I grew up working in our family restaurant, and it never occurred to me that there was anything unusual about not having a “real” job, so I’ve been self-employed for almost all of my life.
At the same time, I know that many, many colleagues “used to have a job” and self-employment wasn’t on their radar when they began their training! From talking with a lot of you, I think that many people would have stayed in their J-O-B if only they’d know what they were in for!
But we all know there are great benefits to being self-employed, and you aren’t alone in figuring out how to get there for yourself. I’ve learned that when you aren’t used to working for yourself, the Feldenkrais Method® comes in pretty handy as a starting place for fulfilling your dream!
Use the skills you’ve already developed with these questions to begin assessing your own situation, and we’ll talk more, later!
1. Use your awareness …
What’s working well? What doesn’t work as well as it could? What feedback are you getting from your clients?
2. Explore the situation…
Where will you need help to be successfully self-employed? What are you doing on your own that doesn’t need tinkering with? What’s the next step?
3. Become curious…
What are other self-employed people (no matter what modality they practice) doing that seems to work well for them? What ideas can you take from them that would work well for you? What changes are you afraid to make?
4. Figure out if you need to use a roller…
What can you do for yourself, and when do you need help? Find the support that will make it easier to take the next step.
5. Change a habit…
Make it okay to do it your own way! And know what your way is! Do you have to reinvent every wheel, or can you take some help from someone who’s done it successfully?
One of the keys is to realize that it’s okay to ask for help when you need it. Finding the right business mentors changed my practice and my life… More about that later!
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5 thoughts on “What You Don’t Know About Being Self-Employed Can Hurt You”
The freedom that everyone wants with being self-employed only comes once you learn to tame yourself ie discipline! I love how you broke things into simple points!
Hi, Gurpreet! I am definitely in the freedom camp, and definitely still working on the taming myself part! Whenever I look for someone to help me, one criterion is always: Must be better organized and more disciplined than I am!
I especially like #3 Become curious. We don’t have to reinvent the wheel. Chances are pretty good that what we want to know or do has been written about or done by someone before us. What many of us find surprising is how willing many people are to share their journey, their tips, their experiences and the traps and pitfalls to watch out for. All we need to do is look around and ask. Then we can take that help and information and craft it into something uniquely our own.
Kerry, it’s so true! I think we get caught in the tension of realizing that we can’t have both the joy of discovering “the thing” all by ourselves, and the breathtaking vision that’s possible when we stand on the shoulders of others.
Beautifully expressed!