Three months into 2020 and the year has gone in a totally different direction to what we all thought. I had many plans – I expected to start a new job in January after my last contract ended. I also planned to go to Norway and Sweden, and Spain for the Tomatina festival which is taking place over my birthday.

Sometime in August 2019, I was having a conversation with my best friend about something I felt in my gut. I could not put my finger on what it was exactly, but I told her that I think something really big is coming. In October, something big launched in the lifestyle club I am in, and initially I thought that it was that, but after a few days, even though I was super excited about it and the possibilities it could bring, I knew that that wasn’t it.

You see,  my best friend is the closest person to me who knows me better than anyone, and she knows that I see far beyond what others do because my mind is almost on a different plane, and my intuition is my superpower. This is one thing I’ve always been modest about, but I will not be quiet about it any longer.

Let me go back even further.

In August 2018,  I joined a travel and lifestyle club that was the turning point in my life. My relative shared the information with me because he knew I love to travel. However, the reason I joined was because I saw a vision:

• A way to travel full time. My lifelong dream.
• A way to support my parents even more than they have supported me. To repair that garage door that screeches when it moves. To get a proper tradesman to sort out the outdated plumbing. To buy my mother that Mercedes Benz that both she and her father always wanted but could never afford. And lastly, to buy them a sea-facing apartment with full-time help.
• A way for me to get the time I so desired to have with my friends and family, one where all we did was travel together and live simple, happy lives where the money kept coming in to fund the quality life that we all wanted. A life where the only thing we would debate about was where to travel to next, or what colour to paint our houses. Never having to look at a price tag again.
• A way for me to tangibly help people to travel more and if not, just become all round better people, which is the reason for me starting this blog 8 years ago in the first place.

I watched my now elderly parents work so hard their whole lives only to be forced into retirement because of medical issues. They grew up like their parents and grandparents, a ‘generational curse’ if you will, where you work 40 years of your life to retire on 40% of your income, thinking that you will buy yourself the time to travel later.

In 1889, Otto von Bismark signed the Old Age and Disability Insurance Bill, meaning that ever since then, people essentially had a ‘cut off age’ to work towards before they had hopefully saved up enough money to enjoy the last decade (or more if they were lucky) of their lives. This was not appealing to me at all; I didn’t want to live my life like that.

More than a century later, the majority of people still have this mentality. It’s not their fault, it is the ‘system’ that has been put in place to condition people into that way of thinking. In fact, Robert Kiyosaki, the father of modern finance, says that how we’ve learned to prepare for retirement is all wrong. We are used to having a job, one that gives us linear income i.e. you live from paycheck to paycheck. Don’t get me wrong – respect your job because it puts food on the table. However, many of us wish we could do something different, but very few of us see opportunities even when they are staring at us in the face.

Luckily for me, I’ve never fitted in from the time I was little. I was the tomboy that went to an all-girls school who preferred playing with Lego instead of dolls and anything girly really. It was not because I had questionable sexuality, it was because I didn’t want to be the same as everyone else and that was the easiest and most fun way to do it. Of course I was laughed at and bullied because of it, and I will never forget that one teacher that saw my potential and encouraged me to carry on being different.

In hindsight, I realised that while I could potentially earn a great amount of money from this lifestyle club, I’d still be relying on a company for my income, but it was good enough for now because it introduced me to people with the right kind of mindset. Regardless of whether I would continue to be involved or not, I found what I really wanted to do in my life – help others. And this was never about the money. Those closest to me and even those who have worked with me know that helping others is the thing that gives me the greatest satisfaction, and I constantly put others before myself in every way that I possibly can.

Fast forward to January 2020. I kept telling my best friend that “Something big is coming”. That thing is now here in the form of the Coronavirus. No, of course it is not a good thing, but hear me out.

It’s the end of March and I am still interviewing for a new job as it is after all my primary source of income, and I’ve had to cancel my travel plans. Don’t feel sorry for me, because I know this situation, although stressful, is only temporary. I was also not meant to travel to those countries this year because what I actually need to do is far greater.

It is no secret that the Coronavirus has forced practically the whole world to stay at home, with some countries on lockdown and others quickly heading in that direction. According to the latest stats, 172 out of the 195 countries are affected, and the world’s economy is crashing badly as a result. The world has not prepared for this, and I am not referring to the medical infrastructure and the like, I am talking about the way we think about money.

Not all governments can afford to support their people during this crisis, and many of us are left with a finite amount of money in our bank accounts with residual bills. We still need to pay to live in our houses and drive our cars, our biggest expenses, but with everything crumbling around us, where do we get the money from to pay for these things?

The world is on the brink of another recession, or an ‘economic Ice Age’, because no one alive has experienced this kind of crisis before, and we likely will not experience something as big as this again in our lifetimes. We are also on our 4th Industrial Revolution.

According to the World Economic Forum, “the Fourth Industrial Revolution is about more than just technology-driven change; it is an opportunity to help everyone, including leaders, policy-makers and people from all income groups and nations, to harness converging technologies in order to create an inclusive, human-centred future”.

Prosperity always follows adversity, and what we need to remember is that the Coronavirus is not going to last forever. It could have devastating consequences, for sure, but we have got to start switching gears and adapting to the new way of doing business and making money. Residual income is no longer a luxury, it is a necessity, and unfortunately, it will take something as big as a global pandemic to open people’s eyes.

The Fourth Industrial Revolution is being driven by electronic technology in the form of online businesses, home-based businesses, and e-commerce.

Thanks to my lifestyle club, I was fortunate enough to meet and learn from extremely influential people like Jim Kwik. Another was the inventor of Herbal Ecstasy and e-commerce expert, Shaahin Cheyene, who just the other day released a video on how to thrive during this time.

If Amazon just hired 100 000 staff to make way for future growth whilst traditional companies are laying off staff, that should tell you something.

It is time to get out of victim-mode and start realising the truth that is in front of you. The earth is telling us something – we need to reset our mindsets and start adopting new ways of not only making money, but helping the world. By staying at home, we are showing the earth love, and we are seeing the results – take a look at the clean water in Venice’s canals and the blue skies now present in China. Why is that not a normal thing? It can be, if we change our damaging habits and mindsets.

Open your eyes. Don’t just look; see. Challenge the way you think and unlearn what you already know. Intelligence is the ability to adapt to change, and those who take action reap the rewards.

Online is the way of the future. The ‘early adopters’ have done their homework, and we’re seeing this thing through.