Hey Reader,
As this email lands in your inbox, I'm unpacking my case in a spacious beachfront property with floor-to-ceiling windows overlooking the sea.
August sunshine streams across polished floors, and dances across the waves, and here's the kicker - I'm being paid to be here.
Plot twist: I'm cat-sitting.
Last October, after getting the third no-fault eviction on my London home and knowing that, this time, there would be no legal loophole to save me, my backup plan was to travel full-time.
But the slight issue was I'd been living off my savings for three months following the loss of my main corporate client and for the first time in a decade, finding new clients was proving impossible.
I had no idea when I'd be able to rebuild my income, so finances were tight.
A potential solution came to me in the shower (where many of my best ideas are formed): cat sitting.
An online search confirmed that cat sitting IS a thing globally, and it can indeed provide free accommodation for the sitter.
The problem was in the UK hosts want their sitters to have references and DBS certificates and I'd only cared for my parents' cats, or my own, and my DBS expired when I had Covid.
I nearly gave up on the idea but I'm also stubborn, always looking for loopholes.
After joining a cat-sitting Facebook group, I noticed that outside of the UK hosts were a little more relaxed about their criteria, so I challenged myself to respond to a post...
...and five days later I found myself in Morocco looking after two fur babies for a complete stranger.
Taking that one, impulsive, action secured me my first reference.
Post-eviction, health issues and a continued lack of income meant that my grand travel adventure had to be put on ice.
Instead, something unexpected happened: I found my ticket back to London.
That initial reference was enough for a French lady who'd recently moved to London to book me to cat sit...and then it snowballed.
Cat sitting has given me the ability to return to London - for free - around once a month, allowing me to reconnect with friends, and maintain my social life.
What started as a housing crisis workaround became my lifeline to the social connections I desperately needed: my 'exile' has been incredibly isolating. It's enabled me to still live the life I've loved, just part-time.
And now? Word has spread quietly through the networks that matter.
Last month, I was approached for this weeks' cat sit and offered a very generous payment to explore somewhere new and essentially have a paid mini break by the sea (and if you know me, you know I LOVE both the sea and exploring new places).
This is the magic of motion. Of creative experiments.
They donβt always look impressive but they plant seeds. And, sometimes, those seeds bloom in ways you never could have predicted.
Unbound Shift
The best solutions often emerge from your constraints, not despite them.
Here's what I've realised: I'd been looking at my situation all wrong.
Limited money, health challenges, housing uncertainty: I saw these as obstacles to overcome rather than parameters that might actually lead me to something better.
The cat-sitting thing worked not because I was being resourceful or clever, but because I stopped trying to solve the 'right' problem.
I thought I needed affordable travel.
What I actually needed was affordable access to my chosen family in London - the friends who understood me, the support network I'd spent years cultivating as an introvert who doesn't make connections easily.
This has been instrumental in me getting my mental health back to a relatively good place this year - in spite of very challenging circumstances.
A conventional solution might have been finding a job that paid enough for regular London trips, or even kept me in London. But the reality is I've come too far for conventional solutions and there are other factors at play, like my mother's illness.
Right now, I'm where I need to be.
Instead, I've worked within my constraints and found something that gave me more than I'd originally hoped for: free accommodation in London, unexpected experiences to collect and a new source of income.
Sometimes what feels like settling for less actually gives you access to more - but only if you're willing to abandon the 'proper' way of doing things.
The shift isn't about making the best of a bad situation. It's about recognising that your specific constraints might be the exact creative pressure needed to find a solution that works better than anything you could have bought.
Unbound Step
Write down one problem you're facing right now, then rewrite it as "I need..." instead of "I can't afford..." or "I don't have access to..."
That's it. Just change the framing.
"I can't afford therapy" becomes "I need someone to listen and help me think through problems."
"I don't have access to networking events" becomes "I need to meet people who share my interests and values."
"I can't take regular holidays" becomes "I need regular breaks from my usual environment."
Once you see what you actually need (rather than what you think you should want), the creative solutions often become obvious. The expensive, conventional answer stops being the only answer.
This week, pick one reframed need and notice what possibilities open up. Bonus points if you hit reply and let me know how you found this step - I read every response.
In your corner always,
Sam π
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Sam Sheppard
Introvert Life Design Strategist
I share practical tools to help you design a life that actually fits.
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