I’ve known Stephen Heiner for several years now, and have already welcomed him to the podcast once before.
Since the last time I spoke with him his life has changed, a lot. And by a lot I mean he went from a serial entrepreneur living many Americans’ dream life in Paris to relocating to a Roman Catholic seminary in the middle of Pennsylvania.
Stephen still believes that he has found his own definition of the freedom formula, it’s just a lot different than it was before.
As someone who has worked very hard to find my personal freedom formula in the form of running a fully remote business so that I could travel the world, I had to know more.
Living in the Present
Stephen lived in Paris for 10 years and had achieved full lifestyle freedom. He sold his first company to fund his trip and built several other businesses since living in France.
Today, he lives and works at the seminary as sort of a catch-all assistant who runs errands, drives people places, and helps with social media and website updates. It was a major lifestyle change, to say the least.
I find Stephen’s story so interesting because when he describes his day-to-day life — airport runs, picking up dry cleaning, organizing fundraising campaigns — it sounds like the opposite of what most people would consider free. Stephen had an entrepreneurial life where he could go anywhere and do anything, and now he’s in small(ish)-town America.
When I asked how he feels, he says that before, he had the freedom to do what he always wanted to, but it seemed infinite, almost too infinite. There was always another business idea to pursue or a destination to go visit.
Now, he has the freedom to pursue this particular pursuit: helping the seminary grow and fundraise. And this, instead of feeling so vast and infinite, is really narrowed and focused. Rather than thinking about the 17 other countries he wants to see, he is forced to live in the present.
This idea of the present tense has pushed Stephen to appreciate what he gets to do every day as well as the well-deserved vacation time with his family he gets in the summer and on holidays. Whereas every day felt like a vacation in his past-Paris life, now, he doesn’t take his time off for granted.
Do What You Actually Want
When people think about freedom, they often think it means being able to do whatever they want. Which is true, but, what do you actually want? Most people don’t have an answer to that.
So many of us go through life just waiting to retire so that we can do what we want. Stephen urges the opposite. When he was working on his first business, it was all about building it to sell one day. He would figure out what to do when it sold.
When he thinks back on the experience, while he has no regrets, he wishes that he didn’t wait until it sold to figure it out. So many people live with a “one of these days” mentality. “One of these days I’ll have enough time to pursue…” Stephen asks the question, why wait?
Time is your only finite resource. If you wait to enjoy the fruits of your labor during retirement you run the risk of never actually enjoying them. Take a nod from Stephen’s book (I mean, the guy left his dream life in Paris because he felt called, he’s got firsthand experience) and do what you want to do right now.
Shift Your Skills
Now that Stephen is working in a seminary instead of building businesses all day, he’s had to put his entrepreneurial brain to use a different way. He says in a lot of ways, it feels like his business brain is being reformed — he’s had to apply the business expertise he’s learned over 20 odd years to nonprofit thinking.
In addition to running errands, he’s also been auditing their websites and making sure their online presence improves. It goes to show that the skills you build in life, in whatever field you’re in, can very easily shift.
Stephen says he’s happier now than he has been in a long time. He notes something that all digital nomads can appreciate: no matter how much you love being on the road, you’re most productive when you stay in one place. He has a sense of contentment thanks to that productivity, which is a natural byproduct of doing what you know you’re supposed to be doing in that very moment.
He notes that productivity isn’t all about keeping busy at all times, either. Since moving to the seminary he’s had time to ponder and ask great questions about life. “Only because I’ve given myself the freedom to do so. You can’t do that if you’re traveling all the time,” he adds.
His final piece of advice? Make sure you’re chasing what you’re supposed to be chasing. Not everyone has the same dream and that’s okay. Are you pursuing someone elses dream, or your own? Ask yourself: what matters to me?
It’s a question worth asking. And if you don’t know the answer, you should pause and take some time to find it.
Photo by Pablo Heimplatz on Unsplash
This article was written by Neel from MaidThis Franchise, a remote-local franchise opportunity for people looking to escape the rate race and reach financial freedom. Learn more here.
