5 Choices that Changed My Life

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5 Choices that Changed My Life

Success or failure in life is a series of choices. If you choose to live intentionally, and commit to your goals, it’s virtually impossible to fail.

Over the last 15 years, I’ve made 5 choices that I committed to, that changed my life to lost, broke Irish 20 something to where I am today. Free, traveling the world, living in my dream house in Thailand, with my lovely family.

1) TEFL and teaching English

It ALL started for me with teaching English. I became TEFL-certified, and that allowed me to travel the world, work, get visas etc when I was broke and no idea what to do next. This was literally the game changer for me. If you’re lost, confused, want to travel, DON’T HESITATE. Just do this. Within a month or 2, you could be living in Thailand/Peru/Japan etc.

Check out teflinstitute.com for some of the best ways to get certified. They also help with getting jobs etc too. AND THEY HAVE A BANGING BLACK FRIDAY PROMOTION, up to 85% off.

2) Starting my personal blog and brand

Starting my blog onestep4ward.com. Teaching English allowed me to base myself in Thailand, where then I met people working online, blogging etc. This led me, a guy with no tech ability, to put together a basic website. 15 years later, it’s made me a few million dollars.

johnny ward digital nomad blogger laptop1 — Working in my new home office

3) Creating and committing to a long term goal

Visiting every country in the world. My dream. I did it because I wanted to be free. It cost me a fortune, it consumed over a decade of my life, missed weddings, lost contacts, but it was a goal. And I got there. That led to so many opportunities in life, in business. To commit to something over such a long time was a huge life lesson. One I strongly urge you to take, whatever it is. But something long term that requires daily sacrifice.

dog sledding in norway — Dog sledding in Norway

4) Moving my home to Thailand

Moving permanently to Thailand, where I have now built my dream home (and brought my mum to Thailand for her retirement, and built her one too!). As a youngster I wanted a fun, adventurous life. And Thailand fit the bill then. There were only English teachers here back then. Since remote working exploded, now everyone seems to be here, and Thailand has grown with me. Safe, friendly, accessible, warm, and a great cost of living. I didn’t envisage Europe dying, but I’m lucky and grateful I made the move when I did.

5) Starting a family and committing to it

Committing to my family. I lived a wild life for a long time. But I yearned for a family. For stability. For a deeper purpose. And getting married to Jaa, and having Aidan was a long term plan that has now finally come to fruition. Wild nights and blurry memories are brilliant. Go have that. But not forever.

I enjoyed writing this, and thinking about intentional choices. When you see people living interesting lives, they didn’t get there by accident. They had goals, made choices, and committed. For me it all started with a leap of faith with teaching English. The best path to escape if you’re stuck at home. Check out theteflinstitute and you can change your life in a couple of clicks. And I’ll see you guys in 15 years!

Remember, never travel without travel insurance! And never overpay for travel insurance!

I use HeyMondo. You get INSTANT quotes. Super cheap, they actually pay out, AND they cover almost everywhere, where most insurance companies don't (even places like Central African Republic etc!). You can sign-up here. PS You even get 5% off if you use MY LINK! You can even sign up if you're already overseas and traveling, pretty cool.

Also, if you want to start a blog...I CAN HELP YOU!

Also, if you want to start a blog, and start to change your life, I'd love to help you! Email me on johnny@onestep4ward.com. In the meantime, check out my super easy blog post on how to start a travel blog in under 30 minutes, here! And if you just want to get cracking, use BlueHost at a discount, through me.

Also, (if you're like me, and awful with tech-stuff) email me and my team can get a blog up and running for you, designed and everything, for $699 - email johnny@onestep4ward.com to get started.

Do you work remotely? Are you a digital nomad/blogger etc? You need to be insured too.

I use SafetyWing for my digital nomad insurance. It covers me while I live overseas. It's just $10 a week, and it's amazing! No upfront fees, you just pay week by week, and you can sign up just for a week if you want, then switch it off and on whenever. You can read my review here, and you can sign-up here!