If you’re reading this, you probably want to completely turn your world upside down. Well, here is my step by step process that will take you from comfy to chaotic in just 8 weeks.

WARNING! Side effects of following this guide include:

Loss of direction
Debilitating confusion
Imposter syndrome x1000000000000000
Destruction and subsequent rebuilding of self-confidence
A sprinkling of trauma

Ready? Let’s go!

WEEK ONE: Leave your job

Not in the “screw the nine-to-five” way. You’ve already done that. You’ve never really had a proper job except for that ill-fated stint as a tenant agent for London’s elite (story for another day).

No, you’re leaving your dream job. The business you built from the ground up and seemingly feel in love with. Until you crashed out of love hard during the great reckoning of humankind that was Covid.

So leave your job and soak in those precious few moments of freedom.

If you’re feeling extra optimistic that everything is going to be okay, create a cute reset schedule in your productivity planner to leave your first week of freedom refreshed. Aren’t you cute!

WEEK TWO: Have your home become uninhabitable

Delicate step this one. You can’t truly do this to yourself. You have to hope that God/the Universe/Lady Luck is poking fun at your reset plans.
In my experience, the most effective way of executing this step is a good old flood. A mysterious leaking issue that your landlord refuses to fix will do the trick.
Enjoy the subsequent PTSD of having the kitchen you once adored swimming in water.

WEEK THREE: Panic

Holy shit. You’re homeless. But not like cute digital nomad homeless. Like you-do-not-have-a-home homeless.

Grasp at straws and create an impossible plan to save €3000 as a rental deposit in 8 weeks. You can do that right?

WEEK FOUR: Delude yourself

Of course, you can do that! You move back in with your parent and actually start to feel a little confident. You can do anything!
You’ve built a successful business in a foreign country on your own with no plan B.
You’ve been trusted to execute the most important days in dozens of people’s lives.
You’ve pulled all-nighters, Redbull weekends and coffee-fuelled sprints to achieve your goals before. What’s stopping you now?

You remember who the fuck you are.

WEEK FIVE: Fall into the depths of despair

Oh shit, you remembered who the fuck you are.

And despite your beau’s insistence to the contrary, you are not superwoman.

At this stage, you’ll be faced with the impossibility of keeping your sanity and making an insane amount of money in a short amount of time. You’ll likely shudder at the idea.

You’ll have fantasies of achieving your impossible goal and moving into a cute apartment in Porto before your 28th birthday… but what then? Will you be able to sustain that lifestyle? Do you even want that kind of stability?

And the most embarrassing and haunting question of all:
Will that apartment go underwater too?

WEEK SIX: Escape

You won’t have the energy to make a solid decision at this point. Your beau will grow weary of your daily anxiety down the phone and tensions will rise at home. So time to escape.

Escaping to a friend first is always recommended. A deeply caring friend is best as they’ll provide a non-judgmental ear to your troubles.

After that, escape to the company of as many friends as possible. You’ve been staring at that puzzle of fixing your life for too long. It’s time to take a break and let your brain loose.
During long chats over chai lattes, an insane idea will begin to emerge.

WEEK SEVEN: Follow that crazy idea

The idea will become a life of its own. It’ll poke and prod at you.

Travelling you say? Bit cliché right?

But not really. Not in your case. When have you ever had the opportunity to do something like this?

Now as a location-independent freelance copywriter, you could feasibly work from anywhere. You have the tiniest of emergency funds but it’s there.
The only dependent you have is your precious car. But what if you took the car (Terry) with you?

Yes, you’ll start to like this idea. And the more people you speak to, the more it solidifies in your mind.

WEEK EIGHT: Let everything fall into place

As a new year begins, set a start date for your travels. Yes, you’ll be apprehensive. Yes, you’ll fear running out of money almost every single day. But things find a way of working themselves out. You’ll upsell a client to the largest copywriting package you’ve ever booked. You’ll secure housesitting placements across the continent. And slowly slowly, your dreams will come true.

And there you have it! Your entire life has changed. Comment below your results. Mine remain to be seen.

Ta ta for now,

Olivia x

How to change your entire life in 8 weeks