Live Your Life to the Fullest | About Parenting, Passports and Profits

Live your life to the fullest!

Parenting, Passports and Profits is all about helping you live your life to the fullest.

It is our contribution to foster a community for parents and help YOU discover your version of living life by design. To enjoy as many cultural experiences as possible, regardless of where you live, work or play.

It’s about being a digital nomad family, a freedompreneur and a global citizen. This means having the freedom to explore, to contribute and serve others while investing as much time as possible building meaningful relationships.

Living life by design

Colin Clapp, Elly McGuinness and Little Miss poolside in Penang

For us, living life by design is about having the opportunity to worldschool/unschool our daughter (As of 2019, that is now daughters!). To spend lots of quality time together, and to make a meaningful contribution to the world.

It’s about living differently and enjoying our time on the planet while being part of something bigger than ourselves.

How do you want to live life by design?

For you, living your life by design could mean something completely different and we want to support your dreams.

• Maybe it means getting out of the rat race. Or getting more balance in your life so you can attend your kids’ sports matches or school performances more regularly?
• Perhaps you want to scratch an itch to have an adventure or travel to new places with your children?
• Or maybe you’ve been sitting on an idea to start your own business so you can enjoy more family time. But you just can’t find a way to kickstart your plans?

Everyone’s journey is unique because everyone’s drivers and ambitions are different. By being part of this community we hope that we can help you, one step at a time, to get closer to whatever living life by design means to you.

To learn more about the specific categories Parenting, Passports and Profits and what they can mean for you, please click any of the links or use the navigation bar. We trust you’ll find something of inspiration and value and we look forward to you joining the tribe!

In the meantime, click below to learn a little more about us.

How we live a life by design | Our story

First of all, we’re Little Miss, Colin and Elly. We call New Zealand home but consider ourselves ‘global citizens’. We are slowly but steadily building a new life as freedompreneurs and a digital nomad family.

Like most people, our story has many starting points, but the real catalyst for change came at the end of 2016.

We were becoming increasingly unsettled with our life in our amazingly idyllic country, New Zealand. We’d gotten into a downward spiral with businesses that weren’t working and were rapidly eating away at everything we had.

We had an out of kilter work-life balance and a high level of stress. We were working harder than ever but getting less and less rewards.

Elly, Colin and Little Miss

Enough is enough

Unsurprisingly, all this was negatively impacting our family relationship and our health.

We were repeatedly suffering the symptoms of burnout and as soon as we realised this, we decided enough was enough.

We fully appreciate that big goals require dedication and a lot of hustle. But as family centred people we recognised our values were being too severely compromised and that a new approach was needed.

A few well-meaning friends and family members (whom we love dearly) suggested we get jobs (!?!!). Even if just for a short time. Whilst we recognise that this path is the right one for many, for us it would have taken us further away from our purpose and calling. Plus it would have slowly destroyed our souls in the process.

Minimalism!

For a number of reasons, we effectively became minimalists. We sold as much as we could, put what was left in a small storage unit and ‘officially’ started our digital nomad journey in early 2017.

We left New Zealand with two full backpacks, one suitcase and three day packs (including one for Little Miss) and are loving how ‘light and liberated’ we feel!

We’re aware that many people have the belief that travel with children is ‘too hard’. Or that children will only be settled if they live in one place. Surprise, surprise, but we don’t share these beliefs.

Instead we are excited to be able to expose our daughter to new cultures and life challenges. We can’t predict the future, but like many parents, we simply hope and trust that she will grow to be a truly global citizen. A valuable member of society who contributes positively to the world in her own meaningful way.

Colin, Elly and Little Miss travelling light when leaving Singapore on their way to Malaysia

Time to live our life by design

We are part of several amazing online and offline communities and we’ve discovered countless examples of families who are happily choosing a life on the road in order to enjoy a life by design. Sometimes with four or five kids in tow! (All being well, we will slowly but surely introduce you to them too).

Of course our journey will continue to include obstacles, big and small. But so do the journeys of all parents! We are committed to live life to the fullest and focus on the positives. This way we can enjoy the thrills of the challenge that come with trying new things.

We are no longer scared to change tack when things aren’t working and, to date, this part of our journey is proving much more enjoyable than the struggles of the previous few years! “Onwards and upwards” we say.

Values

Our family values are ‘freedom of choice’ and ‘meaningful relationships’. These values keep us challenged, in check and ‘on purpose’.

We love to serve and, as long as we can we do that, we know our lives will be significant irrespective of any financial or material rewards.

We hope you will enjoy following our journey but, more importantly, we invite you to join our growing community and help us all make the world a better place.

To learn more about the individuals, Colin, Elly and Little Miss, please read on…

About us

• COLIN
• ELLY
• LITTLE MISS A
• LITTLE MISS R

First and foremost, he’s a proud and supportive Dad and partner. (And a hugger!)

A heart centred entrepreneur, his purpose in life is “Success & Significance through a philosophy of “Give. Take. Invest. Enjoy.” His mission is to make people think; to question things and not accept the status quo.

Originally from the UK, he’s the one who sways between the big picture and the fine detail and sometimes misses the happy medium in between!

The one who keeps getting back in the entrepreneurial ring despite being behind on points and taking a beating more often than not! (No idea why we used a boxing analogy/metaphor!)

Loves snow-sports, mountain biking and the BBC Sport website!

Colin Clapp

Life has taught me success is a team game even when you feel alone. I continually aim to build better quality relationships so as to make a positive contribution to both my local and global community. I’m proud of many long-term and global friendships. I like to keep things simple and remind everyone that business and life can be fun, even during the tough times.

To find out how to work with Colin, please click on our Work with us page.

Loving and generous spirited mum and partner, chief menu writer and the family doctor.

The one we are thankful to for putting our health and wellbeing first.

Elly lives and breathes holistic health and is a passionate advocate of “you are what you eat”. Extremely rarely does this family need to see a doctor, or consume traditional medicine and it’s all down to the nutritious way Elly influences our food decisions.

She’s the saint who puts up with the tantrums and tempers of Little Miss and Dad!

Always extending herself, questioning herself (don’t we all?) and works hard.

Loves the outdoors, healthy food and adventurous travel.

Possessor of a special smile and an abundant supply of kisses and cuddles.

To find out how to work with Elly, please click on our Work with us page.

Elly having some fun on Little Miss’ first bike!

Little Miss up close with all her curls

Born late in 2013, she is our special ray of sunshine and the main reason we choose the life we do.

Loud, energetic and usually chooses to do anything other than go to bed! (She sleeps way too little for our liking!)

An avid reader, she continually surprises us by reading books out loud to us. (I guess her memory is developing well as sometimes she can do this after hearing it read to her only a few times!)

Born in the water and now with access to a pool on a daily basis, I guess we shouldn’t be surprised that she can already swim.

And finally, she’s the one who bosses us around and offers to help us all in the same paragraph!

But most importantly, the one we want to be with all the time [well, nearly all the time! :-)]

Watch this space! Little Miss R arrived at the beginning of 2019 and we’re getting to know her!