Choices (it's not all roses and sunshine)

#84 - Choices (EDITED)

Fri, Aug 16, 2024 12:20PM • 22:57

SUMMARY KEYWORDS

choice, lovell, podcast, emma, book, work, choose, life, travel, love, today, greece, husband, business, inspired, night, mykonos, retreat, pleasure, incredible

SPEAKERS

Emma Lovell

Emma Lovell 00:00

Emma, do you want to live a life of freedom and adventure? Are you wanting more than the daily grind? Me too. Welcome to the Emma Lovell, show a place where we talk about living a life you love. Now I'm your host, Emma Lovell, and my number one value is freedom. I've spent the last 14 years running a business and traveling the world, and now I take my husband and toddler along for the adventure too. It's possible, and I know you can create a life doing what you truly love as well. This podcast will inspire, motivate and encourage you to go after your dreams, to create a life you love and to live it now, not wait for a time and or someday in the future, I'll be sharing episodes weekly about how I harmonize business travel and self care. I'll also bring on incredible guests to share their journeys, the wins, the challenges, and how they're creating a life they love. Let's jump in and get dreaming. This is a space for you to manifest a life you love. I would like to acknowledge and recognize Aboriginal and Torres Strait Islander peoples as the first peoples of this place, now known as Australia. I am grateful for the continuing care of the land, waterways and skies where I work, live, listen, learn and play from here on you, Emma country and from wherever you are listening, I pay my respects to the elders past and present. Hello and welcome to today's episode. I am talking all about choices. As my intro said, I'm Emma Lovell, and I have made the choice to be on a cruise today, well, actually for the past week. So I am on a cruise ship currently somewhere between Greece and Italy. Tomorrow, we'll have a day at sea. But yeah, I'm also making the choice to record this podcast for you whilst I'm here. Some people would be horrified at that. They think that I should be on holiday or on vacation. But the thing is, I've made the choice to live a pleasure life. And to me, a pleasure life is being able to have harmony in my work and in my life. And so it's not work, work, work and then play, work, work, work, and then rest. It's having a little bit of all of them all the time. That doesn't mean that I don't switch off and I don't need to switch off. There's definitely been days here where I've wanted to rest a little bit more, or you can probably hear My voice has been tired, because there's been some big stuff happening in my life as well, but I also choose to do a little bit of work, even on what is predominantly a vacation, keeping my business going has meant that I've been able to travel to so many countries. Even on this trip, I'll be going, I've already been to three new countries, and I'll be going to one more on the way home. I've been able to do all that, and I'm making money every single day. Part of that is because of my upcoming book The Art of pleasure. It's pretty amazing waking up to pre orders every single day, also to ticket sales for my book launch, which will be on the 23rd of August in the Gold Coast. There is still time for you to snap up a ticket, if you would like to come and join us and celebrate this my first ever book and choosing to live a life of pleasure with me. I live a life you love. And my second book launch will be on the first of September in Sydney, and you are also welcome to that. So if you want to know more about them, that's Emma lovell.au forward slash book for the book or Emma lovell.au forward slash book launch for the book launches. I try to keep things simple, but yeah, I wanted to talk to you a bit more about choice. And as I say, some people would be really like and I'll tell you right now, it's 9:40pm I'm gonna go pick my son up from kids club in 20 minutes. And so I went. We just went to this amazing show. It's called the gold art duo, or gold art duo, a couple who was on, America's Got Talent and Ukraine's got talent, and they were just phenomenal. And my husband and I went to see that show. It was great. And then we had about half an hour between then and going to pick up my son, and I said, Well, why don't I do my podcast recording? Now he's gone out to walk around the ship. My husband Finn's in kinder, in kids club, and I can just record, and then my team will work on this while I'm sleeping overnight, and I'll wake up in the morning, and you'll be able to hear this podcast. So. Yes, yeah, thank I'm thankful for the choice to have virtual assistants that helped me in my business and but I'm also aware that I'm making the choice to sacrifice, if you will, some time today to do this, but it also means that my business keeps going, as I said, so. And I don't know about you, but there's, like so many, so much relaxing I can do. I enjoy my business, and I enjoy the work that I do. And sometimes, you know, when we have to do something, or feel like we have to do something that obviously isn't ideal. And while I've been away, I haven't really not been able to to just to not work because the book is coming up. But I'm also excited to wake up and to see the next round with the book, and to hear that have a podcast interview booked, or that we have some media coming up, or that something's needed for my website. I enjoy doing the podcast, so it's not it's not a huge sacrifice, but there are choices to this life, and I know that some people, I'm trying to be really honest, and as I've gone along, I've tried to show on this trip, the times I've been working, the times when we've we've just been together, you know. And I made a choice last night to go to sleep and I will actually, my son wanted to go to sleep very early, and so my husband went out to watch shows and things on the boat, and I said, I'll make the choice to stay here with him. And I thought, Yes, awesome. I can do some work. But then I also felt really tired, and so I decided to listen to some podcasts, some funny podcasts, easy, wonderful Mama Mia, canceled podcasts. Canceled is the show, and sort some photos and write some lists and things like that. So it wasn't exactly work, but it wasn't exactly not not work, but it wasn't, yeah, I decided not to do some of the more taxing tasks that I have to do, which one of them is colluded, is my tag. So I could do some things with the bookkeeper