Flyin' Shoes

While there are many usable soundbites from this book, it didn’t quite capture the magic of self-employment that Pam Slim so eloquently covers in ‘Escape from Cubicle Nation’. Tim Ferriss comes across as someone who just happens to land in scenarios that enable him to experiment with the direction of work and life, which some of us just don’t have the luxury of….yet. The whole book could be summarized in far less words as to simply outsource everything you can and trust in the people you employ.

There is so much in here that is common sense and those with at least a few smarts or industry experience will not find anything new. If on the other hand, you spend your days stressing about the business you’ve already grown and haven’t worked out the logistics of backing off, this could be a kick in the right direction.

As with most ‘inside information’ these days, don’t expect to find the bonus information on the website particularly explosive or even up-to-date. The intention here is good but you’ll get a better structure for new forays into the freelance game, or even advancing your small business, elsewhere.

As part of the restructure of my life, I’ve spent the last 3 years putting together the building blocks that have been missing for the 35 years prior. Well, of course there is always development going on but lets just say I hadn’t previously opened myself enough to become fully receptive to my own consciousness. No, I’m not going to power into a long diatribe about understandings of subliminal and background process that continue, even when you think you’re not paying attention. Those conversations are best enjoyed with multiple minds and heated exchanges.

Now I am receptive to my own desires, I’m able to direct energies to my vocation which has narrowed to travel, video and education. I still have some way to go to become the expert in my game but the voices directing me, keep informing that this is what I *should* be doing, so, I’m sticking with it. Following something you enjoy and believe in is an amazing way to feel that your life has a point. In this age of pseudo-enlightenment and 10-second consumption it’s hard to grasp our sense of belonging and ultimately, a desire that our life has not been wasted or in vain.

I would like to share the four things that have been paramount to both how I’m living my life now and how I’m steering myself toward the work I was born to do:

Draw a line in the sand
I never make New Year resolutions but as of late, I am marking public lines in the sand to ensure I achieve a task and keep moving forward. There are many books that advocate this practice and they are absolutely right – having a big public message that you’re going to do something means you have to get it done and there’s no turning back without unwelcome humiliation. It also stops you making false promises that you think will disappear if they’re kept to yourself.  Even if you don’t have anyone to speak your intent to, facing yourself in the mirror or writing a goal down is often enough inspiration to get on with it.

Act on intent
Ideas in your head are worthless unless they have an exit point into the real world. If you find yourself consistently saying ‘I’d love to do this but I need to get a website/business license/portfolio first”, then procrastination is hindering the explosion of your passion for the idea. The best time to do something is when it’s exciting, so go at it with gusto and worry about the minor details along the way. Sure you may need a website, but a splashscreen with contact info will suffice until you start to gain momentum with business. Yes, portfolios can be necessary but until you start doing some work, free or otherwise, you won’t have anything to put in the portfolio.

Don’t drown in the details
We can often get wrapped up trying to absorb a ton of information, to ensure we know as much as possible for marketing ourselves but take a minute to think; is 10% of 10 skills better than 100% of 1 skill? It could be that your jack-of-all-trades offering requires multiple talents but try not to learn too much before you need to and stick with what will get you launched.

Find your temple of thought
For me, this ended up being hiking. Whenever I’m stressed, finding it hard to think of life’s purpose, or need to open my mind to new ideas, I find a long steep hike and push myself hard. For others it’s often solitude, quiet and meditation – the catalyst doesn’t matter as long as you know what it is and can get ready access.

Starting out in freelance, I’ve driven myself with all the confidence in the world to feel like I’ve already hit the top of Everest and that anything that comes my way, while not a walk in the park, will at least not drain me of all positive energy. The reality is, of course, that self-doubt tries to talk you out of pursuing anything, leaving you wondering if you’ll ever be smart/talented/lucky/<insert excuse here> enough to do anything worthwhile in life that doesn’t involve waking out of a work coma when you’re 65, finding your life in its twilight years.

Well guess what? You Are Worthwhile.

Knowing this is not only important for having confidence in your talents or career, it’s extremely important for getting yourself through the moments in life that kick you while you’re down.

I wrote a while back in my 3rd Finding Focus post, that the most important thing was to just keep moving forward. When things got too tough, it was really O.K to back off for a bit as long as you get back to where you were and keep moving. Now I’m faced with the same mental situation in the business world.

While dreaming for so long that I could be working for myself, that there are hidden talents waiting to come out and (the part that most of us need) a solid cashflow to keep a roof over my head, I hadn’t really bothered to consider how to react when that scenario started to get realized. Now it is, doubt sits on my shoulder, whispering in my ear;

“There are better people out there doing this.”
“Shut up!”
“People wouldn’t pay for your second-rate talents”
“Shut up!”
“Dude, seriously? You think people would actually hire you?”
“SHUT UP!”

