Now I have got the writing of my travel journal out of my system I think it’s time to research some new ideas and have a look at whats out there, so I can develop some multiple streams of income.

There’s lots of inspirational people on the web with some really valuable information, so with a bit of focused reading and patient research I’m hoping some of that will rub off on me. When I started this blog I felt very self-conscious about what I was doing, which is absurd because nearly everyone who visits this site doesn’t know me. However I think that has been the major stumbling block for the developments of my web ideas, somehow worrying what the world will think of me or not even being interested at all.

Writing the travelog pages here at Leave The Office made me realise that I am capable of writing, so with patience in mind I am going to concentrate on writing my own articles from scratch in order, I hope to provide some value to those that read it. The exact topic of my first article is not certain yet, but it will, of course be along the lines of work, money, freedom and combining them effectively. Wow, now I’m quite comfortable with the fact that anyone visiting here will witness my fumbling and stumbling as I try to find my way in this ever changing virtual world.

Time to remind myself of the picture in my head that spurs me on. The house on the mountain side looking out over the Andaman sea, sitting on the veranda watching the sun fall in the sky.

As an aside. I am really impressed with the number of visits here. If I actually put in a few hours of proper promotion work I think I could see a huge increase in traffic.

Do you chase money? Does it just fall into your hands?

You know some people naturally seem to generate a flow of money in their lives. Most of them probably couldn’t tell you how or why that is, where some people never seem to have any money and are constantly working really hard just to get by. That is what I mean by chasing money.

It is a commonly held view that people who make a lot of money posess negative qualities like greed, selfishness or are simply interested in money at the expense of everything else.
I believe that this outlook is what completely wipes out any chance of somebody gaining wealth. It is my belief that most people who have made a fortune succeeded in doing so, mainly because they did not have the attitude of needing money or that it is a means to an end.

How many people work hard, are honest and still left struggling every month when the bills come in? It is this attitude of going about your income generating life that restricts you. I have lived in this way all my life and I am just waking up to the possiblilites of being financially secure without spending all my time going to work. I no longer dream of attracting traveling money. I have an intention to do so and you can too.

The travelog of my adventures in South East Asia are now up, at least from November to December 2004. The pages are here or accessable from the menu in the top-right of this page.

I am currently creating the pages for the 2nd month of my trip. I’ll be writing this period from memory as I didn’t make any entries in my travel diary after 16th December. Forgive me if it’s a little indulgent of me to publish such a personal experience, but the process of creating these pages has helped me improve on my website design and photo-editing skills. I hope it is of interest to other people.

Now I’m on a roll writing content it’s time to think about some more useful topics to put in my posts, like information on the subject of travelling and generating an income.

I am on a quest. A quest to be free of the burden of regular work. Instead of going to work I intend for work to come to me. Well actually I have acheived this, but I still feel that the quest is never ending because there is always more to learn. Before I had travelling money in my life I was constantly asking myself the same question. How can I be able to move around pretty much wherever and whenever I want and, at the same time generate an income?

It was some time ago when I defined my goal as “Travelling Money” or “Traveling Money” depending on whether you live in the UK or the USA. Seeing as I hope to appeal to people from both of these nations as well as anyone else who speaks English I will randomly switch between the UK spelling of the word Traveling and the US spelling, Traveling.

Travelling Money is an incoming flow of money that follows you wherever you go, wherever you are. It does not care where you are or whether you are at a fixed place of work or not, but it remains loyal and ever present to you as long as you keep attending to the process of generating it, which is not difficult and requires much less time devoted to it as a regular, full-time job.

There are people out there who are already living on traveling money and it takes care of them very well. Some have established a substancial amount of traveling money, whilst others are still going through the discovery process of how to attain it. One such person I wish to encourage on his quest, after reading his inspiring blog is at www.leavetheoffice.com and is well worth a read as he is at the beginning of his journey and explains all the pitfalls and mistakes he makes as he goes, whilst also giving an insight into his life in general and how it is affected and indeed enhanced by his determination to attain financial freedom.

The thing to remember is that travelling money is always there, ready to follow you. You just have to believe it and walk the path to realising it’s potential.

I’m always really inspired when I read of people doing this or beginning to do this and to them I say. “Never give it up. There’s no deadline, no pressure, just the potential for absolute freedom in this crazy world!”