there, but I made the choice to then go to sleep a bit earlier because I was tired, and made the choice to not set an alarm this morning, and then, you know, just to do work a little bit later. We landed in Mykonos today. Arrived in Mykonos on the boat, and we chose to go out a bit later. Everything in life is a choice. And yes, you can have it all, but no, you can't have it all at once, and not all the time, but you can have some of it sometimes, and you can travel the world, and you can still make a living, and it sounds like a dream, but for me, this is the reality. And I've shared, I've shared a lot, I think, on this podcast, and I want to keep sharing with you and be honest with you, with the times where it works, the times where it doesn't work, the times where I would like to make different decisions, but ultimately I choose this, this life. And one thing that I guess people kind of question a lot in terms of the pleasure life that I'm talking about, which is combining your work and travel and self care while taking care of yourself. And that means, yes, going to bed a bit earlier some nights, or choosing to rest over doing the work, that's all part of it. And some of the things that people ask me about is, is the money, and how do I do it all? And how do I travel so much? And it's like I make choices there as well. I did choose to do a bit of shopping today, but I also canceled a photo shoot the other day. So I was going to do a photo shoot on Santorini, which would have been fabulous in a dress. And I was feeling really tired, and I thought I could have FOMO and be like, Oh, I'm only there one day. Or I can say, You know what? I really hope to get back to Santorini. I really hope to come back to Greece. I'm planning to come back to Greece with my dear friend Anastasia from Moon school. We'd love to run a retreat together in Greece. So stay tuned. So I'll come back. But I really wasn't feeling up to it, and I really needed to rest. I did get a little bit sick at the two week mark of the trip, which is not unsurprising when you're on the go. And so I had to rest a bit more, and I wanted to rest a bit more. And I thought, I'm not up to being glamorous and having some, you know, Priscilla Queen of the Desert stuff. Loading dress into the wind. I'm going to cancel that, and instead I spent time with a beautiful friend on Santorini. But yeah, also that was going to be $1,000 650 euros. So today I was like, Well, I didn't spend that money on the dress shoot, so I can spend a little bit of money on some nice items. So I bought myself a beautiful dress and some beautiful shoes that I absolutely adored as mementos of Greece and as beautiful reminders to come back and a little birthday gift. But I make other choices with money too that have helped me travel so much further and for longer. And what I do, both at home and while I'm traveling, is ask myself things like, Do I want to buy that $100 dress, or do I want to have an amazing dinner in Dubrovnik? Do I want to get the $200 handbag, or do I want to spend an extra night of accommodation in Milan? Do I want to invest in this course for my business. Or do I want to go on a staycation on the Gold Coast with my family? Do I want to go on a girls trip for a weekend, which might cost a couple grand? Or do I want to pay for a flight to India? Those are all choices, and they're potentially sacrifices, but you have to choose and make a choice and own those choices when you're living this life, and you kind of got to get rid of the FOMO. My husband said to me last night, he went to the show and I didn't, and I'm sure it was a fabulous show. And tonight we saw a bit of the theater that a demonstration of the theater, and it was amazing. And he says, So aren't you? Are you sad, you know, or Aren't you sad that you missed it, or kind of that you missed out? And I said, I'm really not. I'm sad that he wanted us to all be there together, and because my son was so tired and asleep, we didn't go as a family, but I didn't. I really enjoyed the quiet time in my room. And so, yeah, it's okay to make choices that suit you, and not just subscribe to the FOMO. And there's been times where I've chosen not to travel. You know, make choices between travels, like I said, it's, is it a choice between a girls trip, which would be great, or a trip to India where I have business operations and a country that I really love, so doing something with my friends could be nice, or is it more important to do something that's for me And for the development of me and my business. Is it a choice between visiting family, or is it, you know, doing something for work? You know, those are choices, and I just really want to encourage you to honor your choices, to understand that there are choices, and there's always gonna be a choice no matter what. And it originally, actually, we have a chapter in the book called choices, and it was originally called sacrifices, but my fabulous editor said, Actually, I think this is more about believing in your choices and standing by your choices and choosing to live this life and that it's that you don't have to have this story in your head that is just oh well. It's all well and good for Emma. She gets to do that. Well, no, I don't get to do that. I choose to do this. And you can choose to do it too. You don't have to choose to do it the volume I'm doing it. Quite frankly, I wouldn't choose to do the volume I've done it these past few weeks either some of those past choices, I am thinking, well, maybe we could have done that differently. So yeah, the cruise really is a wind down and a chill out for me, but I just don't want you to look at everybody else and think that they're just they've just got it all on a silver platter, and it's all just working out because they've made a choice as well. And sometimes we get that choice right and sometimes we don't, but sometimes I love Jodie fox said, sometimes you win and sometimes you learn. Hey, Lovell, I want to open the doors to incredible opportunities for you on an all inclusive luxury retreat, exclusively for people who are ready to live a life they love. I invite you to join me for five inspiring nights in sensational Sri Lanka for the rest and receive retreat hosted from second to seventh of November 2024 by yours truly, Emma Lovell, I ask you to disconnect your senses and immerse in this exotic culture while you reconnect with yourself, you get to share this luxurious experience with 12 incredible people while. Forming