Still a free spirit but not a free agent

I have just been on holiday in Turkey, visiting my sister who lives there with her Turkish husband and their little boy. It was while on holiday in Turkey a year and a half ago that I came up with the notion of giving up my career and moving out of London to a faraway […]

Best advice of 2007

Whether you make New Year’s resolutions or not, there can’t be many people out there who don’t use the start of a new year as an opportunity to start a new project, kick an old habit or re-evaluate their goals. I’ve trawled through Drop Out Diaries and picked out the best tips since my adventure […]

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. […]

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 […]

6 life changing books

Self help books used to have a bad reputation. If you had to turn to a book to sort your life out, you were obviously a loser and quite possibly gullible and naïve to boot!
But attitudes have changed. Over the last few years, I’ve had several life changing books recommended to me. I haven’t read […]

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 […]

How to change your life - three lessons

It is easy to know when you are unhappy with your life or want to make a change. It is more difficult to know what to do and how to go about it. I’ve made a few big changes in my life. I have changed from one career to another, given up a career entirely, […]

Manifesto for business success

I’ve been having a minor crisis of confidence recently. This can easily happen when you are on your own and don’t have anyone to pep you up. I lost confidence in my business ideas, the projects I want to develop to earn an income for myself. I became temporarily unconvinced that they were good ideas […]

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