Natalie Sisson's Quest For Freedom - Experiments In Personal, Financial, Physical, Business, Relationship And Financial Freed

I am on a mission to help you find more personal freedom in your life every single day. That’s why I write this blog and produce the Quest for Freedom podcast. In order to make my mission a reality, I’ve been working on a bit of research background around what personal freedom really means to you and I. This is really what the true essence of this podcast is and it’s going to become much more about this from today on. That’s because, a couple of years back I had this HUGE vision. It was so big it scared me. How was little ol’ me going to conduct the world’s first research into freedom and create a framework that allowed people to figure out where they were on the scale of freedom?! Despite my fear (that always comes after a burst of enthusiasm at a new idea), I put together the vision at right2freedom.com and started getting survey responses when I put it out to my community. Maria Nicholas came on board to volunteer her time looking into how we could turn my vision into a framework and I created the 7 Phases

“Changing our beliefs can have a powerful impact. The growth mindset creates a powerful passion for learning. “Why waste time proving over and over how great you are, when you could be getting better?” This is a statement from Carol Dweck, author of the bestselling book Mindset. A leading expert in the field of motivation, her research has demonstrated the role of mindsets in students’ achievement and has shown how praise for intelligence can undermine motivation and learning. So let me ask you a question right now: Do you have a fixed or a growth mindset? Your answer to this will define how you go about learning and reaching your human potential. If you’ve often struggled to improve and the act of learning is not something you enjoy, then listen in to this short summary of the first key idea in Carol’s book by OnePercentBetter: “Mindset was written by Stanford University psychologist Carol Dweck. Her decades of research on achievement and success led her to discover what great parents, teachers, CEOs and at

This is Season 3 and it’s all about the freedom to learn new things and all the benefits that come along with that. Because learning is such an important part to your life. Without being curious and without learning you are not going to be expanding, you are not going to growing and life is frankly going to be a little dull. I am a huge learner but there are definitely times in my life when I go through wanting to learn a lot and other times when I just want to impart and teach the wisdom that I’ve learned. And I think it’s beautiful to have those ebbs and flows, but most of the time I think you should be setting about to learn something new or at least improve what you already know every single day. In the previous episode I taught you 11 Benefits of Learning Something New. And in this episode, as promised,  I’m going to be covering off on how to learn anything more quickly and some hacking techniques to learn more in less time. As well as the what. What on earth should you actually be learning? 5 Hacks To L

I don't know about you, but I'm always curious about the world, and always aware of how much I still have to learn. The day I'm not curious about anything will be a day I personally don't want to see, as I'll either be a know it all and completely deluded or on my deathbed! Yet in an increasingly connected world experiencing information overload and a certain amount of burnout from that, it’s become critically important - and I do mean critically, to curate your learning experience and limit the information highway to some specific side streets and cul-de-sacs of your choosing. I wanted to talk through how I’ve been ‘easing’ back into learning zone post my Business Sabbatical and what steps I’m taking to expand past my comfort zone, increase my skills and knowledge and deepen my understanding and perceptions around areas I’m not often exposed to. But first let’s focus on the benefits of learning something new and why you should want to do this in just 50 minutes a day. I was reading a piece on Lifestyle Updat

Hey! It’s Season 3 and it’s all about self learning mastery. How do you decide on what you should be learning and the most effective way to do it? I’ll be talking about hacking the way in which we learn and also going the slightly unconventional route because why should we always be following the traditional education model which hasn’t been that successful. And I’ll be throwing some stats and interesting factoids at you about that. Before we dive in, I just want to give a quick update as to why you might even be listening to this podcast. So hey! It’s Natalie Sisson and I am on a quest for freedom for you. This is the Quest for Freedom podcast and you are joining me in 2017 as I uncover what you can do to simplify your life, feel connected, live mindfully and develop true personal and financial freedom. In Season 1, I covered off around personal freedom and I really delved into that mindset freedom through meditation, through mindfulness. In Season 2, I talked about business freedom and all about the busines

