#36: The Basics of Trying Life On

newsletter Oct 21, 2024

Try Life On is growing.

Thank you for taking time to read the newsletters, listen to the podcast episodes, and interact with TLO information on social media platforms like LinkedIn and YouTube. To date, there's 100,000+ followers and millions of impressions. I'm grateful. The numbers are cool. But what I truly care about is YOU.

What I care about is you understanding and applying Try Life On concepts to your own journey. I care about you building lifestyle you don't need vacation from and, when you have time, letting me know how it's going or reaching out so I can help.

My Freedom journey was somewhat of a lonely one. I struggled with 'entreprenurial depression', a phrase I use to express that I felt different from my peers in my approach to living and business. But I eventually developed a wonderful personal and business lifestyle using approaches learned over 20+ years.

You can do it faster. I've proven it with coaching students helping them shift their inner world (mindset) to then create a new, fulfilling outer world (lifestyle). But a lot of you are new, so it's time to take a step back and speak at a high level. We've been in the weeds for months on principles, tactics and examples to Try Life On. So, let's re-ground ourselves on the philosophy.

The purpose of Try Life On

To help you realize status quo is default language you don't have to follow
To help you plug into planet and earth as we are intended
To help you develop habits to achieve the five freedoms
To help create lifestyle you don't need vacation from
To help you leverage the 9-5 more than it leverages you
To help unwind 20-30 years of default, status quo programming and mindset in favor of an expansive one

I figured out how to Try Life On via decades of trial and error, leveraging a mindset of just "doing and course correcting along the way". It's why I held 3 parallel careers, built businesses, traveled to 100 countries, tried out for the NFL, acted on TV, etc..., and a host of other life related adventures. I wanted to fill my life book, not just default to climbing ladders in the work world.

The newsletter and podcasts explain concepts, principles - the how and why - as well as exposes you to people who've done the same in their own unique way (I don't have the market cornered, but I'm really good at it).

Plain and simple, Try Life On is a philosophy and approach, a mindset, skillset and soul-set that leads to lifestyle you don't need vacation from.

Life is something you practice

Contrary to popular belief, it is not something that you arrive at. It is something you can "Try On" constantly. We are here to thrive, not just exist... not just do status quo stuff our employers, neighbors, coworkers, family and society seem to solicit from us each day. We get so caught up in the 'rat race' of work and family that we forget we can shift to fulfillment and true satisfaction at any time. Anyone can develop the appropriate mindset to do so, but it's not easy after 20-30 years of formal school and societal programming of what you are supposed to be, where you are supposed to work, and what success is supposed to look like.

As a priority, folks who want to Try Life On give energy, research and time to actions leading to five freedoms, generally ignoring society's definitions of success in favor of your own unique blend. From my experience, personal fulfillment and success derived from pursuit of:

Time freedom
Financial freedom
Geographic freedom
Freedom to Execute Your Purpose
Freedom to Build Meaningful Relationships

The freedoms are not easy to grasp, but they're very doable. It's just that no one ever gave us framework to go after them, so I created one. Money plays a role but it's not the dominate factor.

The framework to Try Life On

Write your perfect day in extreme, emotional detail
Break it down into goals across 5 freedom areas
Determine blockers keeping you from reaching each goal
Create items to get over the blockers in form of actions, information, relationships or needed mindset shifts
Execute. Reevaluate. Iterate. Execute again

The result is a "lifestyle blueprint", your personal roadmap to creating your new reality. I've been doing this for years and it is effective. Once you've seen how powerful the results can be, you'll never unsee it. This is typically the point where the status quo world loses you forever. For me that was 2013.

For a deep dive into this process, visit Newsletter 18 - The Guide to Creating Your Perfect Day.

The fight against status quo living

Many don't realize decades of the formal education system sets us up for status quo living. Our ability to dream gets muted by societal expectations from that point. We start building the dream of others and forget our own. On average we have 28,000 days in a lifetime. I have approximately 10,930 left according to that scale. So no time for status quo anything. You shouldn't tolerate it either.

Once I realized it I got aggressive about designing life, intentionally having work and personal experiences that would fill my life book with memories and joy. Again, money plays a role, but there are ways to hack the pursuit of it that supports your life, not consume it.

I'm now 49. I left the traditional work world at 46. I could have left at 38 but I wanted the experiences from career. I was never a slave to it from that point.

Today, I have absolute time, financial and location freedom. I've learned how to make the planet small to have worldwide experiences regularly. Planes are just Uber with wings when you learn how to travel hack. Frankly, I beat the system and want you to as well (however makes sense for you).

The hard pill of regret

Everyone should Try Life On, we have just one. Don't default to the status quo. Do or learn that thing you've always wanted to. Attack work and personal life with reckless abandon.

You were given a list of rules coming out of high school and college - get a job, climb the ladder, get a home, buy stuff, and be happy with what you got. It's a garbage default approach to life transferred to us at age 18 or 21.

I don't operate by those rules. I figured out a different set and I'm sharing them with you through newsletters and podcast episodes. To name a few TLO Principles:

Five freedoms of Trying Life On
Asking Better Questions
Trying Life On Trial Runs
Become your own cooperative component
Leverage 9-5 more than it leverages you
Be selfish now to be selfless later
Freedom = time + mobility
Make your investing life easy and day to day life hard

To get your mind going on the art of possible, here's a download for you of all the Try Life On Principles, rules to live by. My 300+ coaching students know them well and are using each to radically shift lifestyle for themselves and family, building business and financial freedom while stacking experiences and relationships to build their life book. There is no reason you can't do same. But it's on you.

Be your own cooperative component. Try Life On. The newsletters and podcast at Trylifeon.com are the best place to start. But for now I wanted to take a moment to re-explain the philosophy that is Try Life On at a basic level. Hope this helps.