by Karla Silver | Oct 1, 2013 | Empower Network
Have you ever just felt like asking, “Is this it?”
Have you ever felt like you are living a deferred-life plan?
Have you ever felt like you aren’t moving forward toward your goals? Maybe even felt like you are going in reverse?
Of course, we all have felt those things at some point in our lives.
Here’s your answer: LIFESTYLE DESIGN
What is Lifestyle Design?
In 2007, my husband and I were on a flight to Sydney, Australia and I had brought a book, 
“The Four Hour Work Week,” by Timothy Ferriss to read on the way. In that book, the author described a concept that rocked my world.
What does an beach-dwelling millionaire do that a cubicle-dweller doesn’t? Follow an uncommon set of rules.
How does a lifelong blue-chip employee escape to travel to world for a month without his boss even noticing? He uses technology.
Gold is getting old. The New Rich (NR) are those who abandon the deferred-life plan and create luxury lifestyles in the present using the currency of the New Rich: time and mobility. This is an art and a science we will refer to as Lifestyle Design.
He goes on to explain how most people simply accept the status quo and never even question if there could be an alternative to working hard your whole life to retire at age 60:
Life doesn’t have to be so damn hard. It really doesn’t. Most people, my past self included, have spent too much time convincing themselves that life has to be hard, a resignation to 9-to-5 drudgery in exchange for (sometimes) relaxing weekends and the occasional keep-it-short-or-get-fired vacation.
People don’t want to be millionaires — they want to experience what they believe only millions can buy. Ski chalets, butlers, and exotic travel often enter the picture. Perhaps rubbing cocoa butter on your belly in a hammock while you listen to waves rhythmically lapping against the deck of your thatched-roof bungalow? Sounds nice.
$1,000,000 in the bank isn’t the fantasy. The fantasy is the lifestyle of complete freedom it supposedly allows. The question is then, How can one achieve the millionaire lifestyle of complete freedom without first having $1,000,000?
The very IDEA that lifestyle design existed, that I could actually design my life changed the way I looked at my life and living my life forever.
As far as I know, we only have ONE life. Why wasn’t I living my best life… NOW?
I decided that what was important to my husband and me was to determine what is most important to our lives and design a (sometimes unconventional) work life around those values rather than working 40+ hours for 40-50 years — waiting until retirement to finally begin pursuing other passions and a better quality of living.
How Did We Pursue Lifestyle Design?
We were already working an internet based business, so why were we not looking closely at our lives and designing or actively doing the things we’ve always wanted to do…
… like YESTERDAY?
A few months after reading that book, we got rid of all our stuff and decided to travel the world while working our business. The Luxury Vagabonds were born!
Over the past 5 years, we’ve lived in France, the Bahamas, Acapulco, Hawaii (two times), Lake Tahoe, Italy, San Francisco, Spain, Los Angeles, Portugal and Mexico.
(If you are interested in how we pay for everything, fill out the form on the upper right hand corner of this page.)
Is LifeStyle Design for You?
The answer to this question is a resounding YES. Lifestyle Design is for anyone that is serious about moving forward in their lives and wants to live their best life. Not “someday,” or “when I’m retired,” but RIGHT NOW.
Why not live the life you want to, right now? Can it be done? Can you live the good life now without being independently wealthy or retired?
You bet.
It might take some innovative strategies, or maybe some different thinking, but anyone that is serious about doing something that maybe not everyone else is doing should…
…design your own life.
by Karla Silver | Sep 27, 2013 | Empower Network
It just sounds weird… “Karla Silver, Bestselling Author.” Try it out… [insert YOUR name here] – bestselling author.
Karla Silver, Bestselling Author?
I know… right?
I never set out to be a writer, so I’m not. But what I am is passionate about is helping people DESIGN their lives, so writing about my purpose is easy. Thinking about being “Karla Silver… Bestselling Author” is just… well… weird!
What is amazing about being so connected with my purpose is that I was selected by the great Brian Tracy (if you don’t know who he is… Google him) to be part of his book, “Change Agents.” As a result of his invitation to co-author his book, I’m a bestselling author… AGAIN!
I’m writing this post from the Hotel Roosevelt in Hollywood, where I’m set to receive a “Quilly” Award from the National Academy of Bestselling Authors tomorrow night!
How cool is that?
I was super-lucky to be picked to be an “Expert” on a topic that I’m super-passionate about – LIFESTYLE DESIGN.
I truly believe that anyone… ANYONE… even YOU can actually “design” your life.
