Trying to Find a New Normal

As we approach the end of January, I am looking at this first month of 2019, and thinking about how I've done in this new world of mine. As some of you may recall, I lost my job rather suddenly a few days before Christmas, and my former employer chose to make some false claims in an effort to avoid paying me some things that are owed.

While that situation has of course rocked my financial foundation, I am proud to say that after a (relatively) brief mourning period of wallowing and feeling betrayed and quite sorry for myself (ok, not so proud about that part!), I chose to view this as a sign that my personal goals to evolve in the Internet space and build a business and eventually, an income, were the right path. I also believe this challenge means I should be working on my writing and pursuing things that excite me and challenge me more personally and professionally, and to stop "working to pay the bills".

In looking back at the month, I feel I have made some positive strides forward, but not as much progress as I'd hoped or expected. The reality of financially not having that income has necessitated a lot of hours trying to generate income through more traditional, reliable channels, which reduced the hours I had available to spend on my efforts for my personal goals. I also had to fight the battle with my former boss regarding his false charges--I've won the first round, but I'm under no illusion that he's going to stop being a snake.

But over the last 5-7 days, I'm starting to find my balance a bit more. I've started scheduling my time more carefully to make sure I have time to work on my WA training and my websites. I've written several articles for the website I'd created prior to joining WA, and they are MUCH better, just from what I've learned here so far. I've had some minor success on my travel planning side business (one sale, but it's my very first one, so I will take that as a win), and I believe it's another sign that I'm on the right track.

I've got a million ideas bubbling around in my head, and so excited to be working through them and to have a place to channel all that energy into learning and eventually, into output, and hopefully income. It's a bit of a circle isn't it? I need more time to write and do the things for my sites that I want to do, but I need income to pay the bills and buy groceries, so I have to spend time doing other things that DON'T help me with my goals, which makes it much harder to write and do the things I want to do to make progress on my goals. But I know that when I spend more time on the things that DO help me with my goals, I have the chance to earn more income and eventually be able to work less on the other things...but as we all know it takes time and effort. I've got plenty of energy and effort, just have to make the time (anybody got a recipe for THAT?).

I've started using an app called Just Record when I'm driving to dictate blog post ideas and/or snippets. The app then (sort of) transcribes the recordings for me, so I have a fairly long list of ideas at this point, and I've been able to take some of the snippets and turn them into articles, so I'm feeling good about that idea. I'm carrying my Ipad and keyboard with me all the time, so whenever I have a few minutes, I can write; I think the more posts I write, the better I will get.

I am currently spending a lot time fighting my inner perfectionist....re-reading and re-reading and editing...WAY too much time on each article. My professional voice says I should make sure it's perfect because I want to be proud of what I present to the world, but I also know that if it takes me four days (or four weeks) to publish each article, I am NEVER going to make any progress. So I'm only allowing myself one re-read of this post before I let it go. I have to learn to edit faster, but also to let go a little bit more. I'll never be perfect, but we're all learning, right? Hopefully, I won't get too crazy.

Anyways, I just wanted to update on my status. Still moving ahead. Baby steps, but I'm moving ahead. Trying to figure out ways to earn income where I can stay home to give myself more time to write and work on my businesses, but like everything else, I suspect that too will take time.

I hope you are all safe and warm and doing the things that make you happy!

Take care,

Brooke