Saturday, January 11, 2014

Learning to be Self-Employed

The last 12 months have been an extraordinary learning experience. Even though I've run my online business as a moonlight job for a number of years, in reality I've been a salary earner my whole adult life. Walking away from that apparent security has been tough but incredibly liberating.

I readily admit I squandered a great deal of the first six months of 2013. Some of that time was devoted to 'decompressing' but an awful lot of it was also, although hard to admit, lost to floundering aimlessly.

By the second half of the year I was beginning to get a feel for working for myself and working from home. I started thinking about goals, revisiting dreams, taking stock of my life and making the time to appreciate everything for which I am grateful. It's amazing the impact this change in mindset had on everything around me. 

Unfortunately, the brakes were slammed on some of my plans when I tore the cartilage in my left knee. Thankfully not badly enough to need surgery but it certainly slowed me down considerably. However, this enforced inactivity gave me an opportunity to read and listen to audio books on time management, motivation and similar subjects so the time definitely wasn't wasted.
One of the books that helped get me back on track.


Once I was able to, I started walking in the mornings. My morning stroll takes around 40mins and is sufficient to get the blood circulating but not overtax my still temperamental knee. Other than helping with physical well-being and stress management, I find my morning walk fires up my motivation and imagination. I walk in silence and just let the thoughts wander in and out as they choose. On my return, I know, as I walk through my front gate, I'm ready to tackle anything!

As 2014 begins, that's me, ready to tackle anything!

If you too are self-employed or a small business owner, please feel free to share any hints and tips for beginners.

Cheers,

Diane