The 4-Hour Work Week By Tim Ferriss is the fifth book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The 4 Hour Work Week. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at  ...

Derek Sivers’ Blog on drama is the fourth book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series.  “Having drama in your life is a choice” This is actually a blog post rather than a book however it’s such a great piece of writing and has had such an impact on our lives that we wanted to include it in this mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the blog The key lesson we took from the blog How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this...

The Book Of Joy by Dalai Lama is the third book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The Book Of Joy. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com This...

The Slight Edge by Jeff Olson is the second book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from The Slight Edge. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know at https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com ...

Rich Dad Poor Dad by Robert T. Kiyosaki is the first book in our ‘7 Books That Changed Our Lives’ mini series. In this episode, we cover: A short overview of the book The key lesson we took from the book How we applied that lesson to our life and how you can too   Listen to this short episode to hear our overview, thoughts and lessons learned from Rich Dad Poor Dad. If you think we’ve missed something or have a great book recommendation for us, let us know...

This is our first mini series covering The 7 Books That Changed Our Lives. Books are a key part of our education and we get asked for book recommendations a lot from our listeners. Because of this, we wanted to put together a mini series covering our favourites to give you a great insight of each. These will not simply be book reviews however. Instead, we want to pick out the key lesson we've taken from each book and how we applied it so you can see tangible application of the lessons in...

On this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we answer another one of your questions. If you would like to ASK us a question, please visit https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/ask Here is the question in full: “Often It feels like women need to have it all, career, family, beauty, social life, domestic control, finances in check. Statistically, even when women are in high power jobs they still end up doing more of the ‘home’ tasks... it’s just feels HARD. Even though it’s probably more equal than...

Approaching our sixth month travelling the world and only two weeks until we briefly touch ground on UK soil, we’ve found ourselves in quite a reflective mood on our experience to date. In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES we look back at what we’ve learned whilst travelling the world, how we will be applying these lessons in the future and how you can too. In a short space of time, we’ve travelled to 14 countries and had countless experiences that we’ll remember for the rest of our...

After a few weeks of feeling frustrated, irritated and overwhelmed, Ross finally has a breakthrough on getting out of his own mind to help push his businesses and ideas forward. This common phase many people - business owners or employees - face, is all too common and tricky to alleviate. We take you through the steps Ross took, and his advice on how he arrived feeling much more in control and productive. In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we take you through: Over thinking is bad...

A big happy birthday to the Dalai Lama, a big source of inspiration for today’s podcast. “The three factors that seem to have the greatest influence on increasing our happiness are our ability to reframe our situation more positively, our ability to experience gratitude, and our choice to be kind and generous.” - Dalai Lama We take you through our thoughts after Lucy was recently praised for being selfish. Something she immediately thought of as a negative trait and took offence too....

In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES, we answer two listener questions: Would you go back into employment Would society be better if freelancing was the norm? We give two different perspectives based on each of our experiences and share two differing opinions for you to consider. We’ve both been employed, freelanced and owned our own businesses and are really glad one of you asked this question as it’s a topic we know so many people debate daily. We hope our perspectives help you with...

We discuss how significant or rather insignificant our human lives are. Yes this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES gets pretty deep! We also tackle the topic of PERMISSION because if we internalise just how short a time we have on this planet, then why is it we have things we want to do yet don’t do them? Who are we waiting for to give us permission? How can we operate in a way that we take control and pursue the things we want without getting caught up and hindered by life’s many challenges? ...

When to have kids? Where to have kids? Can you travel with kids? In this episode of LIFE DESIGN DIARIES we answer your question about children. If you would like us to answer one of your questions in a future episode, please head over to lifedesigndiaries.com/question and submit your question. This episode is slightly new territory for us and so we would love to know what you think. The topic of children and when/where to possibly have them is not an easy one! We’re sharing our current...

This episode is all about property and investing. We answer your question that has been submitted via our website:  “Please advise on how to get on the property ladder. Also how do you identify what’s a good investment?” If you would like to ask us a question for a future episode, please head over to https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/question It’s important to remember that property is a type of investment and as with any investment, there are pros and cons.  We share our experience and...

