Does this sound familiar? Study hard, get good grades, get a college degree, climb the corporate latter for 50-70 hours a week, exit 30 years later with your shiny reward, then sit on the beach and watch the world pass you by, too tired and over worked to truly enjoy any of life’s little nuances and joys.

That sucks.

Obviously, if you’re reading this blog, you’ve chosen a different path or are considering it. And in choosing this path, you’ll be making your own set of shiny new rules, such as work hours, income types- passive versus active, and the definition of your work day.

Information about launching and running your minimalist business abounds, hence your eyeballs on this page, but one element of this style of work, and really, this way of life, gets very little lip service.  Redefining and maintaining your sense of identity once your location independent and lifestyle begins to work.

That initial programming from society geared our minds and our peers to gauge our self-worth based on the numbers of hours worked, money made and the quantity of shit purchased to fill the empty void in the life you created. And for a good reason, our economic system needs worker ants to keep it slogging forward through time.

But once you leap off of the ant hill, build your location independent empire, launch yourself into the simple lifestyle and see your work hours shift dramatically, how do you maintain your identity and still live in this country?

For those who don’t follow this blog and don’t already know, I’m a mid-thirties, single woman whose taken the nontraditional path my entire adult life. I never truly bought into the programming tossed my way by society and am truly grateful for the struggles and triumphs my path provided. I never truly garnered my self-worth from the definitions of society and most of my friends stopped gauging my success on work hours, cars and money long ago- or I just cut them out of my life.  Yet, I still catch myself feeling this sense of guilt from working a minimal amount of hours a week on pure income generation. I devote my time to this blog, building a community of readers, my art and my passions, but they aren’t always generating direct income.  My income generation varies dramatically from one week to the next, regardless of the amount of hours I work for money.

Still, after all this time, I struggle with this sense of identity.  So, what can we do to combat this- besides the obvious answer of “get over yourself, already”?

1. Pull your artistic and creative business ideas off the shelves and devote some of this new time towards cultivating that fledgling idea. As an entrepreneur (which you are if you’re reading this- or at least want to be) you will regurgitate business ideas and artistic endeavors like the girl from the Exorcist. They will spew forth and shoot all over the walls as your head spins from the sheer energy of these fabulous ideas. Yet, in a former life of 50 hour work weeks and weekend warrior escapades, these poor lonely ideas withered on the shelf from neglect. Dust them off, coddle ‘em a little and resuscitate them.

2.  Surround yourself with fellow minimalist business folks. You need a community. Yes, you do. And if your community is like mine, where the word minimalist was violently removed from the vernacular decades ago, move. Now. Pack up your crap (and since you’re a minimalist- that should take less than a day) toss the dog in the passenger seat and drive off into the sunset.  Find your community-  your support system. When you’re friends value time the same way as yourself, they will understand the beauty of a 3 hour brainstorming lunch or the necessity of that quintessential coffeeshop/remote office. Best of all, they will not judge you when you mention that your income generation activities took a whole 8 hours that week. They will applaud.

3.  Live in a beautiful area and find some nature. Nature is a fabulous friend to have when you have a little extra time on your hands.  She can nurture your creative ideas, provide you solace when your E-Book is driving you mad or simply give you a rock and a view to admire when you’ve found your happy place.  I balance the ugliness of my current community with the beauty of the beach. I live about one mile from the beach and after my coffee shop visit, I spend a 3 hour lunch there everyday, reading business books and brainstorming about my next adventure. It’s the only reason I’m still here and not curled up in the fetal position on a shrink’s couch.

My family poses for a self-portrait during a beautiful sunset on the beach.

4.  Change your filters. Huh?  Yep, your filters- given to you by society at that young, impressionable age- need to be taken out and replaced with new, shiny, minimalist filters.  Make a list of all the precious things you value in life.  People, moments, memories and experiences- write them all down on a piece of paper and visit them often.  When you see a neighbor or old classmate and the conversation steers towards the dangerous cliffs of “What do you do?” and “Where do you live?” compare the conversation with your list of experiences.  When some douche bag you knew 15 years ago starts bragging about his corner office and unlimited expense account, mention the time you sailed through the Greek Isles for three months while your assistant just dumped your passive income into your bank account and you worked a couple hours a week from your laptop while docked in some ridiculously gorgeous Greek Isle that you can’t even remember the name of.  That should shut him up.

5.  Learn the right answers. A little tricky, but you will always be asked questions about work and where you live. It’s inevitable- it’s our way of politely saying “how are you today”?  Even my barista, who knows what I do for a living, always asks me, “Are you working today”?  And I never have a good answer for her.  I usually shrug and give a noncommittal “maybe”. I feel guilty because she’s got a line of impatient tourists winding out the door and is working way too hard.  When your tan rocks, people will think you don’t work very hard, and roll their eyes when you tell them you were working on the beach.  Learn to love your answers and their reactions.  Get creative- tell them you work the streets at night, so you have plenty of time to tan during the day.  Tell them whatever- tell them you’re sleeping with Donald Trump and he pays you a million bucks a month because you’re so good in the sack.

The point?

Understand the reasons why you work this way and embrace the passions that drive you forward. These passions and understanding of your self-worth will insulate you from the judgments of others.  And while we truly don’t care what that douche-bag bully from high school thinks of us, we do care what our parents, siblings and loved ones think of our work.  And if you’re passionate and dedicated to living this life of simplicity, your loved ones will understand and be your biggest champions.  And one day soon, they may follow you.