I decided to take some time out for a week to not sweat the small stuff.
Recently I have been anxious about the fluctuating nature of my work and how I’ve been spending a lot of time not only thinking about this but also creating various different content such as e-books, resources, presentations and workshops on using social media for professional development.
Make no mistake that working for yourself is bloody hard work. It’s a constant slog. When you’re not looking for work, you’re thinking of work. You’re ‘on’ all the time wondering when the next client is coming along and how you can find more. It’s not for the faint hearted – I can assure you. It’s also not all success stories like others have you believe. There are massive highs and there are deep lows. The challenge is not to get stuck in those lows for a period of time because it will eat away at your self-confidence and you question whether it’s all been worth it.
However, working for myself these last few years has been one of the best learning experiences of my life. Not only has it been personally and professionally transformative for me, I feel as if I have grown more out of the process and begun to realise the more important things in my life namely the values I hold dear to me. If anything, one of the biggest lessons for me this year has been not to “sweat the small stuff”.
So what if I lost out on 25 consecutive proposals and leads for work?
So what if recruiters failed to respond to my job applications and didn’t provide me with any feedback on the job interviews I went to?
So what if people don’t respond to my emails anymore?
In the grand scheme of things, these little concerns are not important anymore.
More little and insignificant knockbacks mean that I can focus on what is important to me. When knockbacks come along, I roll my eyes, shrug my shoulders and laugh it off. In fact, they seem almost comical now.
However, life has a way of working itself out. These knockbacks only make me realise what I hold near and dear to my heart – what is important to me and allows me to focus in on that.
This week was to spend more time getting grounded and who best to ground me than my parents?
I had been thinking of spending more time with them so I organised a last minute road trip to Ned Kelly country to Beechworth and the alpine regions at Bright and Mount Beauty.
If anything, it was a chance to kick back and spend some thinking time in the car driving – away from all technology and deep into the heart of nature.
I had some concerns that travelling with parents would have been an eye-opening experience but I was pleasantly surprised how relaxing it was. The short mini break did us all a world of good because we could enjoy a cultural, historical and natural experience together all the while learning about wines and cheeses at the various vineyards and cheese factories along the way.
The short week away has given me a renewed appreciation of my life and exactly what is important in it. Sometimes there is so much noise online and we worry that we’re not good enough, we’re not fast enough, we’re not busy enough, we’re not successful enough.
Really, we shouldn’t worry.
At the end of the day, if you’re doing the things that you love and you feel content with what you have, who you are and who you’re sharing the experience with – I believe that’s all that matters.
The rest will work itself out.