If the idea of spending the rest of your life tethered to a desk in an office you hate, working with colleagues you dislike, doing a job you despise for the rest of your life is enough to give you nightmares, don’t panic! In the 21st Century, it is perfectly possible to build yourself a career that allows you to live your life on your own terms with almost total freedom.

Here’s How:

Learn a ‘Remote Skill’

If you can learn a skill, perhaps by taking an adobe illustrator training class or getting your masters in copywriting, that enables you to work remotely, either as an employee, freelancer or business owner, then you can have more freedom than most people on this planet. You’ll be able to live, work and play at any location in the world, on the beach if you like, and no one will care less as long as you deliver your projects on time.

Create Passive Income

Similarly, if you are able to dedicate your working hours to creating various streams of passive income, you will be free to do whatever you like the rest of the time. In fact, you’ll be able to make money while you sleep, tan on the beach or hike with your dog! Good sources of passive income include blogging, writing eBooks and affiliate marketing, but the options for creating new revenue streams are endless, so you shouldn’t have too much trouble finding something that works for you.

Build a Business

If you are able to build a business which meets your needs and gives you the kind of freedom you would like, you’ll never have to work a day again in your life. As the boss, you won’t have to submit to the whims of others, and you’ll be able to choose when and how you work, and which tasks you take on. It’s pretty much the perfect way to create the kind of work/life balance you’re looking for, providing you think it through carefully and put in place arrangements to ensure you don’t end up doing all the work – something which happens so often when setting up a new business.

Turn Your Passion into a Job

I know it’s a bit of a cliche to tell people that if they would just follow their passion, they’d be happy. I know it’s not always that easy! However, at its heart, it isn’t really bad advice. I mean, if you love animals, and you take an animal care course so that you get to spend the rest of your career looking after them, or you love crafting and you make the leap to set up an Etsy shop,you’re probably going to be a lot happier than your peers who are stuck working boring office jobs that they could care less about.

Increase Your Options

Increasing your options, either by getting a really good education that makes you more in demand or saving enough money to do what you want, will ensure that you’re in a better position to negotiate for a career with lots of freedom, take leaps of faith, and change things until they suit your ultimate aim.

Career freedom really can be yours; you just have to put in the work and have the confidence in yourself to make a change.