connections that last a lifetime. I really cannot undersell or overestimate this incredible retreat and the magic of going to a place to give yourself space and time. I want to share it with you, and if you are interested, then please head to my website. Emma lovell.au/sri, Lanka retreat. I'd love to see you there, and I'm happy to chat. If you have any questions whatsoever, please take this opportunity to come along and join me in stunning Sri Lanka. I just choose this life over and over again. But there's a couple other things that can can be considered sacrifices, or, I don't know, impacts of these choices that you've made, and I just want to share some of them. Originally, I actually wrote about these in an article for she defined in 2018 and it was called, The article was called how I run my business and travel the world. And it really honestly inspired this pleasure direction and, well, I guess it helped me under recognize that I'd had this pleasure life, but putting a name around it, and also that the book was going to be about business and travel. I always thought it would be business or travel, until I realized, wow, no, this is my life. And so, yeah, one of the things I shared in there was that there are downsides to this blissful existence, and I'm not going to sell it as sunshine and roses all the time. I try to be honest. But when you're if you're choosing to run a business or do casual work or freelance or be a sole trader and not have a salary role, then there are some downsides to that. One of them is that there is no holiday pay, so I don't have to work while I'm here, but I won't get paid if I don't as well. So I choose to keep the business running, and I choose to work while I'm traveling, because it means I can travel for longer and further. Superannuation or the pension is up to you, and that's just something is when you're a sole trader or a business owner or freelancing, and it's something that I've not been great at, to be honest, and I'm working on. But paying yourself, contributing to your super fund, is something that's up to you, and it's automatic when you have employment, so that's something to be considered. Payments not guaranteed, and it's not Swift. So if you have clients, they can sort of choose to pay when they want, even though you have terms and conditions. So, you know, you might be banking on, literally banking on having some money come in and it doesn't. So it's just having making sure you have a backup Fund, which I talk a lot about in the book, because that's something I've had to learn. And you know, your income fluctuates, that is something that's been a real learning curve and challenge for me, and it will always be the case. I do not have a fixed income. I have things now that I can kind of project and forecast better, but I still kind of don't know what my income is going to be month to month, and that can be challenging. The other thing about living this pleasure life that I choose to live is that I miss out on events sometimes, and I don't know, but I think that's kind of a sacrifice and a choice at home anyway, no matter where you are, there'll be something that's on the same day as something else you want to do, or big work events on the same time as, you know, a friend's wedding or something like that. It's just it is the way it is. But I think it's just still something to consider, and something I want people to know, that there's a choice and this, you know, life's not happening to you. It life's happening, and often life's happening for you, and it's just making your choice and standing by it. The other thing is obviously blurred, work life balance, and that's kind of but I say that that's a choice, and it could be a challenge, but it's also what I like, is that you have this sort of hybrid harmony flow, as long as you're able to switch off. And I do have a chapter about in my book about it's okay to switch off, and I talked about it on this podcast as well. And then there's a little bit of lack of sleep at times due to time zones. If you're doing international travel, like I am, so sometimes I'm working to meet the Australian time zone or. The other night, I did want to go to bed, but I kind of kept getting going, remembering another thing. And because my team were awake, and I was awake, I was up a bit later than I would have liked, but then I can make the choice to sleep in a bit more in the morning. The thing is, I think I've said the word many, many, many, many times in this episode is that you have a choice. And I believe that you have a choice, and you can sacrifice a few hours here or there and be able to work for like I have from London, England, Ibiza, Spain, Canada. Indianapolis, 500 from Hawaii to the Bahamas, like I did all that in four months. I traveled the world for four months, and I worked from all these amazing places, because I worked as I went, and I did it on a tiny budget, and you can do so much more than you think you can on so much so less income than you think you need to live this wonderful, adventurous life, and it doesn't mean you have to go on a cruise. That is not cheap. We did get a very good deal, but it is not cheap. But there's ways to do it, or there's ways to earn such great money that it doesn't matter where you are and you can be doing great things. So yeah, your life is a choice, and I just hope you choose what is best for you. All right, my husband is back, and that is time for me. So tune in next time for some very special book episodes coming up. The art of pleasure is out in just oh my gosh. A week might get emotional. One week the book will will be out, and I will do a launch episode about it and talk about those launches. So thank you for listening, and I will see you next time. I can't wait to hear about the choices that you're making. Thank you. Thank you for listening. Lovell one. I hope this has inspired you to dream big and start creating a life you love today, if you love what you're hearing, don't forget to follow and rate on Spotify and rate review and subscribe on iTunes. It helps other awesome people to find this podcast and get motivated and inspired as well. Want to stay connected, come and join the live a life you love. Group on Facebook or connect with me on Instagram. Emma lovell.au the same as my website, but all the details are in the show notes. Lovely. I'll see you next episode for more inspiration, motivation and freedom, seeking. Now go out there and live a life you love. You.