“Know what problem you are trying to solve!” said the internet guru.
This is the general advice from all the people with successful youtube channels and highly read and engaged blog/websites.
It is substantial advice, and the people who give out the direction are highly successful in their field. I admire them because they are informative and insightful and give away so much knowledge for free.
Of course, I know there are marketing affiliations and paid content leading from their free give-away because that is how they survive. But if you take the time to piece together all the free advice, you can pull together a comprehensive learning path for next to nothing.
You still need to get onto the internet for the information. That in itself is a cost; other than that, it is there to find and learn for free if you feel the desire to do so.
If you are trying to learn something or do something that needs a solution, then the content is out there to solve the problem you have – see how it works? (people are solving problems for others)
Know what problem you are trying to solve! – This sentence comes up so much in the content creator world, the entrepreneur world, and in fact, it is core to most of the stuff that I have read and studied over the years. The people who identify the problems and put in place the things to solve them are often the ones that make a difference to others and succeed in their own right.
Obviously, it depends on how you measure success. My measurement for that has changed so much over the years. I now measure success in how much time you own personally; how much of your own time is yours too freely to do so with it as you wish.
This is, in a sense, the problem I am trying to solve for myself. I want to have more of my own time and get to that point as quickly as possible. I want to get to retirement, but not in the traditional sense of retirement. I want to get to an active retirement and generate some income to balance my time with the life that I want to live. This vision has thrown up another problem for me to solve – how do I generate income, and what type of life do I want to design for myself?
As I continue to play around with what I am exploring and learning. I also ask the question of why I create stuff for this blog and my youtube channel. The question of what problem I am trying to solve with my content comes into my mind time and time again. There is a link between what I am solving for myself and what might be challenging others in the world. The core problem is the same, but I am still seeking clarity.
I have not cracked it yet. I am still trying to define the problem, but I am beginning to frame out the solution for myself. The answer for my own situation which I describe as…
‘How do I get to live an engaging semi-retired life where I can travel and stay financially productive while balancing a fulfilled life?’
I have not found the absolute answer to this yet, but that is the journey I am on. I am not sure if there is a finished answer in the end, but I will always ask the question. Through this constant refinement, though, I am beginning to get some sight of the problem I am solving for others. It is the same problem that I have around making that adjustment in my later years.
It’s the uncertainty of the journey, to take a different path, that challenges me and, no doubt, others.
If I take the steps down the path, I might encourage others to look for greater fulfilment in their later life stages. They can live the experience through my journey and then decide if the jump is worth the struggle.
What now is the question?
‘What is the journey like if I want to live a semi-retired life and work remotely from around the world when I am in my legacy years?’
My current solution for people who are looking to scratch that itch is…
I am sharing my own journey to a productive retirement. To inspire others to think early about retirement and to take the steps now in preparation for the life that they want. I am sharing my content…
- Readying for semi-retirement by saving furiously for that and for what that new life could be? (My personal financial planning)
- Learning new skills that will allow me to be able to travel and live anywhere in the world. (My digital learning Journey)
- Sharing the places I travel and highlighting the difference between the narrative told to us and the reality on the ground. (Travel experiences in China)
I am still refining this, and I have a couple of years until I take the leap into that unknown, but the plan is the journey.
The problem is universal, the solution is not clear, but the sharing of the journey is the answer to some of my situation. And my journey could be the answer for others that need the motivational spark.
I need to get more skilled at sharing it naturally through the digital medium.
I need to keep learning.
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