I am reminded this month of how crucial it is to be receiving regular income whilst developing future earnings ideas. My next credit card bill will be pretty large, what with buying a new acoustic guitar and the flight to Thailand in April that I am about to book.

I can forget about saving any money for the next couple of months now, but it’s also good to be in this situation from time to time as it’s a reminder of the need to keep generating money, especially when the time comes to leave the office for good. If you don’t have a regular paycheck and you neglect the work required to put in you won’t see the return you desire. Hence the reality that the end of the office, or commuting life is not the end of work.

I am well on the way to putting my travelog pages on the site and I am looking into how I can create a photo album with a select few available for non-royalty purchase and I am developing a new section based around the technology side of travelling etc. We are now living in an age where a laptop computer is becoming an essential item on the backpacker’s checklist!

As mentioned in an earlier post I missed the deadline to generate some money, but my intention, albeit a week late has been realised. I have generated my first online income ever! It’s a huge breakthrough and the first of many I hope.

I’m still transcribing my travel journal onto my PC and it is taking a long time, mostly because it’s a bit of a monotonous task and I’m getting easily distracted. Of course once I’ve finished typing it out and re-wording it there’s the small job of designing the webpages that it will all go on! Still once that is done I’ll be happy that there is some content on this site other than just the blog.

I registered a new domain name yesterday. I think it’s a good one and as soon as I have added the much needed pages to this site. I’ll start design work on another website. I’m in the middle of writing several new songs too as I seem to have been hit with a wave of creativity and my time is being pulled between recording the songs and creating my website content. I think it would be easier if I only had one interest to work on, but there is no way I can give up making music & playing my guitar and I’m intent on generating an income from websites too, so I’ll just have to adapt and get it together!

I’m also excited about Monday 12th February because that is when my new acoustic guitar is arriving. It should have arrived on Thursday 8th, but what with the bad weather and all services in the UK being unable to cope with a few inches of snow, even with advanced warning, the delivery has been severely delayed.

I heard some very sad news last night. An old friend, Tom who I had the privelidge of playing in a band with tragically suffered heart failure and died recently. He was only 33 years old.

I hadn’t been in touch with Tom for several years, but I will miss him. Quiet, but confident, a great musician and a wry sense of humour, Tom I’ll never forget you and the laughs we had for the short time we were “Proteens”!

I am reminded again of how precious life is and every moment spent with self-concern, complaint & not really “being there” is a tragic waste.

Rest in Peace Tom.

Well my intention to make some money from the web by the end of January was not realised, but I’m not going to dwell on such failures. It is not easy doing this and I’ll just have to learn! I won’t be making any money here for quite a while it seems.

I still don’t know what to write about at the moment other than myself…… boring! It’s taking an age transcribing my journal onto my computer for the travelogue and I can see it taking a long time before that’s up and running, so it’s a real project that will require more attention and focus than I have given it up to now. Once I have some pages on this site I am hoping I’ll have a definite idea of what Leave The Office is going to be about.

I have at least 4 websites of differing subject matter that I want to design, but I just don’t know when I’ll be able to start any of them. Anyway I won’t complain. At least I’ve got things to look forward to doing!

Evolution is a slow process, so I suppose it’s no different for a website being created by an absolute novice!

In anticipation of the travelogue here’s a photo from my trip in 2004.

I’m currently designing some pages for this site, which will document my first venture into South East Asia in 2004. It’s great going through the photos and the entries I made in my journal. It brings it all back.

In keeping with the idea of using this site as a testing ground as I teach myself the many facets of web development I have decided to set my sights a little higher than just a few basic pages and create a travelogue that will, I hope engage the reader from beginning to end. I just hope it turns out as good as it looks in my head!

In the meantime I have been teaching my friend in London how to start selling some items on Ebay as she has never done it before and she has some seriously big items to sell… If you’re in the market for a virtually-brand-new, Smeg Stainless steel oven with matching extractor hood or some hand-made, designer, hard-wood beds, let me know and I’ll pass the info on to her!

I also ordered a dozen red-roses to my girlfriend in Thailand to be delivered on Valentine’s Day. I know of a really great flower service called Thailand Flower Store. I have used them before, so I know they’ll arrive safely.