In all of our striving to move to Puerto Rico, what was the underlying motivation? Great weather, new and friendly culture, growing/raising our own food, adventure? Yes, and more yeses!

But truly the biggest motivation to moving here was to live a self-directed life. We just happened to choose this beautiful island in the Caribbean as the setting for our life. It could be wherever when you are truly directing your life. We could have stayed in Colorado, even, but decided to steer our lives toward something new and exciting to us.

I think that both Britton and I would say that we didn’t mind our 8-5 lives. We both added something of value in a small way at the places we worked. We felt the work we did was important to society and we both felt challenged personally with what we did every day. But there was one big thing missing: self-direction.

If you are working for someone else, you are by definition not self-directed. You are under the direction of the organization or business and under the direction of a supervisor or boss who makes sure you follow the larger goals of that organization. This is fine, and it is how most of society works. However, for people who want to write their own stories rather than play a part in someone else’s this may not be enough.

And for us, it wasn’t enough. So after work and on the weekends rather than just going to the movies or out to eat or shopping or some (usually expensive) hobby, we found things that would ultimately help us break free of the earn wages/spend wages vicious cycle. We went out and found investment properties, remodeled and managed them.  We sold stuff at the farmer’s market from our tiny garden. We rented out rooms in our house to medical students.

And while it was a lot of work and sometimes we felt that we were pushed to the edge,  these were the activities that ultimately helped push us over to financial independence and a full-time self-directed life, instead of just part-time.

Some people may not be confident in their ability to live a fully self-directed life, because this means that all of the risks are yours alone. There is no net beneath you. But on the flip side, this also means that all of the rewards are yours too! And people who choose to self-direct must be creative and envision what their life would look like if they could design it all themselves. This is not always easy if you are used to following someone else’s lead in being told what to do and what a final product should look like. That is why practicing part-time was a great way to prepare us for our full-time freedom. We tried to practice things at a small level that we knew we would also enjoy here in Puerto Rico, things like raising chickens, growing tropical plants in our living room, and having guests stay with us.

We grew coffee beans inside in Colorado! Practice makes perfect!

That way, once we had the income part of the equation down, then came the fun part! We asked ourselves: What would we do with our time, when all of it belonged to us? Sure, we knew we would be “retired” but that doesn’t mean do nothing. And it’s a good thing we thought about this because in fact, it is quite the opposite. We just get to choose what it is. Sometimes it is working really hard in the hot sun, because it is worth it to us. Other times, it is paying someone else to do that because it is not. But all of the “work” is toward a vision that Britton and I design together.

In the case of our property here in Puerto Rico, we envision a lush tropical oasis with cabins, gazebos, water features, animals roaming around, an edible forest with fruit trees and gardens, jungle paths, treehouses and more. And in larger terms, this oasis of ours will serve as our base for any other travels, adventures and ideas we may think up in 5-10 years time.

Happy chickens surrounded by food and flowers

This is simply an example of our what a self-directed life could be. It is filled with activities that make us feel that we are accomplishing something. We knew that we wouldn’t be content with just going to the beach every day (or some other similar activity). That is always fun, but it is just the reward or icing on the cake for moving toward our goals. Because we are self-motivated people, what we have realized is that we will constantly need something to work towards. When our dreams and big ideas begin to dwindle we will know we must be toward the end our life.

For me, happiness follows this equation: something to do, someone(s) to love and something to look forward to. When we are out here working on all of these things together, we may in the moment be groaning, but in the grand scheme of things we are in our element! We are exactly where we directed ourselves to be. We still are chock full of so many great, crazy and zany ideas! Life is a marvelous place when you set into motion your dreams and steer toward them every day.