself and my husband as well is we have, you know, changed our mindset with a lot of things and also there are things that I’ve learned within the last few years or so since 2017, since I started working remotely, that there’s just going to be things in your path that you cannot change or you just cannot foresee. And these are some of the strategies that I have used to get through these moments. So the first thing that I’ve come to realize and this is very easy to realize for a lot of us, but it is the hardest. It’s the hardest to do as well.

So the first thing is to let go of the instant gratification expectation. So what that means is do not think of what you’re going to gain right now or you want things to happen right away. You just want that instant gratification.

Think about what you want to achieve in the future instead, instead of trying to get that now because if you get everything that you want right away, there’s really no sense of gratification.

You know, it doesn’t feel as good as when you work really hard for something, then you finally get it and you feel an achievement and you feel really rewarded and you know that you worked your butt off and you really earned that for yourself.

So I definitely understand wanting that instant gratification thinking, hey, when is this going to happen or is this ever going to happen because it doesn’t seem like it ever will.

Don’t worry. As long as you’re consistent, you’re working your butt off, you’re pivoting when things are not working the way it should be. You’re getting help. You’re asking for help. Then it will go into the right path. And sometimes you have to pivot.

And I’ve definitely had to do that several times within the last few years and also realizing what I really needed and what I want with my life. Now, the second thing that I’ve realized is to give yourself small rewards.

One of the things that we have had to give up in the last few years is travel, you know, especially international travel. We, you know, we don’t have that time right now because we’re so focused on what we’re It’s going to take us out of that momentum that we have. So we decided between the both of us,
hey, instead of going into these longer international travels or even longer trips, even in the United States, let’s do small trips instead.

So we’ve done road trips, camping trips that are just a few days so that we still have our little adventures, but it doesn’t take us away from our goals and also doesn’t cost a lot more money because obviously traveling does cost a lot.

I know there’s a lot of people that are like, you can do it on the cheap. Yes, you can. But we are really fortunate that, you know, not everything costs as much for us. But if we do travel, we have to pay a lot more for certain things. And we, again, we don’t want to take ourselves out of our momentum that we end up being distracted and then having to regroup. And one of the things that I know that my husband, whenever he’s taken out of his zone, he just can’t do it.

He gets really distracted. He gets really paranoid. He just needs to do his thing. He has to do his job and his work. So that’s one of the things that we have definitely compromised on because I’m a traveler. This is one of the reasons why I wanted to do remote work was to travel. And we’re not doing that right now, which for me actually is really I’m fine with it. And in a lot of ways, I’m kind of loving the stability for a little bit of time.

But I do want to eventually once we get our goal to do this more, a lot more. And we do have that in the horizon. But that’s one of the things that we’re giving up so that we can do it more fully. We are not stressed out when we do it. So that’s one of the things that we decided to do is to give ourselves these little rewards instead of the big rewards.

Another thing that I ended up doing the last few years is to spend less time on social media. And I’ve really realized that when I do go on, it’s only to post and not to check out what others are doing. And honestly, the last few months, especially the last few weeks, the only thing that I’ve really been interested in are recipes that I find, especially on Instagram. And I’ve been trying them and it’s amazing because they’re so delicious and they’re quick and easy.

So those are the things that I’m really on there for, like recipes, sometimes to be entertained, but nothing that will get me out of my zone, because it does happen when you are in a situation where you are trying to move forward with your goal. You see other people doing certain things and then you get distracted and you’re like, why am I not there yet? You know, just comparing yourself there,
there is jealousy.

So I try not to do that because that does happen to me and I’m sure that’s happened to a lot of people as well. So, yeah, so I’ve spent time in social just to post certain things about my life, what’s happening here and there. I don’t post as much anymore. And I mainly go there to find recipes, honestly. And, you know, I think it has really helped me. I also spend a lot less time wasting my time on there.
I do spend a lot of time watching like true crime shows while I’m working, but at least I’m working while I’m doing it.

So that has helped a lot. And the next thing that I’ve really been doing through all of this is to connect with the people that I really love. I really enjoy their company and I’ve reconnected with people who, you know, have been a really integral part of my life that have really supported me. And I’ve let go of friendships and relationships that were really toxic, that doesn’t really align with who I am and where I want to be in the future. And this has helped with my mental health a lot. And it’s also given me time to give my time to people whose company I really enjoy instead of going to see people and doing events that I feel obligated to see and do. And this saves a lot of time and anxiety for me.

And now I feel a lot lighter. I feel like I’m really spending my time the way I want to, which is great. And I don’t feel like I need to go to these things so that I can just post about it on social media because now I really don’t care about that like I used to.

So it is it feels like I’m really living life and not just through, you know, social media and just trying to keep up with your Joneses. And the last thing, well, next to the last thing I would say is to remember your why when things get really tough and when you’re not really seeing any big changes or progress, don’t give up. What you should do is to remind yourself why you’re doing this, why the sacrifices that you’re making right now is worth it and what will be the reward once you achieve your goals. And once you remind yourself these whys, hopefully it will give you a found energy to keep going.

You can list them, you can say them out loud to yourself. If you have a partner, you could talk to each other about it. And that’s another thing that’s also really great is if you have friends or if you have a partner, somebody that you’re really close to, you can talk to them about it, especially when you’re feeling down and be like, hey, can I talk to you about something? I just haven’t been feeling great.

This is how I’m feeling. Sometimes a good cry is good, too. I’ve definitely done that with Aaron. You know, he’s pretty amazing with listening to me and cheering me up and also sharing his feelings about certain things as well.

And the last thing I have to say and one of the most important things that I’ve learned because I’m so bad at this and trying to be better is to get rest. It can be really easy to keep going and not to get any rest for yourself. Because believe me, it had happened to me and it is happening to me right now. As we speak, I am exhausted because I’m always trying to do something every single day because I hate zero days where I do nothing.

But you will actually end up doing less than more. So and that’s what I’ve learned. You know, when I get really exhausted, I end up not doing anything for like a few days because I exhausted myself. So give yourself fresh days. I’m telling myself this as I’m telling you. And also give yourself grace when you’re not doing 110 percent every day, because we can’t be 110 percent every single day. There’s going to be times where you just don’t feel well, you’re sick or you’re just not mentally there.

Maybe you just pushed yourself too hard or maybe you put yourself, you know, maybe there were things that you had to do where it took a lot of energy from you and you just don’t have that capacity. So give yourself grace, give yourself rest time and keep going.

You know, be optimistic and pivot when you need to ask for help when you’re offered because you can’t do everything on your own. So that is it for now, friends. I hope you enjoyed these tips that I had. It’s definitely something that I had learned the past few years, and especially with everything that’s happened with all the challenges that we’ve gone through. And I’m sure you’ve gone through through as well.

There’s coping mechanisms that we learned that really help us get through the day. And I hope this has helped you as well.

So if you have any tips or if there’s anything you think I missed, feel free to send me an email at hello@theoffbeatlife.com I would love to hear from you.

That’s it for now, I will talk to you later. Bye!