It was the summer of 2001, and I was sitting in a Starbucks in New York, watching some people drinking coffee and working on their laptops. They looked like serious business people to me. Similar scenes were commonplace in Starbucks cafes – and of course, I hung out there until my heart protested loudly because I had too much caffeine for the day.
Just a reminder: back then, the idea that all you needed for your work (or at least a large part of it) was a laptop and coffee was still in its infancy – at least where I lived and studied (Zagreb/Croatia).
Nobody in Croatia worked this way back then – at least, I didn’t see it. There was no common name or buzzword for this kind of work, no tutorials on a YouTube channel (which only came up in 2005), and no coaches to help you start your “online business” or anything like that.
***
Despite having no clue about what those laptop guys were doing, an undeniable desire for that lifestyle bubbled within me. You know that moment when you feel something is true, with no room for doubt?
I yearned to spend as much time as possible there, absorbing the energy of the experience and anchoring it firmly in my memory.
***
In my mind, I could easily imagine running a business for which I only needed a laptop and a cup of coffee. But that thought wouldn’t last long because the whispers of reality kept reminding me that I was about to graduate from law school.
Yet, those fleeting scenes from Starbucks stayed etched in my memory many years later. Just imagining such a lifestyle as my actual experience would fill me with wonder and excitement.
Coffee, a laptop, and me—a triumphant trio, a potent symbol of freedom.
***
But why am I actually mentioning this?
Although I thought I didn’t know what I wanted in life then, I can now see how certain activities “revealed” themselves and whispered what direction I should go.
Yes, you read that right. The emphasis is on activities that “revealed” themselves to me and drew my attention with a strong magnetic force.
But the idea of an intimate romance between coffee, a laptop, and me sounded soooooo good that I simply thought it was impossible. Or maybe in another life.
You know, like, come on… I’m not that lucky; this is just daydreaming and fantasizing… what’s really going to happen is a job in a law firm and a lot of paperwork and office time. By the way, I’ve never been an office guy. It’s boring for me.
But even if we don’t think we know what we want on our conscious level, a deeper part of us definitely knows and is constantly guiding us and helping us put the puzzle together.
The biggest problem with this is that it often sounds too good to be true on the surface, and we hide it in the “fantasy drawer” for too long. And fantasies… we never give them a chance in real life, do we?
Even if we don’t think we know what we want on our conscious level, a deeper part of us definitely knows and is constantly guiding us and helping us put the puzzle together. The biggest problem with this is that it often sounds too good to be true on the surface, and we hide it in the “fantasy drawer” for too long. And fantasies… we never give them a chance in real life, do we?
So if you think you don’t know what you want or feel like you want to completely change your lifestyle but can’t yet define where, what, and how, remember that a deeper part of you is constantly guiding you and showing you the way.
Also, consider more seriously the activities that make you feel uplifted just thinking about doing them. And don’t burden yourself with the thought that one of those activities has to become your “real” job or a final solution to something. Just dive in and let yourself be guided by the energy that opens paths for you.
***
As soon as I returned to Croatia (after about two and a half months in the US – mostly in Starbucks during my free time 😉), I immediately started saving money to buy my first laptop. When I bought it, I wasn’t planning on doing anything clever with it, but the fact that I could use it to sit in a coffee shop and read e-books in my spare time was fantastic.
And so it began slowly…
Today, I can do more than 90 percent of my work with just a laptop – and it doesn’t matter where I’m. It was worth it.
A laptop, a coffee, and me – my intimate threesome romance that I’ve secretly dreamed of for years has become a reality 😊
In short, you don’t need to know everything. It’s enough to know that a deeper part of you knows everything you need to know at any given moment and consciously allow it to take a deep breath and tell you how it sees things.
