Courtney Abbott's Key Ideas from The Art of Non-Conformity
by Chris Guillebeau

Most of us don’t want to chill on a beach for the rest of our life, we want to work on something meaningful to us.

We need to create some idea of our own “ideal life.”

Here are some ways:

• Write out what a perfect day looks like to you in excruciating detail. Then assess what needs to change to help you get there.
• Create a life goal list, like a bucket list, to give yourself some direction around what you want to accomplish.

• When you can think in terms of abundance or scarcity, think in terms of abundance.
• If you’re unsure about taking a leap of faith, take it.
• You can have unlimited dreams and goals but not priorities.

Our biggest obstacles are usually our own fears and insecurities. They are the biggest roadblock to get over.

We’re usually afraid of one of three things when you get down to the roots:

1. Fear of failure

2. Fear of success

3. Fear of change

We typically resist making any change until the pain of making the change is less than the pain of not making the change. To make change, we must make it painful to not make it.

Plan and execute a one year, self directed, alternative graduate school where you broaden your life horizon. 

A few examples:

• Acquire at least three new skills during your year. Suggestions: photography, skydiving, computer programming, martial arts.  Cost: variable, but each skill is probably less than three credits of tuition would be at a university.
• Read at least 30 nonfiction books and 20 classic novels. Cost: approximately $ 750 (can be reduced or eliminated by using the library).

• If you can’t pay for something now in cash, don’t buy it
• Time is more valuable than money.
• Don’t cut expenses, earn more money.
• Work towards financial independence, but never retire.

• To exclude everything unnecessary from the life you want:
• Eliminate the unnecessary distractions. Ask yourself “why should I do this?” and “what will happen if I don’t?”
• Come up with the 3-5 things that most drain your energy right now and stop doing them.

• Becoming an entrepreneur or small business owner. Showing yourself you can run a blog and make $2,000/month from it and do work enjoy will sure boost your confidence.
• Setting your own rules at work, for example by visiting art exhibitions in your lunch break or moving to a lower-paying job on purpose with more opportunities to develop.

By giving you a bunch of options, gatekeepers make you think you’re completely free to choose, but you’re really limited to what choices they give you.

The stuff that really matters to you is often left out. In order to see what’s really possible, you have to challenge the rules those gatekeepers set for you.

Chances are, a life that’s built around you and you alone won’t really make you happy in the long run. That’s where legacy work comes in. It’s what happens when you use your unique skills to help others in a way, which would’ve been impossible without your contribution, and leaves a lasting impact.

Once you know what your legacy work can be about, set a metric to measure your progress with it, for example 1,000 words a day, 1 hour of work on your charity publishing a blog post every day.