Ten years ago, I would never have categorised myself as a hippy. From the outside I was far too conventional for that. Being brought up without a lot of money and in modest surroundings makes you strive for better and take every opportunity that comes your way. Although, I wasn’t particularly money hungry and not known for my dynamism to say the least, I would still have never dreamt of pursuing a hippy lifestyle. The obvious and most attainable lifestyle seemed to be the 2point 4 children, new build in suburbia. Okay, it didn’t tick all the boxes but it seemed idyllic enough.
However, there was always this niggling in the back of my mind possibly attributed to having a single mother who enjoyed her hey day during the sixties, including the Isle of White Pop Festival and exposure to an aunt and cousins who spent most of their life on the run living in far off exotic places including Spain during the seventies, The Ivory Coast and the South of France. I longed for a bit of freedom. I wanted to be open to new working experiences that would allow for personal growth. Before redundancy, my jobs only allowed me a couple weeks of the year to do as I pleased. I was a slave to the system including the 9 to 5 lifestyle and found it difficult to relax being governed by the clock.
I resented getting up every morning at the same time, leaving my young children behind and wasting my attention and talents in the collapsing industry of automotive manufacturing in the UK. It took for me to be made redundant to seek an alternative lifestyle.
By this point I was desperate to do something for myself. As I was never going to be a hippy in the traditional sense it would not involve holistic medicine nor health food. Instead, the internet was offering me the chance to cultivate that hippy within. I was about to become part of a modern day hippy movement, the creation of the cyber hippy. This is not about how you dress, your economic status or even your social milieu.
It is all about creating your own reality without turning your back on materialism. You don’t need to eat bio yogurt although you might find that sitting in front of a PC all day makes you crave a healthier all round lifestyle. You don’t need to own a pair of sandals as when you work from home, it is often more comfortable to work barefoot. And you never, ever need to feel the slightest compulsion to hug a tree, although from time to time telegraph poles can look quite tempting as an act of gratitude to this wonderful lifestyle that they have facilitated.
If you haven’t guessed already, being a cyber or web hippy is about enjoying the freedom and flexibility that an online business allows you. An online business can range from selling things on Ebay or running a forum based site. Anybody can put together a simple information site and monetise it with advertising. These days programming skills are not necessary as so many packages are available that do all the hard work for you. You just have to add the content and make the site as informative and user friendly as possible. The beauty of it is that the topic can be whatever you want it to be. So you can actually make a living from your passion. At one point in the beginning when it seemed like it would never get going, I was tempted to find a job for the security.
Today, I can never imagine doing anything else and hopefully as the internet develops, I will evolve and adapt accordingly. Of course, you can never predict that it will always enable me to earn a living but even the biggest employers can no longer promise job security. Nevertheless, it suits me at this current stage in my life and means that I can live anywhere in the world providing I have an internet connection.
I speak to more and more people who are escaping the restrictions of a conventional 9 to 5 lifestyle through internet based ventures. Amongst them are mothers seeking flexible work from home during school hours, people looking to move abroad but needing an income and professionals from all kinds of backgrounds including engineers and even estate agents looking for a less cut throat way to earn a living.
For me it really is my dream come true to be able to work for myself, see the fruits of my labour albeit often working into the early hours of the morn but without sacrificing time with my children. I can pop out to the bank if I need to, choose the quietest time to go to the supermarket and if I feel unwell I can go to bed without anybody giving me any accusative looks. My input will determine the outcome so I work according to my desires.
If I feel content with my income, then I can continue at a steady pace but if I want to increase it, I just come up with new ideas and put more effort in. It really is that simplistic. Admittedly, I experience peaks and troughs in my motivation but I am free to go with the flow and give it the best I have when I feel at my best. I am glad that I made the decision to seek an alterative lifestyle as with two young children and a partner I could have taken the ‘safe’ path in life. The best thing I ever did was to take the risk and become a cyber hippy as I wouldn’t have it any other way.
What about you? Have you tried to go down this route too? Leave a comment below.