Life after slavery

[Mabel]

Hello all,

As I near the end of my life in the workforce I continue to be very excited about the endless possibilties that come with freedom. When I was on stage with Steve during CGW #2 for the daily habits section, I expressed my concern over this area of my life feeling rather chaotic. It is an area in which I felt like a criminal in my daily habits and a martyr to my schedule. Steve correctly pointed out that I was giving my power to these concerns and using them as an excuse not to shed the JOB. So now the JOB is on the way out and my thoughts are mostly positive. I would like to start off on the right foot though and it would help me to have examples about how people in the land of the free operate on a daily or weekly basis. I am not looking for a "how to" manual as I will figure out what works for me, but I am looking for examples--points of reference--ideas on what some of the challenges and joys are. What can you see that I might not see from where I am now? For example....

How long have you been "free"? If you had a JOB, what were some of your victories and challenges in making the transition?

What does a typical "work" day look like for you? What types of habits and routines (or lack of) work for you?

What are some of the golden nuggets that you have learned from experience that you think might be hard to see by those who are currently enslaved or you have just recently released themselves?


Thanks!!!

Sonya

[David Hooper]

If you're planning on working from home, I think it's important to make sure you setup a routine where you leave the house daily. For me, that means hitting the gym, but it could be any number of things for you. It needs to be daily though and more than just "going to the grocery."

I have a tendency to work too much and this was especially an issue when I first started my company. It's killed relationships and I've said "no" to a lot of things due to my desire to get things going.

It takes massive action to get something off the ground and, when you're new, you won't know what's effective for making that happen and what's not, so you'll likely work more when you're starting than you will later in your career. If you're aware of what is working to bring in money and what isn't, you can shortcut this.

Ask yourself, "Does this make me money?"

And by that I mean, is it making you money now? Long-term strategy is important, but don't fool yourself into thinking that something is long-term when the reality is that it's not getting you anywhere.

To help you with work/non-work balance, I suggest you have both work and non-work areas of your house. When you're working, you're working. When you're not, you're not.

If you want more info on this, "Power of Full Engagement" is an excellent book, which talks about energy and time management.

Also-- make a list of everything that needs to be done in your business. Put a mark next to the things on the list that you have to do. If there isn't a mark next to it, go to a site like Elance | Outsource to freelancers, professionals, experts, and consultants - Get work done on Elance. and hire somebody to do it. Yes, you can afford it. There is no reason for you to waste time on $10/hour tasks. Your business is doing things nobody else can do.

Hope this helps!

[Margarita888]

Ahh, the land of the free. Once you experience it, you'll probably not want to go back to 'slavery'.

I've only had a handful of jobs before realizing I just absolutely hated working a regular job. I don't like routines, or schedules, or the thought that I had to do something I didn't really feel like doing because my superiors required it.

Being my own boss has always felt like that's what I'm supposed to be doing. Being on the creative side, the ability to do things on my own terms is so liberating and inspiring. With that said, I tend to work a lot though, only because I really truly enjoy what I'm doing.

I'm very fortunate that I get to work at home. Although we have an offsite office and distribution center, my part of the business does not require me to be there. We manufacture baby stuff and sell them to other online stores or retail shops. My job is designing our products, sourcing materials, production planning & marketing.

My typical day starts around 7:30 am making breakfast for the family. My mother in law comes from 8-4 to help me watch the kids and to allow me to work. Right around 8:30 am, I start checking & responding to emails. Around 9:30-10, I take the baby and put her down for a nap. I resume working for another hour until I have to pick up one of the kids from school. Then it's lunch for the kids, me & my mother in law. 1:30 pm, I pick up my eldest from kindergarten. Once we get home, I put the baby for her nap again while my mother in law puts the boys down for their naps. Then she comes to get the baby to free me up and give me about 1.5-2 hours to work. After my mother in law leaves at 4/4:30, my husband comes home, then we spend some time together as a family before getting ready for dinner. I come back to work around 8 pm as I put the baby down for the night and maybe work for another 2 or 3 hrs if she lets me.

As you can see, I tend to work in spurts. It's not really ideal, and I wish I can work more consistently, or for longer uninterrupted periods. But with 3 young kids, I just have to choose my priorities. I know that as they get older, I can work more, but now that they're still young, I want to make sure I'm always available for them during their formative years. So for now, this works. Plus my kids are happy, so that makes it all worth it.

My husband, however, would probably go nuts with this type of schedule. He works in my business running our office & dealing with our wholesale accounts & sales. He's the type that needs a lot of structure and cannot get any work done if he's working at home.

I don't know if you've got kids or have a spouse/partner. I can't remember if you mentioned that while you were on stage. But I can get pretty obsessed with what I do and can easily work on my business for hours and hours nonstop. However, it's very important to realize that you have to put just as much time nurturing the relationships you have and aligning yourself with the principle of Love. That has helped me a lot get to where I am now. Everybody around me are 100% supportive of what I do and will do all they can to help us succeed. And in turn, I also make sure they know they are all very much appreciated & that it's not all about me

Keep your goals in front of you. Make daily, weekly, monthly & yearly goals. With all this newfound freedom, it's very easy to go in 500 different directions or spend your time on the wrong things.

And lastly, make sure your work areas are kept clean and organized as much as you can. Read my blog post on this: Why You Need to De-Clutter Your Home | Margarita Mcclure

Hope this helps. What are you going to be doing now anyway? Is it the raw food coaching thing?

[Mabel]

Wow David and Margarita!

Thanks for all the helpful detail! No, I do not have kids, but if I do in the future, I will come to your store Margarita to get them diapered up! So true what you say about organization--it is a reflection on your life.

David--the gym will definitely be a priority for me. I am also thinking to do some of my writing in different places. I would like to experiment with going out in nature when it is warm, coffee houses, the university etc. When I was working at home a lot for my job for a while, I found that I got lonely sometimes. Of course now I will be free to do something like join a noon-time toastmasters club.


Yes Margarita--I will be a raw food coach and instructor. I will position myself as an intuitive health coach though. I will counsel people on how to clean up their bodies by eating a primarily raw food diet. I notice that when I counsel people now, my intuition plays a large role in how I guide them along the best path for their unique situation.

One of the first actions I will take once I gain my freedom after March 12th is to intensively work on a curriculum for a raw 101 class that I would like to teach in person in Madison. I may very well use the week off/week on approach that Steve just wrote about. I like the idea of giving myself the green light to focus on such a project without the distraction of every day life or other business projects (building raw food website) interfering with getting this one task done well.

I too am a very creative person and look forward to a MUCH more flexible schedule!

Cheers,

Sonya