I’ve done it. And… so can you. You can read my ideas around Lifestyle Design here.
But, back to being a bestselling author.
I guess I’m feeling like anyone that has been nominated for an award that is significant….
What am I going to wear on the red carpet?
OMG… my HAIR?
Do I need to have someone do my makeup? What about my dress, and really.. how do I stand like those stars on the BIG red carpets look good in their pictures… how do they stand and where do they hold their hands???
Wish me luck! I can’t wait!
By the way… here’s the book:
by Karla Silver | Sep 23, 2013 | Empower Network, Inspiration Mondays
There are exactly 100 days left in 2013.
100 Days!
What could you do to live your best life in the next 100 days?
There is so much that you can do in a very short period of time.
Believe it or not, if you were truly motivated, in 100 days you could…
-
Learn a new language
-
Lose 30 pounds
-
Add another significant income stream to your portfolio
-
Make a new best friend
-
Write a bestselling book
The list can go on and on…
Here are 12 (plus one extra credit bonus) changes that you can implement in the next 100 days to improve your life.
Family/Home
Everyday, write down something that you are grateful for in your partner or family.
Select a “de-clutter” day of the week, and make a calendar, so in the next 100 days (14 weeks, you will have de-cluttered 14 areas of your home). For example:
Week One: De-clutter books
Week Two: De-clutter DVDs
Week Three: De-clutter closet
Week Four: De-clutter junk drawer in kitchen
Financial/Career
For the next 100 days, pay for everything with paper money and keep any change that you receive. Then, put all of your change in a jar and see how much money you can accumulate in 100 days.
Set an 1-2 hours aside every day for the next 100 days to devote to creating one source of passive income. According to The New York Daily News the average person watches 34 hours of television per week. Just think… if you just turned OFF the television, what could you do with that time? (HINT: that’s what we did.)
If you can’t stand the idea of not watching your favorite programs, then record only those
programs you cannot live without seeing. When you do watch them after you’ve done
your “income producing activities” you can fast forward through all the ads. It always amazes me just how little “program” there is compared to advertising.
Spiritual
I love this one… For the next 100 days make it a point to feed your mind with the thoughts, words, and images that are most consistent with who you want to be, what you want to have, and what you want to achieve.
Smile – the benefits of smiling and laughing are many. If you can’t find anything to
make you smile every day for 100 days invest in a good joke book or find one on the
web. Failing that, clamp a pencil between your teeth lengthwise so it sticks out across
your cheeks, believe it or not you will feel so ridiculous you will have to smile. Actually
it forces your mouth into the right position and that may be just enough to lift your
mood.
Health Fitness
Set your alarm a minute earlier every day for the next 100 days. Then make sure that you get out of bed as soon as your alarm rings, open the windows to let in some sunlight, and do some light stretching. In 100 days you’ll be waking up an hour and forty minutes earlier than you’re waking up now.
For the next 100 days, eat five servings of fruits and vegetables every day. Easy-peasy lemon squeezy health tip. Not only will you fill your body with great nutrition, but you’ll feel too full to eat that dessert or extra helping of potatoes.
BONUS TIP FOR EXTRA CREDIT AND REAL CHANGE: Choose one food that constantly sabotages your efforts to eat healthier—whether it’s the decadent cheesecake from the bakery around the corner, deep-dish pizza, or your favorite potato chips—and go cold turkey for the next 100 days.
Social/Recreational
Connect with someone new every day for the next 100 days, whether it’s by greeting a neighbor you’ve never spoken to before, following someone new on Twitter, leaving a comment on a blog you’ve never commented on before, and so on.
For the next 100 days, make it a point to associate with people you admire, respect and want to be like. If you want to improve any area of your life, it is important to hang out with people that have already achieved what you are looking for. If you want to be in a better relationship, hang out with people that have great relationships. If you want to be a better tennis player, play with people that are better players. If you want to make more money in your life, hang out with people that are making more money than you.
Educational
Make it a point to learn at least one new thing each day: the name of a flower that grows in your garden, the capital of a far-off country, or the name of a piece of classical music you hear playing in your favorite clothing boutique as you shop. If it’s time for bed and you can’t identify anything you’ve learned that day, take out your dictionary and learn a new word.
Take a course online. There are literally THOUSANDS of free, college-level courses on almost any topic. Recently, my husband Don and I completed “The Modern World: Global History Since 1760,” a 15 week course given by the University of Virginia on Coursera.org. Check out the following cool places for free courses: Coursera.org, Udacity.com, iTunes University, etc.