In my previous episode called You are the answer’ I talked about the results on my business that my sabbatical had. Namely all the changes I made before taking time off - new website, new brand, new systems - and how they initially negatively affected the business. I think this is partly because it was too much change all at once. Now, fortunately the changes are making a positive impact on my business and the results we track weekly. But it seemed pretty dire at the time! Then I realized that this happened in my personal life too, with the complete 180 degree flip I’ve made since April. I tell you, business is one thing but massive life changes are something else! As Shana Aborn said in her article Coping with Life Changes: “For many of us, disruption to familiar routine sparks anything from mild anxiety to extreme terror. Maybe something's been pushed on us, like being downsized or getting sick. Just as likely, we've made a risky but necessary choice, like relocating to a new town or having our elderly pare

So I promised to tell you what I think the biggest lesson from my business sabbatical was as well as the result that I got from it. And for me it’s this: it’s time for me to back me. t I think it’s time for us all to back ourselves. And what do I even mean by that? Basically, to me, it’s about serving up your own delicious cocktail, alcoholic or non-alcoholic and being happy with what you are drinking. It’s like drinking your own goodness. It’s talking about you and why you rock versus everybody else. So basically it’s being a bit of a celebrity in your own right and believing in yourself! I think I’ve mentioned this in the past couple of episodes where I talked about the Power of a Business Sabbatical, is that the biggest thing for me in having time off and away from my business is, that I had to get past some really bad feelings when I got to thinking. I’m talking about the dangerous and pointless ‘comparison game’ or thoughts like ‘What have I actually done? What have I actually achieved? Have I made an im

As I come off my 3 month business sabbatical, I realized that you can have a little sabbatical every single day of your life. Through practicing what I talked about in Season 1, Mindfulness, Meditation, breathing and I am right now studying “The Science of Happiness” through edX which is an awesome online platform of amazing courses from incredible universities around the world. I am actually going to be revisiting a lot of what I spoke about in Season 1 back before I knew so little and now I’ve learned so much. It has absolutely opened my mind how every single day it’s the little things that you do in 10, 20 or 30 minutes of time that all radically change how you feel and how much more freedom you have. In this episode, I am going to talk about a daily freedom routine because I think it’s really important. Before I jump into that I just want to share with you a snippet from Hilary Rushford of The Elegant Excellence who went on a sabbatical about a year ago for three months as well. This is a one snippet from

Welcome back to Season 2 Episode 3. Today I am going to talk about the power of a sabbatical. What I'm already finding just with two and a half months off my business is that I have finally given myself the space to reflect and to look back on all the accomplishments that I've had so far, that maybe, just maybe, I'd forgotten about. If you are a business owner, you totally know what I am talking about. How often do we pat ourselves on our back and congratulate ourselves on how far we've come? Seven years in business, that's how long it's been since I had my business, since I started officially April 2010 and until I took the timeout and time off of my business, I didn't realize all the things that I'd actually managed to do. The reason why that came about is when I had the down time to not be working on stuff, I took a trip down memory lane and thought about the products and services that I've created since I started, all the blog posts that I've written. I had a few people linking to blog posts from like 201

Yup I fired myself. That's what I did. April 1st, 2017 I fired myself from my business and went on a business sabbatical. So you may be wondering what prompted me to take a business sabbatical in the first place. Let me take you back to September 2016. I was in Australia speaking at Problogger and staying in this amazing suite Darren Rowse and the team organized for me as a paid speaker. The view was incredible and the hotel complex was too. I was there to do a Tony Robbins style pump up session in between keynotes and also to run a session track on how to have a lucrative sales funnel that converts. Josh was with me and that made it extra special as it was his first real look into my world and the circles I connected with as well as some of my community who were there. I even managed to get in some videos for a Ten Day Freedom Plan Blog challenge with my fave videographer Mick Russell. After that we had some quality time in Byron Bay and a surf session before heading to San Diego, US where Josh was speaking

