I saw this advert online today: “It is the most organized people who will achieve the most, do it faster with the least amount of effort have the most free time.” It implied that this kind of person is only one in a thousand. Others who study the successful refer to the top 3%. The truth is too many people are prepared to accept an extra-ordinary number of compromises in their lives; they work for a boss who makes them furious or miserable, will give up the kids to day-care and miss them growing up, stay in a love-less relationship for the sake of comfort zones, the list goes on… perhaps in some respect, you too may be accepting second best…
The point is: who is prepared to make the jump, empty handed into the abyss of the unknown and make sacrifices for unpredictable outcomes? How many people can be consistent in chasing their dreams in spite of daily, weekly, monthly challenges? Who is prepared to persist in ‘turning up’ daily to get the necessary work done? To stick to their guns, believe in themselves even when everything seems to be going belly up….
Trust me when I say that procrastination is one of my personal daily challenges. I am not always the most physically fit and some days can be pretty hard to keep going through the most difficult early days of having my own business. But the bottom line is that I have made a life-decision which effects how I now look at everything I do. I am committed to MYSELF and my own personal happiness.
For a long time, this involved paying a mortgage and having the odd rare treat afforded me by selling mind body and soul for very little return….
Now, no longer am I prepared to work for anyone else long-term who does not appreciate my efforts. My only commitment is to myself and those I love; as I support my team to grow their own dreams, they too become part of my chosen extended family circle. I am passionate about my independence from employers and belonging to a team who work together to get the results we all need. Being an independent business owner in a network marketing business suits my ‘psychologically unemployable’ psyche. I am passionate about helping people who are prepared to help themselves… Empowerment is an incredible life-changing process and for those whose passion about their business grows along-side their success, their empowerment is on-going for life.
It is incredibly rewarding to see people who are starting their own business, stretching beyond their expectations of themselves and achieving new results and outcomes in their lives. Persistent effort brings consistent change and growth. The key to this persistence is having a PASSION for something… a vision of something bigger than the short-term and taking measurable steps towards that dream… This is completely unlike the 9-5, getting through the day, the week or to the next monthly pay cheque.
Sometimes my passion leads me to do quite unexpected and incredible things…….. Here’s one of those sublime moments I had at 4am recently…
My phone rang in the middle of the night. As this is not normal, I picked up the phone. It was my sister sounding pretty upset. Although I was not fully awake, it didn’t matter, she just needed me to be there, no matter what half-asleep state I was in. I stayed on the phone until she was calm and ready to sleep, at least an hour later.
If this had have happened when I was working in a 9-5, even though I still would have been there for her, part of me would have worried that I might not be able to cope very well the next day because of the unpredictable and regularly unreasonable expectations of colleagues. Back then I needed every minute of sleep because my days at work often left me completely drained of mental and physical energy.
Instead of going straight back to sleep before the alarm clock went off just over an hour later, I lay for a little while thinking about my sister and what she might need at a really difficult time.
Some people might think that this is not a big deal and it might only be what they would do normally. For me, this was significant. I was completely relaxed about having a shortage of sleep. If I have not said already elsewhere in my blog, I have a diagnosis of ADHD (very mild), which means that everyday tasks take a lot more mental effort than the average person without some learning difficulty would require.
One of my ex-bosses used to comment about the extent to which I would yawn daily. Now apart from unnecessarily difficult physical challenges as a result of being female, which would wear thin the energy of any strong woman, I suspect that ADHD makes people incredibly tired when they perform at the level of your average professional. I have never bothered to check out if this is the case or if there is research to back my theory up, partly because I suspect that the fact that I am borderline compared to many others, such issues are unlikely to be addressed, given some of the extreme issues facing others with this condition.
I thanked my good fortune in those early hours that I did not have to face colleagues who were likely to get up my nose somehow the next day. I didn’t have to go through the mental wrestle of what I would like to say to them and how I would have to maintain a poker face and carry on ‘not bringing my personal stuff’ into the job.
The worst that could happen was a new prospect or potential customer being stroppy or difficult somehow, in which case, I could simply strike them from my lists. I cannot tell you what this means to me, given years of strife in trying to make myself fit in the mold of the workplace. If you are one of those fortunate enough to love your job – and mark my words, you are quite rare – then the only parallel I can give is someone coming along and releasing you from a straight jacket after twenty years.
I went back to sleep for an hour and went about my business the next day pacing myself with no thought of looking over my shoulder fearfully waiting for someone to pick up on some detail where I may have slipped up. If I made any mistakes that day, it was I and my business which would suffer. I would not beat myself up or feel under pressure to prove my worth, I would just either let it go completely or determine that next time I would have learnt from any mistakes.
Life is short. Too short to worry about what others will think of you if you are less than perfect and have human limitations and feelings, such as lack of sleep. I am determined every time my business allows me this leeway to make every day count. Life happens to us all. We all have difficulties of one type or another to negotiate, which can have a bearing on our state of mind during the working day.
I am resolved to NEVER return to the 9-5 and be at the mercy of the cold or callous working environments created by people too tied up in ridiculous regimes or wrapped up in their own personalities to make room for those who may have more than the average set of burdens to bear on a daily basis.
I can recommend becoming an independent business owner to anyone. Even when I work long hours to build on my skills or effectiveness, I do it because I am passionate about making my chosen life-style work. I still work hard. I still get tired, but even when the work gets at its most demanding my attitude is very different and I very rarely feel mentally exhausted as I used to on a daily basis working for others.
These days, I am working towards my goals steadily, with my hours of experience and effort building all the time. I have had my own business nearly nine months now and I am seeing growth month on month; my efforts are already paying off. If I had have still been in my job, I would have had a wage rise, sure, but on that pay-scale, I probably would have not have seen much more; but no amount of nice clothes, holidays and pension security would compensate for the increased stress and pressure of working amongst the vagiaries of office politics, with little credit given for efforts made and lots of nit-picking for spurious reasons…
As for how much happier I am these days……… Well I have never been as happy as I am now I am in business for myself.
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