The fact is, self doubt saturates all our lives and we need to understand how we as individuals deal with it. Recognize how normal it is, make sure you acknowledge it and then push it to one side. I’m not advising you to ignore your inner self, but trust you to recognize limiting self-doubt, to ration doubt when someone tells you you can fly if you jump off a cliff.

I was told at a younger age “You know, I really wish you had more belief in yourself” and it was true, I had precious little. I’ve learned a great deal about myself over the last 10 years and know that it doesn’t matter how many times you fail, it’s how you understand the failure and just learn to move on.

Situations may dictate that nobody wants to buy my product, pay for my services, or thinks I’m capable enough to get the job done. These responses can be examined accordingly, so I can change the numbers until I find the combination that works. The goal of this post is to caution you against defeating yourself before you even start.

It’s not an easy roadblock to either understand or get through – only in hindsight after you ‘get it’, does it become beautiful simplicity. Learn your fears, talk to them, tell them you appreciate the input but by simply trying, that makes you worthwhile.

I usually never write these thing but part of the new push is to write down goals, achievements, and failures, so as to ensure they are acted upon, instead of being lost as a thought.

2009 has been pretty good to me, despite many people being glad to see the back of it. I may have lost the job that has been my stability for the last 2 years, but it has been a welcome break. I had been getting stale in my industry and failed to take the opportunity to push myself forward when I could have. Nonetheless, I’m still sorry to have parted company with the best boss I’ve ever had, a paycheck that caught up a 401k, kicked off some financial independence, paid for a great apartment (or two) and most importantly, gave me enough spare change to get to Peru and most of the US covered. They say money isn’t everything – and it’s not – but sometimes it really helps to get you back on track for things that could take years (or never) if the finances aren’t in order.

My personal achievements last year were impressive to myself. One always gets to a point where they think they’re not moving forward and then on reflection, sees that the blur is caused by the fact the hours were well spent and not idled away. My list may not be impressive to many but I’m not trying to compete; the only person who matters here is myself and whether I know I didn’t waste my days.

One of my biggest discoveries about myself was that hiking is an integral part of my active throught process. By that I mean that I gain infinitely more focus when hiking a hill, or climbing a mountain. Inner visions are shared with my conscious and dreams and ideas flow. This was a revelation for me, as it effectively hands me a key to my productive being. This year I intend to make the most of that revelation and see if I can’t either push myself further, or find another gate that the key fits.

Financially, no huge leaps have been observed, although I continue to make good progress on money management. I’m finally in a financial position to be able to up sticks in a heartbeat and take a ride when given the opportunity. I still, of course, have a couple of major financial commitments (one being rent) but two manageable items is better than a laundry list of debt to cover. Not so much a revelation but an interesting footnote to my financial drive was that I really spend very little on myself. I’m living financially within my means (larger % of incoming opposed to outgoing) which ensures that I’m constantly putting something to one side for the next adventure.

So, what goals am I setting for myself this year?

1. Development of a consistent cash-flow, that doesn’t rely on being employed. Still wondering if I can get some inkling of a residual income from affiliate accounts. There’s the option of offering some cheap web-hosting and as time moves on, I’m sure I’ll find some other angles to add to the list of possibilities.

Development of an automated cash-flow is important for me now because I need to gain an element of financial independence from rent and the other single commitment. Covering these two items is the priority, mainly because I dislike being tied to having work relate to paying someone else for a portion of my time, to do something I don’t want to do. Life is obscenely short to be stuck in an office for a third of the day.

2. Hike a lot more and takes lots of video. It was so evident this past year how important both hiking and travel are to my mental health, that I’d be doing myself a disservice to not push harder. I’d really like to get videos of each hike up online, too, and see where we can go with a podcast series on (for now) washington hiking.

3. Ease myself out of the QA life. I’ve been doing it for 9 years now and it’s not something I could stomach another 9 years of. Sure it’s paying the bills but if I have to work, even in the short-term, I need to get into a job that I love, and ‘like’ isn’t cutting it. I’m in a 3-month contract now, that I’m really not enjoying or getting stimulated by. It cuts 40 hours a week out my happiness and turns it depressive and void of creativeness. In general, I feel better in life when I spend as little time with tech as possible; this is something I also need to digest and think about more.

What goals did I set that are ‘barring death or dismemberment’ not even remotely postponeable?

So far, two hiking targets that will not change; A night ascent of Mt St. Helen’s and 2 weeks hiking around the Hawaiian islands. I have penciled in two tentative hikes for Mt Baker and Mt Hood but these are dependent on hiking partners. I may love the hikes but I’m not stupid enough to go alone with the little mountaineering experience I have, in case I get into trouble.