Welcome to Season 2 of Natalie Sisson's Quest for Freedom! I'm delighted to be back and I know you've been missing me...at least 2 people have asked me "Natalie when is your next podcast episode coming out". So thank you to the two of you, I appreciate it. Obviously to talk about a business sabbatical and how you can truly have a profitable business that can technically run without you, you need to experience that in full glory for yourself. Luckily this podcast is about making me the guinea pig of my own experiments in order for us to uncover what true freedom really is. Since the 1st of April I've been on a business sabbatical and in this episode I reveal all. Well almost all, I'll tell you the rest when I'm finished my break from my business. But here's what I will share: What a business sabbatical actually is (and why you get to define this for yourself) Behind the scenes of what really happens when you take time out from your business Then I went on to answer some great questions from a fan on my Faceb

There comes a time when you say, "Right. Out!" And that's what happened. I think we all have too much stuff these days." Those were wise words from my Mum, who I decided to bring on for Season 1 Episode 8 of Quest for Freedom. This topic and this podcast today is all about ... The art of minimalism and freeing yourself from stuff. If there's one person who knows how to do that, it's this girl. I think it's a really important topic because whenever I am offloading stuff out of my suitcase, in my life I feel so much freer. I feel like a weight has been lifted off my shoulders. Which brings me to Christmas time last year, when I gave my sister and my brother-in-law the Christmas present of my time. And what I said I'd do for them is help them clear out their garage. Now I have to say the garage was a complete and utter mess. There was so little room in there, there certainly were no cars, there was just all their stuff. Now my brother-in-law Zanda, has 3 kids from a previous marriage and now they have my lovely

I've only been in Bali five days and I already feel blissed out. I've had four massages, two meditation sessions, one surf lesson, two yoga lessons and a 4.5 hour pampering session! And I TOTALLY needed this, because the last month or two has been pretty cray-cray. As you may remember in my previous episode called Changing Plans, there's been quite a few plans that have been changed, including now owning a lifestyle property and getting a puppy for my birthday. Yes! My lovely man Josh has gone ahead and put a deposit on a white German Shepherd. So when I get back to New Zealand on April 5th, it's going to be all go - moving into the house, getting it furnished, setting up our new base and waiting on the puppy. I was content to go hard out on the organizing, planning, doing and making shit happen on all fronts, because I knew I'd be having this relax time in Bali, and of course my upcoming business sabbatical starting April 1st. If you've never been to Bali, let me just tell you this island has a very special

Let's dive into hacking happiness shall we....here's a snippet from me early in the morning when I grabbed my phone and recorded this: So it’s like 4:22 am on a Monday morning in Wellington, New Zealand and I am wide awake, unfortunately, because my mind is going all over the place. And it’s odd because I’ve had thoughts popping in from every single angle and I think this is pretty typical for what happens when you’ve got a lot going on in your head and a lot of the important things are coming off at the same time. And everything that I was thinking about ultimately came back to why timing is so important and how to make the most of every single moment. It was exactly 2 weeks ago yesterday, that Josh and I saw the house that we've now put an offer on that has been accepted. But is still not unconditional, which is the terminology we use in New Zealand to say that absolutely everything is going ahead and that the place will be ours once all the conditions have been met. So basically it is saying there's no way

So the Quest for Freedom goes on. I know in this episode I was going to talk about some of the life changing moments that I experienced at New Frontiers and Enspiral Summerfest but given that this episode's name is called "Changing Plans", I've changed my plan for this week! And the reason for that is pretty simple. I've been tossing up between two completely different paths that I can take and as I mentioned to you when I started the Quest for Freedom, I did say there'd be an element of choose your own adventure in it. Now I'm pretty close to making this choice but there is still some sway here, some room for you to have your say. And so, today's episode is about why it's okay to change your mind. Why you can choose to change your mind and why you are free to change your mind. And of course as always I would love your feedback on this episode. It all kind of started recently. If I am really honest I've talked about this decision to take a business sabbatical this year and while I am still doing that, the bus

