Self-employment – are you holding on by a thread?
If this has been a challenging year, if it’s taking you longer than you thought to get your business off the ground, if you’re wondering whether it’s all worth it and are considering throwing in the towel…
… let me share one story of why your contribution matters. (For you and for others.)
The end of the world
I remember where I was when I heard the world would end in 2012. It was 2002 and in a green field in Dorset, standing outside the composting toilets of a festival, a new friend told me about the Mayan calendar. I’d been seriously unwell that year, was still in recovery and her words comforted me; it felt a relief to think I’d only need to live another decade.
Over the next few years, though, the gifts of others helped me immensely. By contributing their talents – reiki, counselling, shiatsu, acupuncture, Five Rhythms, homeopathy and many others – they helped my healing journey from a variety of angles. Because those people existed, I got better and better and built up my health – and my life – on solid foundations.
Through sharing their talents, they helped me.
As the years went on, I became clearer about my own talents. I started to identify my unique contribution in this world. Through freeing up my time from other employment so I could focus completely on what I most loved to do, I anchored my sense of self-esteem and purpose and validity.
Through sharing my talents, I helped myself.
By being helped by the gifts of others, and through sharing my own gifts, the end of the world prophecy lost its appeal. My anticipation of 2012 shifted; I didn’t feel ready, I wasn’t done yet.
Your duty: to share your gifts
As we stand ready for 2013, I see it matters so much that we make our contribution. When we pursue our passion, we help others. And through pursuing our passion, we help ourselves. It’s a doubly whammy, a win-win where everyone benefits.
And if you choose to pursue your passion through working independently, enjoying the flexibility of lifestyle and autonomy that self-employment brings, it’s imperative that you learn as much about business and marketing as you can.
Identifying your gifts is only one half of the picture. It doesn’t matter how well trained you are, or how competent you are, if too few people are benefiting from your gifts. We have to learn how to share. We have to be able to communicate how much we can help others. We have to equip ourselves with the business knowledge and marketing skills so we can do our life’s work as generously as possible.
With a solid understanding of business and marketing principles and how to put them into practice, we can reach more people. We can help more people – and through doing this, help ourselves.
So, as 2012 draws to a close, pause to reflect on the year the world didn’t end. How have the talents of others enriched your life? How have your gifts made others’ lives easier? And how has contributing your passion helped you?
I’d love to hear from you. Leave a comment below, let us know.
I wish you and yours a wonderful close to this year and a magical start to the next.
Want my support with sharing your gifts in 2013?
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© Corrina Gordon-Barnes 2012
Corrina, you are an inspiration! I love your honesty.
julie xx
Came at just the right time, thank you Corrina x
Thank you Corrina, your posts always come at the right time and I’m grateful for them. Happy New Year, Nicky xx
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Beautiful, honest blog that rings true in so many ways and a good reminder of why it is important to share our gifts. To me the business-ey /marketing-ey stuff is/ has not always been so easy (or appealing!) but is slowly becoming more do-able and when something is worth doing, it’s worth finding a way. Wishing everyone great ways forward in 2013…. X
What a great blog post, Corrina. I particularly like your sentence about the double whammy. Ultimately we’re all in service to each other and when we do what we love then we can all shine brightly together.
I can identify with a lot of what you have just said Corrina. This blog came at exactly the right time!! As always you continue to inspire me!! Wishing you all good things in 2013 xx
This is lovely Corrina. When I reflect on this past year (which as you know has included being a Hummingbird in your P2P programme
), I see how I have shifted from a sort of suspicion of being ‘business like’, (largely based on having been stuck in large, bureaucratic organisations and my own prejudices about what it means to be ‘business-like’)to a celebration of how ‘business’ can mean a way of sustainably sharing what we have and love to do with others. emphasis on the sustainably though, which is what P2P has taught me (amongst other things).
Sally – Yee ha! I agree: running a service business well is one of the greatest acts of generosity. I’m so happy you were part of the Passion to Profit programme. The next group (the Kingfishers) start today so think of them on their intrepid journey to share more abundantly what they love
Your description of that Dorset field made me so grateful for your honesty and also reminded me of that Pulp song ‘And this hollow feeling grows and
grows and grows and grows and you want to phone your mother and say
‘Mother, I can never come home again..’
I think just being reminded that it is OK and feeling a kind of urgency to show up just as I am is my overwhelming feeling ending 2012. And yes, I share your conviction that it ain’t over…there’s SO much to do! I hope I’m able to spread some of that around all my multipassionate tribespeople
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I’ve been s/e for 20 years, my main enterprise has been going 13 years and has needed 3 reinventions/reboots each economic crisis that dawns and being IT related but run on upside down principles it has to keep up with the times, or rather continue to spot the niches, new and old. I’d wondered during 2 years of low health & wealth what the end of 2012 would bring. Well I took a decision to reboot my depression, insomnia and dump my pills, within days I was in better health, things turned around and the last month of 2012 brought the best month’s takings in 3 years, 5-6x each of the previous month averages. What’s more is that I am working less than 2hrs/day, and switching attitude from surviving to thriving again, attracting my choice of work flow and leaving myself 75% free to pursue other interests, charity work, self-development and (p)leisure. Alongside maintaining past projects, ever reducing their energy requirements and shifting them to passive income streams, I am once again stimulated by new ideas for an exciting 2013. Economic pressure is a time for innovation and pursuing your passion with that creative edge that makes it sustainable and profitable. I would never give up being s/e again, being your own boss is being in charge of your destiny, decisions and you only have yourself to praise or blame.
It can be really difficult to switch out off the conditioning that looking after yourself first is an efficient – and a short cut – to a successful business with a good income. Our minds and bodies aren’t stupid, they know if it really works for us, then we heal, thrive and find where we are meant to fit. That leads to attracting the right kind of person to us, and that’s a key to a successful business.
I have a friend in Sweden and I was telling her last night, so many people need her – she’s a holistic nutritionist who is very practical and understanding, with a cracking sense of humour, and knows it can be hard to live and eat well around a normal life. I said, get out there, there aren’t many like you, and you’re needed!
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Rats, that’s a typo and a half in that first sentence. Hopefully you added the bit I missed out, that the conditioning means you can’t do it!
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