We discuss the tricky last month we’ve had travelling which the develops into a more detailed conversation on stress.  Recording this from Sri Lanka, we’ve recently experienced the uncomfortable periods and moments that come with travel and discuss our last few weeks in Chaing Mai Thailand.  Travelling the world has so many upsides: the experiences, new cultures and freedom you have, however there is also a sacrifice that comes with travel. This week we discuss what those sacrifices are and...

This conversation delves far deeper than just Amazon tips. When Irina Balyurko approached me to be on the show, I was particularly interested to hear how she realized that climbing the corporate ladder was taking her in the opposite direction of how she wanted to live. She took the decision to leave her prestigious role as a VP and go travelling with her husband and at the time, 18 month old son. In this episode, we dig into into Irina’s story, how she evaluates risk, what it’s like...

This episode features a full time Lifestyle Designer and entrepreneur Danny Flood. Danny is the founder of OpenWordMag, an online publication and lifestyle design resource for freedom fighters, adventure seekers and courageous souls who never stop following their dreams. Now into his 10th year as a nomad, Danny has picked up a wealth of experience, perspective and learnings throughout this time that leads to some fascinating conversation on this episode. Danny also has his own podcast, The...

This episode is PACKED full of practical advise, tips and lessons we’ve learned to grow your business. Firstly we talk through how to change your thinking and answer the IMPORTANT questions in order to develop your brand. Having struggled for many days putting a website together for a new product we’re launching, we reminded ourselves that people buy your mission (your WHY), rather than your product features. Focussing on features alone is lazy thinking until you have developed the deeper,...

Answering your anonymous listener question: “What’s your story as a couple?” If you want to as your own question to be answered on a future episode, head over to https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/question This episode is a light hearted, short episode where we respond to one of your anonymous questions, this time about us as a couple. We are by no means relationship gurus! However have the experience of being together for many many years and found this episode really fun to reflect on some...

In this episode we tackle goal setting: how to do it and how to simplify it. We also talk about the lessons learned reflecting on 12 months since starting a business and we give an overview on our current location, Chiang Mai. When we woke on our first day in Chiang Mai, we sat out on our balcony, coffee in hand, and talked through goals we’d set in Bali and Vietnam, what we’ve achieved, what we hadn’t & why we hadn’t. Recalibrate and set more for the next 4 weeks in Thailand. This...

David Ralph is the host of the number 1 iTunes motivational podcast Entrepreneur Success Stories by Join Up Dots. David is considered podcast royalty and has successfully monetized his passion, often earning 6 figures+ monthly through his podcast and other income streams. David has interviewed hundreds of successful entrepreneurs and has  grown his podcast empire to almost 1000 episodes to date. We discuss David's story to get where he is today and how he designed his life to become one of...

Our first Anonymous Question episode! If you want to submit your anonymous question for future episodes, head over to https://www.lifedesigndiaries.com/question and ask away. We tackle a difficult topic in this episode: Hyper productivity and perfectionism. We answer ‘How do we maintain balance in life, work & relationships?' With the current world hitting us from every angle with messages that we need to be better, richer, slimmer, more and live the ‘perfect’ life, we have some strong...

Imposter Syndrome (also known as impostor phenomenon, fraud syndrome or the impostor experience) is a psychosomatic pattern in which people doubt their accomplishments and have a persistent, often internalized fear of being exposed as a "fraud". Analysis paralysis or paralysis by analysis is the state of over-analyzing (or over-thinking) a situation so that a decision or action is never taken, in effect paralyzing the outcome. Both of these are experienced by us (and most people) most days....

Our approach to starting a new business. We reveal how we started selling products online and sharing all our learnings along the way. The often perceived huge hurdle of just starting and how you can use the tools available to quickly move from an initial idea to an online business. The mindset required to start any business and practical tips to stay focussed. If you're keen to start a business, make a change, become an entrepreneur, travel the world, become a digital nomad or any of the...

This is a Design Drop episode, giving a short insight into key moments and lessons we've experienced and want to share with you. In this episode: How in a split second, not only did our perspective completely change but our entire comfort blanket was wiped away. How to take the learning from anything in life. How to dance to the rhythm of your headache. Catch us on Instagram Facebook Website  Please let us know what you think! We'll read out some of your feedback in our later...