If you are getting stressed out by a constant flow of visitors, household chores and partners wanting you to do things about the house – your ‘WHY’ is not big enough. Thinking that working from home is a sexy thing to do is not a good enough reason to suffer the inconveniences of nagging partners, weeds threatening to suffocate you and your roses and constant interruptions from friends thinking that you are home just to provide them with free tea and biscuits.
If I were you and this is the case – I would drastically re-evaluate your situation! Define some boundaries and then tell everyone else about them – including the weeds.
But to do that you need to sort out why you are doing this.
I am personally on a mission. I cannot achieve what I want to achieve in a 9-5 job. And apart from the fact that I have a teenage daughter, dog and cats that invariably make it difficult for me to commit to a ‘normal’ job, I know that if I give in to my insecurities about what I am doing – I will never get to do the things that I want to do. My ‘WHY’ is BIG! It may not be big to anyone else – but it is to me and it includes things like:-
- I want to set up several passive income streams for myself which allow me to maintain my independence.
- As I become more independent I can allow myself to indulge in the creative things that I enjoy doing – just for the sake of doing them – like writing a book or ten, getting more involved in film, etc – which if I get right – will also generate income.
- I want to gather enough capital to be able to design and build my own house – and that means drawing up the plans myself, and project managing it from start to finish. – and for that I need time too to be able to take my time when I am doing something particularly creative, different, intricate, etc.
- I want to be able to set my daughter up with several passive income streams and build a solid foundation stone for her to launch herself into her own future knowing that she has financial security for the rest of her life.
- I want to have the time to travel to see the many millions of fascinating places in the world.
- I want to spend time with those precious, intelligent and inspiring people who have done and are doing extraordinary things with their lives.
- I want to enjoy doing more photography, take up painting again, and be able to stare endlessly at a beautiful view without worrying about the bills piling up to terrorise me and my bank manager.
- I want to experience all that there is to experience without money, people, fears, stress, and narrow minded attitudes hindering the fullness of those experiences.
In short I want to live – not as a sheep – ie woolly brained and mindlessly following the crowd – but an inspired life which allows me to follow my instinct and go to places that I would have never thought of going to before.
Your friends need to understand that you have tea breaks – but only at certain times – or not during the hours of…..
Your partner needs to appreciate that being at home does not constitute a license to nag at will according to the mood of the moment. If any nagging needs to be done – it has to be out of working hours.
Get creative with the weeds. I use gardening as thinking time. If I find myself getting stale while I am working – I can breathe a sigh of relief and just go outside and weed a patch of the garden. It is therapeutic, doesn’t take a great deal of thinking and invariably allows me to step back from something with which I was struggling and that in turn allows me to see the problem from a different perspective. And it invariably only takes a few minutes and it is amazing how much you can weed in that time.
If you have a problem about getting this message across – then you need to explain the ‘WHYS’ to your family and friends. Explain that you are on a mission. You have set yourself a target to achieve x, y and z by a certain time and that means you spending time doing a, b and c. Define it clearly and re-affirm it regularly. Keep them updated with your progress so that they too become a part of the mission. They can all help you achieve these targets by bringing you tea and biscuits when it suits you, giving you space and respecting your wishes as a human being wanting to improve your life – which will ultimately benefit them too. If you are lucky then one or two will weed the garden for you while they wait for the tea break to talk.
And if that doesn’t work – employ someone else as a mentor/consultant who has an air of authority who can help you stick to your goals and empower you to get the message across to those that need to hear it.
So – what are the real reasons for working from home then?
