The result? Self-employment feels like an endless treadmill, rather than the journey of freedom and fulfillment we’d hoped for.

As I celebrate the 5th birthday of You Inspire Me – yep, that’s five solid years of profitable self-employment (woo hoo!) – there are plenty of generic ‘rewards’ to choose from. “A meal out!” “A manicure!” “A new dress!”

One reason we often resist these options, I suspect, is because they feel too self-indulgent. But also, just as it would be illogical to celebrate weight loss with a slice of chocolate cake, so too perhaps we crave more meaningful, more relevant ways to celebrate our business landmarks and milestones.

Here are three suggestions to break you out of celebration avoidance, in order to deepen and strengthen your ever-evolving business:

1) Rest
Our precious hard-working brains need decent rest in order to process the new changes, information and responsibilities we’ve been dealing with. We can make this rest relative to what we’re celebrating: a long bath after your first session with a new client; a massage after a big workshop; a weekend away after a sustained promotional campaign. Time away from concentrated work often opens up access to creativity and inspiration, and creates space for the new to flood in. The watched pot never boils, all work and no play makes Jill a dull girl – you know the score.

I spent a week in Scotland with its bracing wind, cafe culture and great company. What rest can you can allow yourself?

2) Invest
The fact that you have something to celebrate is likely to mean that your business is growing – so find an aligned and logical way of celebrating this. Just completed your professional training? Invest in a business mentor. Earned more than last month? Invest in an accountant. More people wanting to join your mailing list? Invest in professional list-management software.

As I celebrate more clients, more income and more requests on my energy, it’s time to invest in partnering with an assistant. Tracie Shroyer joins the You Inspire Me team this month, freeing my time back up for creating content and doing more in-person work. I look forward to introducing Tracie to you properly in due course!

Whatever you’re celebrating – what does that enable you (or call you) to invest in?

3) What’s Next?
Just as the team behind a blockbuster film decides to ride the waves of success by coming up with a sequel, so your celebration can pull you forward into next steps. Let yourself really feel this success; use music, dance or exercise to lift you up into that physical sense of joy. Bask in the possibilities of that place, then pluck one of them out and decide to turn it into reality, knowing that it in turn will carry you into the next level of success. For example, if you’re celebrating getting an article published in a magazine, ride that wave and add that publication credit to the next article pitch you send.

Selling out my group programme, ‘Turn Your Passion To Profit’ spurred me on to consolidate the individual coaching programme I offer. Would YOU like a profitable business to celebrate in five years? Come check out the details > >

What might be the sequel to this success of yours?

Join (Or Start!) The Discussion…

How are you with celebrating the various steps along your self-employment journey?
What are the most congruent, useful ways you’ve found of celebrating?
How easy do you find it to rest, invest and decide what’s next?
Leave a comment below, let us know…

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© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2010

That first morning, I struggled. I was in entirely foreign territory, overwhelmed by possibilities, painfully aware of my own incompetence in this arena. I didn’t know what to do with these materials in front of me, I didn’t know what to do with myself. In my head ran a mantra: “I am not an artist. Why am I here?!”

I allowed my frustration and my discomfort and I stuck with it. And at some point, I’m not sure when, I became an artist. I felt at home in my overall, I started picking up materials instinctively, and caught glimpses of myself with paint splatters on my face and my nails caked in clay. I walked amongst the other artists and we reflected on each other’s processes and products; I was welcomed onto house boats and enjoyed the background clang of boat-workers welding.

On my return home, I felt alive and more whole. My whole being had been engaged and I felt bigger; there was more of me, because I was now this too.

Someone made this possible for me. My client, Sarah Preece, is a working artist who has just launched MakingSpace, a venture to reconnect us with materials, with making and with innately creative ways of seeing our world. She is passionate about everyone having access to this aspect of the human experience, one which she sees as being so often neglected.

As we go through life, we knock off parts of ourselves. Ignored by our PE teacher? “I’m not sporty”. Don’t organise the way our friends do? “I’m scatty”. Our talents don’t align with the school curriculum? “I’m not clever”.

Now, many of us notice ourselves claiming back these identities. I’m so satisfied when I see this with my clients: one sticks to her daily walking routine and claims back “I am disciplined”; another launches a newsletter and recognises “I am a writer”. Vegan cookbooks have helped me claim “I am a whizz in the kitchen”, Five Rhythms classes have helped me realise “I am a dancer”, meditation teachers have guided me to find “I am peaceful”.

Many of us, like Sarah, have the resources and the generosity to offer others the space to experience different versions of themselves. What might you like to claim? And what might you be able to help others claim?

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) Make two lists: Firstly, who you think you are. Secondly, who you think you are not.

2) How might you give yourself a different experience, whereby you claim a part of yourself that has lain dormant?

3) How might you give others a different experience so that they can ‘try on’ an unclaimed aspect of themselves?

4) Found this blog post helpful? Irritating? Challenging? Inspirational? As ever, let us know by leaving a comment….

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2009

** Want An Experience Like Mine? **

Sarah is running her workshop again on 1st & 2nd October 2009. 10am – 5pm, Twickenham, London (20 minutes by train from Central London) Two-day workshop: £100 (£80 concessions) Contact Sarah: makingspace@sarahpreece.net, 07891 662 227

I was the columnist in The London Paper last week, suggesting that the recession is a good thing. Readers vote on whether they want more of you… and 96% did. I also had many comments calling this point of view “refreshing” and “inspiring”. In this, I hear a whispered hope for a move away from ‘business as usual’ to a more enjoyable and equitable way of running our economy.

At its best, this shake-up wake-up call will prompt us to re-prioritise and re-allocate resources. It will make us more aware of where we use money as an excuse to see ourselves as separate from others. Instead of this isolation, we will find ways of leaning in to human energy as our most precious resource and recognise our interdependence.

A great example of this is liftshare – an organisation that works to bring about sustainable change by encouraging individuals to do things together. There are now 290,000+ people registered and several inspirational stories have emerged.

Sandra from Clacton-on-Sea started car-sharing as a way of saving petrol and impact on the environment and found that “two people who led separate lives have now become great friends, with all the benefits and opportunities that new friendships offer”. They socialise regularly, found they had tons in common, and get to chat, laugh and sing along to 60s and 70s music on the way to and from work.

Similarly with Emma from Swindon, her initial motivations were financial and environmental and says “I have benefited in ways I never imagined, including socially. The company is great, we share ideas, and we exchange knowledge about the local area – where the best markets are, what’s on at the theatre. As I know we have to rely on each other at a particular time of day, I’m much more efficient at work. I can no longer stay late to get things finished so I don’t faff about any more, I just get it done.

And there are wider community benefits, as Clare from Herefordshire describes: “We also pick up and drop off a regular prescription for a friend who has retired and finds it difficult to get to the doctors”.

With liftshare, we see the Triple Bottom Line of a solid, sustainable venture – intending to bring about economic, environmental and societal/inter-personal benefits through its activities. As we tighten our belts and make changes economically, perhaps we’ll also tighten our belts as a community, finding afresh how fulfilling it is to need each other.

The World Needs Your Passion, So…

1) If you had 50% of your current income, what would you do differently? Make a list. Then assess: in what ways would any of this be preferable? What could you gain as side-effects of these changes? Plato said “Necessity is the mother of invention”. In which ways would your decreased income increase your creativity and innovation?

2) Now return to your current level of income – but keep those new ways in place. What would you do with all that extra money?? Which deeply fulfilling lifestyle benefits would all that abundance bring you?

© Corrina Gordon-Barnes, 2008

* Why The Recession Is A Good Thing *

Read the article here.