The 1 thing nobody prepared me for in self-employment
The one thing nobody prepared me for when it comes to self-employment? 🤔
The guilt.
Before I took the leap into freelancing and self-employment, I knew a couple of things.
✔️ I knew it was going to be tough
✔️ I knew it was going to be a steep learning curve
✔️ I knew I’d have to solve problems and challenges I’d never seen before
✔️ I knew I’d have to solve those problems and challenges on my own and figure sh*t out
✔️ I knew that such a concept of “stable income” would be a thing of the past, for a while
And I’d accepted all of those things. But I didn’t realise it would take so long for me to get into the “groove” of a routine, so to speak.
I’ve had a side hustle to my full time job for the last 9 years. I’m used to spending my days off work, evenings and weekends working on side projects and so, I thought the transition into doing this - just on more days - would be easier.
I’m 4 months in, and I still don’t feel like I’m working the best. I’m just about getting into the rhythm when it comes to work and clients, but my daily routine still feels… off.
I’ve spent most of the last 4 months structuring my day the same way I did in my 9-5.
(When you’ve worked a 9-5 for the last 11 years, your mind and body are conditioned to the typical working day, and it takes a lot to…. well, de-condition yourself!)
I realised that I don’t have to start work in the morning, take a break at lunch and then work for the afternoon.
🕰 I can start work at 7am, take a break at 10am and finish at 2pm, if I wanted.
🕰 Or, I could start at 3pm and longer into the evening.
🕰 Or, I could work for a few hours in the morning, take the afternoon off, and come back to it in the evening.
🕰 Or, I could work for the morning and then give myself the rest of the day off!
But the thing I’m struggling with? The guilt.
💭 The guilt of taking a few hours off to catch up with a friend over coffee.
💭 The guilt of finishing slightly earlier to go for dinner with my partner.
💭 The guilt of taking a Friday afternoon to myself to visit my parents.
💭 The guilt of doing anything other than working on my business feels all-consuming at times.
I know it comes back to the fact that this is also the first time in eleven years that I don’t have a stable income and so it feels like I need to be working 24/7 to make up for that fact.
Maybe it also comes from the “grind” and “hustle” culture that you see on social media platforms.
Or, maybe part of it is just that I have so many ideas of things I want to do, it feels like there’s not enough hours in the day!
Either way, I’d love to know - if you’re a business owner, how do you tackle this guilt?