By 
This year has been quite a year. One that I didn’t see coming in quite the way it did. I started the year trying to find new methods of earning passive income and instead, achieved two major goals of mine. I now, cannot wait to renew my focus. Now is the best time.
Actually, three big things happened to me this year.
- Coastal Skipper Qualification
The first is that I realised that I needed to acquire the next level of sailing qualification. This isn’t random by any means, I took up sailing in 2009 with my family and love it. There is a type of peace that I find on a boat that I have not experienced anywhere else and now I have found it, I need this. However, as you can imagine, life is not always calm on a boat so I therefore felt a strong desire to master how to control a boat in all weathers and tides. I wanted to know more so that I felt more relaxed. I realise that stress, for me, often comes from not knowing. So to learn more made simple sense to me.
I had completed my RYA Day Skipper in 2016 and realised that I knew not much about sailing. The next step up would be to complete the RYA Coastal Skipper Certification. Beyond that, the exams were for those who wanted to work in the sailing industry (which I didn’t) and required longer periods away from home (which I also didn’t want).
In February, I therefore booked the week’s exam assessment (for RYA Coastal Skipper) along with two practice weeks to gather the mileage I needed to do the exam. I bought access to the online theory and then panicked. How on earth was I going to learn all of this? After a week or so of avoiding it, I decided to change my schedule so that every morning, I would wake up early and work for it for an hour or so. Then, every evening, around 5, I would stop working and spend another hour and a half working on it.
And so the weeks passed. Every morning, my husband would find me around the dining table with sailing charts, notebooks and dividers. Occasionally, he would say things like “I think you are nuts”. Or more helpfully, “I don’t think you will cope with the maths”. I decided to not talk to him about it so to avoid any comments. It worked. Sometimes it is best not to discuss things to those who can’t or won’t help!
Then, early in September, the time had come to sit the exam. I thought it would be one exam like the Day Skipper Theory. I entered into the exam portal to find 5 timed exams waiting for my completion. Over the course of the week, I sat an exam a day and waited. A couple of corrections later and I had passed. In my naivety, I thought I was completing the Coastal Skipper theory but during this week, I realised that it was Yachtmaster Theory (the next practical exam up from the one I was planning). This really fuelled my confidence.
In July I set off for a week in the Solent, I returned for another in September and then had my exam week in October. Each time, calm weather was promised by the various weather apps. Each time, they were wrong. Stronger and wetter than planned, all useful experience 🙂
On a wet Friday in late October (a week ago), I found that I could sail to the expected standard. I had knotted up over 2000 nautical miles since I set foot on a yacht in 2009 and this experience together with acquiring my RYA Coastal Skipper Certification, I felt that I genuinely could sail anywhere. Such a huge sense of accomplishment.
The personal development that I have needed to address to complete this cannot be explained fully. It has been enormous for me. I never, ever wanted to stop or give up but I certainly tacked “how on earth am I going to do this”. I learnt that by breaking things down into tiny steps, I made progress.
2. Losing a stone in weight
I know that I am not alone in noticing that clothes feel a bit tighter over time. I had noticed this for a while and had also noticed that I had become used to the changes on the weighing scales. It wasn’t making me happy. Somehow, there were another 14 pounds of fat that I no longer wanted to carry around. I hated it.
I did try to lose weight but nothing seemed to work. Around April, I noticed online that one the business people I follow was losing a lot of weight and he was talking about it daily. I decided to pay closer attention. He seemed to be eating what he wanted to eat, which I found interesting, as diets did not traditionally follow this path.
I had adjusted what I ate quite considerably. I would like to think that I was knowledgeable about good carbs and bad carbs along with the positive aspects of high (healthy) fats. My children who were regular gym goers were always talking about protein intake and subsequently, I was always cooking loads go chicken!
I was also aware that I began to dread going out for a meal, which I did often, as I never knew how much weight I’d put on. I just felt miserable at the prospect and this wasn’t me. My weight was becoming an issue, sadly.
Fast forward to June and I decided one day that enough was enough. Having acknowledged that a regret of mine would be that if I didn’t tackle my weight gain (which looked nothing to others), I would just continue to gradually put weight on and on, and on.
So I contacted the Food Ninja and over 12 weeks, two of which were whilst I was on a boat, she guided me through my 14 pounds weight loss.
I learnt that protein is my friend.
I learnt what happens to my body when I eat excess carbs.
I learnt how walking transforms your weight.
I found that my clothes all now fit properly. Dresses that had been assigned to the back of the wardrobe are now being worn again. Shoes fit better.
I’m also sleeping better, no longer feel terrible hunger and have learnt how to plan my meals when I eat out. It’s all about choices not treats! It has opened my eyes to how badly the majority of society eat and that we are truly a product of what we eat (assuming no underlying illness). I will be forever grateful to Hayley, the Food Ninja.
3. Learning about Funnels
I have felt dissociated with my work for too long now. I happily run businesses for others but deep down I have wanted to do something for me. I have been like Tigger over the last 3-4 years bouncing around, from one idea to the next. I have earning passive income but not committed to find results. Some of what I have learnt has helped my clients enormously, some has led to dead – ends. It has been a huge learning experience for me and certainly generated many ideas.
Then, in January, I came across a method of marketing that I had not used before. I signed up to the course as it was only $100. Of all the things that I have done online, this course that taught me about “funnels” has taught me the most about online marketing in the shortest period of time. It was life-changing. Although not as I anticipated.
I quickly fell into the trap of doing something because everyone said it was the thing to do. I designed funnels, joined numerous Facebook groups, was told that I needed to build massive audiences etc etc It took until October this year, whilst sailing in 30 knot winds to realise, with absolute clarity, about what I wanted to do and facebook groups and working 12 hours days was not what I wanted. I did not what to be a sheep. I wanted to be my own person, doing things to suit me. I was actually fed up with people posturing about how good they were when they were not being authentic.
It took me controlling the boat in high winds (which was very challenging) to realise that being authentic and transparent is the only way I can be so I will adopt this going forward. There are so few people being authentic. There are too many pretending.
My aim over the last 3- 4 years, in all my attempts, has been to find methods of earning passive income online. Let me explain, people who have a trade, have to actively do the trade to be paid. People who are employed have to turn up to work to be paid. People who are self employed get no pay unless they are being paid by someone else for work they have to do…. unless that “product” is something that doesn’t need them to be there in person doing the work on an individual basis.
I have wanted to earn passive income for too long and I know that it is possible. I wanted to earn money without having to turn up every day to do the “thing”.
Am I making sense?
Over the years, I have come across many ways to make money online. This interest of mine has led to many great things. I see this final frontier of achieving it for myself as something that I really need to tackle and attempt.
It will be a huge regret if I do not give this the effort that I need to make it work.
Generating passive income does not happen overnight, at least I do not expect it to. I have decided over the next year, starting today (December 1st) to explore, start, follow-up and complete, different ways of earning online to generate income passively. Or as passive as I can get. This has been an aim of mine for too long now and definitely fits into the ” I will always regret this, if I don’t really try hard to achieve it”.
I will track my progress here. I am not a guru – I will make mistakes and record what I am doing so that there is transparency. I will continue working with my clients but this will be a major project, just as my sailing exam was and losing weight was.
They both required me to be consistent in my efforts.
They both required me to have a plan and a goal.
They both required me to be accountable to myself.
They both required me to show results.
Therefore, I have set my self new goals and new timescales with plans of action. I will report back on Wednesdays and I will track the amount of time and the methods used. I’ll also let you know of any new hacks to earning passive income online that I find along the way. I am really excited to start today and I will see you next week!
0 funnelssailingweight loss
What do you think?