Improve Your Life in 100 Days
It is truly unbelievable what you can accomplish with a little motivation and focus. We believe that you can accomplish anything you want.
Yep, anything!
Name it and claim it baby!
by Karla Silver | Sep 15, 2013 | Empower Network
Are you a Agent of Change?
Change is a basic survival mechanism. Youth and inexperience love change. As we get older- we develop a resistance to change-at times to our detriment. Adopting and promoting change in our lives as well as the lives of others is a progressive and entrepreneurial trait. Change Agents lead the way. They prefer to be the ones blazing trails and making changes. And now I have some great news to share with you.
Over the last 8 months, I have been working on a book with some of the top entrepreneurs all around the world—including the legendary Brian Tracy! The Celebrity Experts ® in this book have attained success by changing both themselves and the world around them to some degree. Descriptively called Agents of Change, the Celebrity Experts ® in this book seek to make new inroads into the field of expertise they represent.
The great news is the book that we all wrote together, “Change Agents” is coming out Thursday!
We’ll be launching the book this week, Thursday, September 19th, (don’t worry I’ll remind you!), and I’ve put together a huge bonus package for you if you’ll help us launch the book on Thursday!
Like I said, I’ll remind you, but if you are willing to help us launch with great success, by buying the book (It’s only $18.70!), then I’ll give you HUNDREDS of dollars worth of bonuses in addition to the great ideas you will get from reading the book.
I appreciate your support and I’ll get back with to remind you about the launch and to tell you more about the bonuses I’m putting together!
Stay tuned!
xoxo,
Karla Silver
#luxuryvagabonds
#karlasilver
http://theshortlink.com/ourbusinessoverview
Change Agents With Brian Tracy and Karla Silver
by Karla Silver | Sep 11, 2013 | Recipes from Don Silver
I had a wild idea for cooking a piece of pork shoulder … for those in the know – shoulder comes from one of the front legs of the piggie and weighs in at over twenty pounds when properly dressed and de-boned. Our offering is part of the shoulder and tipped the scales at around 6 pounds or so. I opened it up with what I could only call a “butterfly” cut and started the cooking process on the bbq – grilled on both sides for about 10 minutes per side and added the pink Himalayan salt as it was cooking. I also grilled 6 Pasilla peppers (halved and seeded) and 4 Jalepenos (also halved and seeded).
Into the cast iron Dutch oven went a few tablespoons of coconut oil and then I quartered 3 small onions and added them to the hot oil. 3 apples – quartered and cored were added and the grilled peppers were added next – imagine the layering of the mix of veggies – NO stirring. In went the grill-marked pork and a dozen or so garlic cloves (whole-with most in the center of the meat). The chosen liquid was two bottles of beer (not saying what kind) … and the oven was set to 275F from about 11:30 until about 5:30pm …
About mid-afternoon the mind-bending aromas began to fill the house and it became almost unbearable by about 5 pm – thus my ending the first part of the activity and beginning the second.
There is not a photographic record of the deed and most of the memories will only exist in our minds, but this is the most amazing piece of piggie that has ever graced our plates.
by Karla Silver | Sep 10, 2013 | Mindset from Don Silver
Don Silver weighing in on the difference between Empowerment and Enabling
We often see what appears to be an very empowering article or posting and don’t always recognize the difference between that and the reality of it being just an enabler doing their enabling thing. One issue that immediately presents itself is the definition of either is the same … if you empower someone you are enabling them and if you enable someone then you are empowering them. How is it that societally we see them as different actions and no where near the same?
I want people to be empowered and able to be, do and have any and all they can imagine and some things they might not be currently able to imagine. The enabler wants to have the illusion of empowerment and maintain them in a level of subservience and not fully complete or competent to “be all they can be” … and yet I think that most of them do not know or understand the difference and thus, the damage.
One of the things that comes to mind when I ponder this is the movie “Idiocracy” – we are dumbing down to the point where the “feel good” words are passed around as empowerment and nothing changes. Our elementary schools teach “sight reading” instead of phonics and the students are rewarded for their effort instead of results. Arithmetic is similarly graded on effort instead of results. They don’t have to memorize the multiplication tables or really learn to think.
Let’s get back on track where we actually learned things and thought for ourselves. Empower yourself to be more able to accomplish more than you think you can and empower your family to accomplish more then YOU think they can. Start now. Your success will reward you and all those around you.