For the longest time I’ve been obsessed with freedom. Freedom is my main mission in life, or has been for the greater part of the 7 years. But recently, I have been realizing that my hunt for understanding, defining and having freedom may be completely off track. And that is a huge revelation to have when you have named your new podcast Quest for Freedom, and you think you have all the freedom in the world right? Several weeks ago I saw my friend Conni Biesalski post an update on Facebook about attending Tony Robbin's Date with Destiny. Conni is the Founder of Planetbackpack, has written a book, is a bit of a YouTube star and believes in… holistic lifestyle design slow travel as a spiritual experience connecting with our bodies and souls through healthy clean eating, meditation and yoga opening our hearts through healing and connecting to ourselves So on her Facebook update she wrote: Life will never be the same again. 6 days with Tony Robbins in Florida and I feel like the greatest transformation of my lif

So this April marks a pretty significant moment in my life. I am turning 40 years young. For my birthday, I have decided to gift myself something special. I want to be in the best shape of my life - physically and mentally. Where am I at on that?? Actually pretty close! Which excites me. And it has all come about in the last month or so. I quit telling myself stories that were unhelpful and put myself into the direct spotlight to get serious about committing to this goal. These were stories like: Oh when I am traveling I am surrounded by shitty choices of food Oh I play Ultimate Frisbee and run around so of course I can drink alcohol at tournaments and eat pizza because I am burning it off It does not matter that I am staying up late at night and not getting enough sleep, I am an entrepreneur, I am built tough! Yeah those right there were all big fat lies, told to myself in an attempt to make me feel less guilty about the fact that I was not making any changes in my life. I kept buying chorizo and cheese an

For the last 7 years I’ve been running my business The Suitcase Entrepreneur from all over the world, while living out of the suitcase and going on adventures. This year, in 2017, I’ve decided to fire myself. Yup, that’s right. I am quitting. I am taking a business sabbatical from my own business and instead I am taking YOU on a Quest for Freedom. Your freedom. I'm so freakin excited to do this. To understand why the heck I am, here's a bit of backstory into me. This is actually taken from my TEDx talk last year called ‘The Surprising Truth About Freedom’ (feel free to just watch from 12:12-15:44). Why tune into this podcast? After watching, I hope you can understand why I’ve named this podcast Natalie Sisson’s Quest for Freedom, because as I mentioned, I’m on a hunt to understand what freedom really is. This podcast is part audio journal, part narrative and part ‘choose your own adventure’. It will be divided into Seasons (just like on TV) and each season will be a different quest around freedom. I’m starti

For the last 7 years I’ve been running my business The Suitcase Entrepreneur from all over the world, while living out of the suitcase and going on adventures. This year, in 2017, I’ve decided to fire myself. Yup, that’s right. I am quitting. I am taking a business sabbatical from my own business and instead I am taking YOU on a Quest for Freedom.  Your freedom.  I'm so freakin excited to do this. To understand why the heck I am, here's a bit of backstory into me. This is actually taken from my TEDx talk last year called ‘The Surprising Truth About Freedom’ (feel free to just watch from 12:12-15:44). Why tune into this podcast? After watching, I hope you can understand why I’ve named this podcast Natalie Sisson’s Quest for Freedom, because as I mentioned, I’m on a hunt to understand what freedom really is. This podcast is part audio journal, part narrative and part ‘choose your own adventure’. It will be divided into Seasons (just like on TV) and each season will be a different quest around freedom. I’m start

Each year, I pick one word which explains what I want the next year to look, be, feel and sound like, and focuses me in on those intentions. But this year, after reading a great email from Mike Vardy on this matter, who took it from Chris Brogan, I’m picking three words that will make 2017 the best year ever for me. Before I tell you the three words, I want to thank you from the bottom of my heart, dear freedomist, for listening in to my podcast every single week. I can’t believe that this is episode 300, and I wanted to let you know that this will be the last ever podcast in this format. I will be relaunching and rebranding this podcast to Natalie Sisson’s Quest For Freedom this January 2017 (but you won't have to change a thing if you're already subscribed to it as I'm using the same feed on iTunes, Stitcher, iHeart Radio and beyond. It will be a narrative format podcast, where I will talk about topics that I want to and that you want me to, and have conversations with people on topics related to Freedom. I