True signs of success

In this life, there is a lot of pressure to show socially-acceptable signs of success: high income, high powered job,  big house and car, being constantly in demand, always on the phone and so on.
If your life doesn’t look like that, it is easy to be a bit defensive about it in a social situation. […]

Advantages of a “low-flying” career

Having a low-flying job can be surprisingly rewarding. It’s difficult to have a high-flying career without working long hours (unpaid), being stressed and tired, getting frustrated with office politics and having work invade your non-working time as well. Yes, you are financially rewarded but when do you have time to enjoy it? Does a three-day city […]

Interview #4: Caroline

This is the fourth in a series of interviews with people who have successfully ‘dropped out’ of the rat race.
Name: Caroline
Age: 30
Caroline met the love of her life while on holiday in Turkey and left behind her life in London to live with him in a small Turkish town.
Caroline is now a full-time mum […]

Interview #2: Rachael

This is the second in a series of interviews with people who have successfully ‘dropped out’ of the rat race.
Name: Rachael Byrnes
Age: 28
Rachael gave up her job with an environmental NGO to concentrate on her creative life as a singer-songwriter. Music is now her primary occupation.

She lives in Melbourne, Australia and has a blog […]

Interview #1: Zoë

This is the first in a series of interviews with people who have successfully ‘dropped out’ of the rat race. I’m always inspired by other people’s stories and keen to learn how they achieved their dream. I hope you find these stories as interesting and motivational as I did!Name: Zoë
Age: 30
Zoe gave up her job […]

What dropping out means today

I began writing this article with the aim of explaining what I mean by dropping out. In essence, I am talking about dropping out of the rat race, out of the nine-to-five wage slavery toil. But there’s much more to it than just giving up a high-flying city job in favour of a place in […]

Proofreading for Project Gutenberg

I have started volunteering as a proofreader for Project Gutenberg. This is an enormous online library of etexts that have been transferred to computer by volunteers.
Proofreading for Project Gutenberg is not exactly the same as normal proofreading as the idea is not to change what the author wrote but to make the text accessible by […]

A portfolio life

I found an interesting piece on the web that expresses where things seem to be heading at the moment:
“Having a career isn’t mandatory in order to be a success. Instead, you could opt for a “portfolio life” (see Charles Handy’s book, The Age of Unreason, 1989). That option recognizes the importance of adequate income, but […]