Breathe with Intention

For anyone who knows me well,  my current situation has been at the centre of conversation most days lately. The reason I’m opening up on my struggle here is to help anyone who may be in a similar situation or point where they feel the options available to them aren’t favorable. I want everyone to know that although the best road for you may not be the easiest to travel, sticking to what feels right will always pay off. So, with that said, recently I have found myself in a situation which has left me stripped of my residency status in Spain and has forced me to re-direct my present path.

If I wanted to continue living the lifestyle I have in Barcelona I needed to make some tough decisions. Little did I know, I was about to put my creativeness, craziness, and determinability to the test with what was coming for me.

These are the options I was presented to resolve my situation:

1. Say nothing and be forced to stay within Spain for another 3.5 years, until I could ask for the permanent residency.

This option didn’t strike my fancy too much. Needless to say, I’m not really interested in the illegal manner of taking this route. I’m a risk taker but with a risk like this, the negatives outweigh the positives.

2. Find a full time (40h) contract position

Sounds simple enough, but what about the fact that at the time I was presented this option, Christmas was just around the corner, and I just so happened to be leaving for Canada for 1 month in January, hmm a bit difficult to have someone hire you under those conditions. Let’s not mention the specific contract I would be required to obtain would also cause quite a road block.

3. Register as Autónomo

Otherwise known as freelance. Although this seems ideal, the process to get here, and let’s not forget to mention the costs associated (those of legal fees – 600 Euros, and monthly social security payments of up to 300 Euros) were I’d say rather unattractive.

4.  Leave Spain and continue my online freelance writing from a non Schengan country.

For me, if I couldn’t live here I would much rather entertain the idea of living in a place such as Serbia before I’d think about packing up my bags and moving back to Canada. I was finally making progress with my online work which was naturally leaning me towards a location independent lifestyle here in Europe; something I’ve always wanted. Although I love Spain, if I really had to leave I would be in a good position to cope.

So, any ideas what I decided to do?

Yup, that’s right

… I decided to do what felt right and what would allow me to continue on the path of moving forward while maintaining the life I have begun to build here. The only option to do this was to become Autónomo!

Anyone see the problem in this chosen option?

Any rational person would be able to name a few. For starters, In order to consider being self employed, a business idea is pretty much a prerequisite. With that said, most sane people would exclude the self employed route if they didn’t have a business idea or at least a spark of one. Well, for anyone who knows me well, obstacles don’t ever hold me up. I mean really, everything in life is an obstacle, some of us just have better skills for dealing with specific obstacles in front of ourselves and others are better at dealing with ones maybe we aren’t. What’s an obstacle for one may not be for an another. My belief is that if we always try to avoid obstacles we will never truly overcome or progress; In my life I try to see every new obstacle in front of me as an opportunity for growth.

New Challenge = Growth; at least in my books

Now, I must say, I didn’t have a business idea, service or even an offering I could use to craft into a business but after analyzing all my options as well as looking at my core values, I ended up deciding that the best thing for me to register as freelance. I stopped asking how it was going to happen and simply chose to dive in and take action. A week later, I began to see my messy action paying off and low and behold, I had done exactly what I manifested; I was able to craft a business plan in less than a week! Funny how when you don’t have limiting beliefs around something, you can accomplish anything.

I had the power to manifest everything within me but I do have to greatly acknowledge the powerful force that helped guide me exactly where I needed to be.

I’d like to share with you what helped support me these last months in working towards fulfilling my side hustle and later realizing what type of freelance business would suit me best. I’ve had the pleasure of taking an online course called the Luscious Hustle Academy , a class focused on cultivating your side hustle passions. While going through the course, I watched everyone come up with their businesses, avatars, and elevator pitches, while I spent weeks stuck with empty ideas on how I would get to where I needed ‘or thought I needed’ to be. Encouragement and guidance from my instructors and fellow class mates, allowed me to focus in on my creative passion and help me realize I didn’t need to isolate the ‘How’ in every sense in order to take steps to move forward. Thinking deeply in my creative passions, I set myself a challenge, 7 days to create my business, and so it began.

I went from, ‘What? I need to create a business plan? For what business?’

To, ‘self affirmations of positive talk  and a few good brainstorming sessions which together resulted in a lightbulb going off!

…And finally to the creation of a legitimate business idea.

Now, there is no guarantee, after all the money paid in legal fees and time spent, that my business plan and freelance work permit will be approved but I do know that whatever happens, it will be the result of the universe guiding me in the direction I need to be.

If you’d like to learn more about how the Luscious Hustle Academy helped me cultivate my side hustle and realize my true passion, contact me directly OR if you have a similar story to mine, I’d love for you to share it in the comments!