This is Why I Blog
Today was the inauguration. And that's all I am going to say about that. On to the real topic.
This is why I am blogging.
I am a wife of…hmmm. Let me do the math. 2017 – 1 equals…15, going on 16 years. (That’s my math. Don’t base any moon landings on it.) I am the mother of two crazy wonderful teenagers – one boy, one girl – who frustrate the heck out me sometimes, but all I want is to see them happy and successful, and for me to be that as well so they can see it in me and emulate it. In my husband, they can see happiness working for someone else doing a job you love and making money. In me, they can see striving for independence and ultimately working for yourself doing what you love and making money. They can see both and choose for themselves what road they will start out on, knowing that there is life either way. That is what I want for them and me. This is what I want for my grandchildren, if I have any. (Right now they both say never. Yeah, yeah. I said that too.)
I am blogging for another equally important reason, though. You. “You” is the mom – married or not – with a job who wants to run her own schedule, take care of herself (and her marriage if she has one) and raise successful kids. But how do you break out of that employee mindset and make the transition? Not the “leap.” Not yet. Leaps are scary. How do you get close enough so all you have to do is step over the line out of the black and white world and into the land of living color? That’s the difficult question my friends. But that is my goal and this is me putting it out there so you can come with me and maybe we’ll all learn a few things along the way.
I’ve already been doing this whole thing for a few years now. More than a few. But this year is the year I seek total liberation. You get to be with me from the start to see what happens and maybe see if any of it can help you too. It’s time to be free. As Bob Proctor says that Bill Gove said, “If I wanna be free, I gotta be me.” Amen to that, brothers.
Mind you, I’ve cheated. I’ve had a glimpse. I looked over the fence at the greener grass. I do know what’s possible because I’ve had a taste here and there for years. All my working life, to be honest. I had the schedule of my dreams with my first full-time job and I had the job of my dreams with my third full-time job. I don’t want another job of my dreams. I don’t need it. But I am forever grateful to them because they helped me realize things about myself.
My 1st job let me be the night owl I am so I could go out during the day to appointments and start working on a Master’s degree where I remembered that my way of writing is good enough, earning me A’s and boosting my confidence. More importantly, I could get a side job at a clothing store I liked to earn a little extra money, be around clothes when they first come in, and discover that I have leadership qualities I didn’t know I had when they asked me to be an assistant manager at a new store within months f my being there. (I gave it a try, but eventually had to say no because they wanted too much from me. After all, it was supposed to be something fun to earn money and not think too much. I already had a full-time job I had no intention of leaving any time soon.)
My 3rd job liberated me from a 4-year job that had grown tedious to my soul and gave me the unexpected chance to use a mix of skills and experiences in one job proving – voila! – I really DO love helping people and writing and leading and being creative. And you really can get a job you love! That was also where I got an excellent, though unintended, demonstration of the law of attraction way before I even knew what LOA was. (More on that later.) That 3rd job was a thriving startup. It helped if you had an entrepreneurial mindset. It wasn’t required, but it helped. There I found people who appreciated the way I did things and I did those things just for my own sake, to keep me ahead of what my boss needed so I could be helpful to her, and to keep things organized so I knew what was going on. Because I did things that way – MY way – people usually asked me what was what because they knew I likely kept track of it somewhere. To be honest, it was just nice to feel so needed. J
So I am workin’ this thing y’all. I am listening to a lot and reading a lot. More than I did the first time around when I wanted my business AND my job. But I had Ramona then and that was a huge help. This time I am on my own and I have to encourage myself. I do that by finding motivating, energizing, forward-moving people to meet, follow, work with, etc. I’ll talk about the different people I am encountering along the way, but this post will feature Courtney Sanders, from Think and Grow Chick, who asked a few good questions in a podcast that I thought I knew the answer to, but I wanted to answer anyway, just to be sure. She’s great. Go hang out with her.
She asked:
What exactly is your dream? What exactly do you want to be doing?
Courtney asked this when I signed up for her emails and she, via a personalized form letter, asked me to write back and tell her. I loved that. No one had ever sent that in a form email before. This is what I told her.
I want to turn 24+ years of editorial experience and my one steady freelance client into a stable editing and writing support service so that I can help others -- new and reluctant writers in particular -- with their editorial needs. I am also looking for more places to write AND get paid for it. (I got one this year and I didn't even expect the pay part!) Once I am off and running on that ground, I am going to FINALLY start training to become a life coach. I have been wanting this since I was in my 20's and said I would do this in my 50’s. I am 46 now. I am focused on helping others to find their life's purpose. During that training time, I will also be looking into getting help to keep my editorial service running and growing, hopefully giving beginning editors and writers a place to start while giving myself space to coach, but keep my hand in the publishing arena because I love it too. I am also going to write a book targeting moms with jobs who don't want to wait for retirement to become entrepreneurs all without sacrificing their families.
When do you want to do it by?
This year. Yes, 2017. I am joining a mastermind to help me move forward and do it faster. If that group can’t find me a match, I will hire a business coach and I already have two potentials I can try. If the mastermind does work out, I intend to stick with them. I want to have the editorial business n forward momentum before summer so I can nurse that while I transition over to starting coach training in the fall and become a certified coach in 2018. (I will get more specific about that particular date when I find out how much time is involved to get there.)
What are the core components [to my gameplan]?
Ah, those are the specifics that even talkative me probably should keep to myself for now because I do have them started, but after I get off this blog this very night, I intend to look at those items again and see if I can add more and get even more specific. Don’t worry. I will share eventually because I told you I want to help you too if I can. I just have to get my thought ducks in a row first. And I want to make the most of this hour before I force myself to go to bed to get 7 hours of sleep. Tomorrow I have to take a couple of Girl Scouts to the cookie rally so I don’t have all day to play (a.k.a work). I am working on getting up one hour before I have to do anything every single day so I can do some vital things on my daily to-do list and tomorrow that’s 7 a.m.. I haven’t talked about that daily to-do list yet. I will.
Good night.
