So how’m I doing in my quest to re-invent my life, follow my evolving Blisses and create the life I really, really want?
My goodness what a difference a year makes! Last January I was hating my life, feeling trapped and stuck and all manner of miserable. I had debt for the first time, money was unspeakably tight and I didn’t know how on earth I was going to change that. Plus I just wasn’t happy doing what I was doing.
I must confess that, because of my debt, money is still scarily tight. (Stay out of debt, people. Seriously.)
But (and here’s the rub), I love what I’m doing and I’m confident that it’s leading me in the right direction.
The feedback I’ve been getting from my Thriving Artists Project members, and from my 365 Days of Genius viewers and contributors, is validation that I’m where I want to be: creating, expressing my creativity, and helping others do the same.
I even got this in an email today:
Melissa…
My friend Paula Swenson turned me onto your website(s) just a couple of days ago and I have SO enjoyed reading you. You just shine (beam, project, sparkle) with such amazing authenticity and integrity.
In short…you rock. Nuff said.
Sandi
(BTW, if anyone ever criticized you for loving external validation, 99 lashes with a wet noodle for them. We all need it every so often in order to shore up our ability to validate internally, and we never, ever stop loving it!)
Suffice it to say that I love my life!
This, dear reader, is my true calling.
(The specifics of how it manifests may change over time, but the foundation is here to stay – of that I’m as sure as I can be.)
On the other hand…
It is also shaping up to be a helluva lot more time-consuming than one little human can manage on her own!
The truth is, the pace I’ve been keeping is simply unsustainable, and as wedding season 2011 starts to heat up, I’m going to be in some serious hot water if I don’t figure out a way to get some help. (Not to mention that it’s annoying the hell out of me that I barely have time for one post a week on LACL!)
So where 2011 is the year of Reach, Abundance and Serenity, I am bound and determined that it is also going to be the year of Outsourcing.
In other words, the year of learning how to grow up and run a business, rather than just working a job.
Business vs. Job
Proud as I am of the ketubah/calligraphy/design business that I built from scratch, it’s not really a business in the ultimate sense of the word. I can’t up and leave for a week, or a month, or (god forbid) longer.
Or rather, I could, but it would effectively shut the business down until I returned.
What I managed to create is a job.
No, I’m not an employee, I don’t have a boss who might at any minute lay me off or fire me, and I don’t work in a cubicle (in fact, more often than not I’m in my pajamas all day long!)
I’ve got a great commute (across the hall!), and I can work with my cat in my lap, or on an exercise bike (as I am while I type this) if I like. I can work at whatever time of day or night I want, I can take cookie breaks whenever I want (or hell, baking cookie breaks!)
I’m not disputing that, as jobs go, it’s a pretty awesome one.
But without me, this job would cease to be. And the fact is, I’m chained to it as much as any Nine-to-Fiver is chained to their cubicle job.
This is not news to me.
I’ve been fantasizing about hiring an assistant for years. On bad days I’ve even fantasized about selling the whole damn thing, chucking it all and starting over at something new.
That’s not a realistic option at the moment, nor is it one that I’m seriously interested in. For now, my ketubah business pays my mortgage.
However, with my new, web-based endeavors and my new direction (I’m building an internet empire, people!), I can see the writing on the wall, and that writing is telling me that it is not going to be possible to run a full-time ketubah business in the height of wedding season and keep up my current pace with tTAP and 365 Days of Genius.
Pushing myself out of the nest
Yep, it’s time for me to grow some Businesswoman wings. If my goal is to grow my online businesses into my main income source so that my current main source becomes my side business, the only way to do it is to get some help.
In fact, taking on 365 Days of Genius was one way of forcing myself out of the nest. Heather, the Grand Poobah behind the 365 Days of… network has made it clear in our partner conference calls that her goal is not to see us partners saddled with yet another job, but to help mentor us into building actual businesses.
You know, the kind where we really could take off to Bali for a couple of months, and the business would keep on chugging along.
I’m not exactly sure what this is all going to look like (though paid assistance will definitely be part of the picture) and I’ll confess I’m a bit intimidated by the challenge.
But I’m also determined and excited.
It’s time to bust through the glass ceiling I installed over my own head. Time to learn to delegate, to be a (gasp!) manager.
No, I’m not quite ready to start hiring… yet. But I’m revving up for it. Looking around at my options. Thinking about what I can outsource and how best to accomplish it.
First week of the year, and I’m plotting the growth of my business.
Kinda cool, if you ask me.
I’ll keep you posted…
