Self Employed or Bust

The unbearable delays

July 13, 2008 – 1:06 am

I’m writing this because I’m frustrated. A few posts earlier I was admonishing against impatience and now I’m neck deep in a pool of it. The fact that I’m on call for the entire weekend, a service for which I’m in no way compensated, makes it horribly difficult to let the process run its course. I want my financial freedom and to be self employed and I want it now.

Each of us has our own incentive for wanting the independence of being our own boss, but I suspect most of us toil under the same frustrating circumstances of no work/life balance, inadequate compensation, unbearable hours or a boss we just can’t stand. I take some comfort in knowing I’m not the only one.

But what to do when the blues strike before we’ve even left the gate on our race to financial independence and self employment? How can you “stay the course” when you haven’t even begun the battle and the odds seem overwhelming or victory seems overwhelmingly distant?

In my youth I was a fantastic sprinter. I was, however, a terrible distance runner. Tell me I had to hoof it for more than a mile and I’d find myself short of breath before even leaving the starting line. It just wasn’t my strength. While it’s great to excel at any one thing, true growth comes from challenging ourselves with things we aren’t particularly good at and I found myself challenged often enough when running distance.

As the finish line drew closer and my energy waned to nothing, it was my coach’s advice that got me through the trial. “Just keep putting one foot in front of the other as fast as you can. Then do it faster.” No matter how tired I felt, if I followed his advice I always discovered a hidden reserve that served to pull me through.

Getting started and staying motivated on this journey we’re undertaking is no different. When you feel yourself feeling defeated because you know wealth won’t be instant, success will take time and independence simply isn’t going to happen overnight, don’t wallow. I can assure you of one thing and that’s the simple fact that if you don’t move forward, you’ll never get anywhere. Having to wait longer than you’d like is bad enough but certainly you’d agree that NEVER getting there is worse!

Whatever you do, don’t sit on the couch and mope about the challenges ahead. Tell that defeatist voice who wants you to just give up to get stuffed. Then, promptly go and do one thing, no matter how small, to move you forward in the right direction.

Motivation out of defeat is often just a matter of taking one more step. Write down some goals, go buy a book on accounting, internet marketing, incorporating or whatever will benefit your chosen business goals and read the first chapter. Read another one tomorrow. Go online and examine examples of blogs or websites doing what you want to model your individual success around. Learn from their example. I assure you, few of them grew to full independence overnight.

In my case, after spending the last week reading other blogs and jumping back and forth between books on incorporation and internet marketing, I found myself realizing that few to none of the real success stories happened overnight. Discouraged by the demands of my current job and the long road ahead to freedom, I found myself starting to mope. I fixed it by sitting down and writing this post. Since I plan for blogging to be one of the vehicles I use to realizing financial independence and getting away from my day job, the task has moved me forward. Every post counts towards growth (mine and yours, I hope).

And so, I’ve placed one foot in front of the other. Now I just have to remember my goal and keep it up. If I (you) want it enough AND work hard and smart enough, success will come in due time.

Stumble it!