Your Heart is Always Right. And the Time is Always Now. BALI HERE I COME!

Aloha my friend!

It’s a big day!

Tonight I head on a very long flight from Honolulu, Hawaii to Bali, Indonesia!  

Two and a half years ago I went to Bali to visit one of my friends, Megan (of Modern World Consulting — you’ve probably heard me talk about her… She’s one of my favorite humans!)

Megan and her then boyfriend/now husband, Russell, were traveling the world for a year and stopped for a few months in Ubud, Bali. 

Megan kept telling me, “Amanda, when you come here. I don’t think you’ll be able to leave. This place IS you.” 

While Megan was green juicing and motorbiking and relaxing amongst the rice paddies, I was in school in Denton, Texas in a PhD program I hated. It was a situation that was draining my soul and every resource. It was depleting my energy. It was the reason I was procrastinating going big with my business. I had my life-coaching business on the side; I was seeing clients on Fridays and weekends. I was trying hard to do the thing I was “supposed” to do and the thing I wanted to do, but when you have half of your life lighting you up and half of your life feeling like a soul painful death, eventually something has to give. 

I went to see Megan in Bali about a month before I walked away from the PhD program.

(Check out the video of my initial trip to Bali here. And laugh at my early video editing skills! Thank God for my assistants who now edit my vids…)

She was right. The place was me. I didn’t want to leave. I longed to go back, desperately. I thought about it all of the time. I made a Pinterest board around it: here. I said that I was moving to Bali in the Other Stuff About Me section of my bio on my website: here. I made a video about Bali as my third vlog ever: here. I began to try to convince my then boyfriend that he could actually like long-term traveling and should totally go to Bali with me. 

The truth was, as long as I was in a relationship that wasn’t truly cohesive to the lifestyle I desired (PS: I am now magnetizing to me the perfect life-partner who loves to travel the world with me. #MANifesting) or in an academic/work situation that didn’t allow me the location-independence or freedom I desired, I was always going to feel trapped.

Fast forward two years and here we are. The baby business I started five years ago has grown beyond my wildest dreams. Amanda Frances Inc. will earn half a million dollars this year. Money will never again be a reason I have to say no to anything I want. <— EVERYTHING! 

And because I designed this business around my truest desires, I do no have any restrictions or obligations. No location. No hours. (And… no pants. ;)) 

I can wear what I want, work where I want, work when I want and do what I want.

I have financial freedom and location independence. The only restrictions I truly face, are restrictions I put on myself. (<– That is true for all of us. We create our own realities.)

And when I heard myself making up reasons why I shouldn’t head toward Bali — I had to give myself a good talking to. “Amanda, no more holding back. It’s time to do what you love. You can have everything you want, but you are going to have to go get it.”

Sitting at the gate in 2014 for my departing flight after my 10 days in Bali with Megan, I didn’t want to go home. I had this feeling of wanting to keep going, keep traveling, and keep seeing the world. 

I knew the feeling well. In 2010 after my first time in Europe, I cried at the Pisa airport while eating my last pistachio gelato because there were so many places in Europe that I had yet to see. At the end of my trip to Israel the next summer, I felt the same thing. I have always wondered what would happen if I set out on a journey… And just… Kept going. Only one-way tickets. No flight home.

Everything I own is in two 5 x 10 storage units in Tulsa, Oklahoma.

I sold a lot, gave away a lot, stored a lot and was basically very willing to create all kinds of space and freedom for my next phase of life. 🌴👙🍍 The most beautiful part of right now is that I have no idea wtf I am doing. I’m leaving… Because I want to. I’m going to Bali… Because that is the place I want to go most.

There was no big sign that this was my next step. God did not audibly speak. Angels didn’t give me the right sequence of numbers. (Though I deeply believe in these things… Like… Way believe… But…) What I am relying on right now is my gut feeling… And my deep desires. And what I truly want. I believe in the steps that I find myself taking when I don’t over-think anything. I trust what it is to live in the flow…. To co-create as I go… And to follow my heart. Per usual, I am trusting myself and my desires on this one.

I spent my last week in Tulsa dancing, celebrating, laughing and packing with dear friends. The past year in Tulsa taught me to lay down roots and make genuine connections and find something closer to balance in my work/home life. (Ps: I don’t believe in balance. Loosing balance us often a big part of success.) I have no idea what Bali will teach me, but I’m ready for the adventure.

To avoid culture shocking myself and allow myself to ease into my trip, I just spent four days in Santa Barbara, California and and six days in Oahu and Maui, Hawaii…

(Travel pics on my Instagram here and on my Boss Lady Abroad Facebook album here.)

I am relaxed as fuck and so ready to find out what’s next.

I have my birthday party in New York in mid-September, so I’ll be back in the states before I know it… but my heart tells me, I am going to set out again shortly after. And live abroad… for quite awhile.

All I know for sure is that I am going to see the world. I am going to stay gone however long I want. And nothing can hold me back. This was in the back of my head all along. As I built the business and set the goals, this is what I was going for. And here we are. I am doing what I always wanted to do.

That is what happens when you allow your desires to be your guidance-system and follow your heart each day. That is what happens you take leaps in the direction of your dreams. That is what happens when you design a business based around what you want. You won’t know how you are going to get to where you are going, but you know you’ll arrive. The best advice I could give on making big audacious dreams come true is this: Stay true to your desires, do what you love, hold a big vision, and take the guidance that shows up along your way.

One step at a time.

The daily action of following your heart is everything. 

Your heart is always right and the time is always now.

I want you to come on the journey with me! Follow me on my really pretty Instagram here <– riding a Flamingo in my last pic and on my Boss Lady Abroad Facebook album here.

And just for funznies, be sure to check out my third vlog ever about my initial trip to Bali!

Below the video here I share alllll the details of my initial trip to Bali! Including wear to eat, stay and play! You can find that here. <– All the deets.