A 6-Month Strategy to Becoming Your Own Boss

Steal the plan I followed

You aren’t meant to live like a robot industrialized by society.

You have the right to feel joy, be a little crazy, enjoy little things and live the way you want to live regardless of the fear embedded into you. Why? Because, why not?

In 2020 we saw that even multi-billion dollar companies can operate remotely and still function well. What is your reason to not follow your dreams? What is your reason not to chase the life you picture in your mind?

If somebody told me in September ’20 that I could be a full-time writer, work fewer hours, and earn better money — I would’ve told them it’s a good joke. But when I took some active measures just as an experiment, I was awestruck and realized that I’d leaked my potential for years.

People wanted to pay me and pay me bloody well for something I enjoy doing. I also honed my craft every day by practicing, so my fingers continue to create magic (and more business) for somebody else. In my head, I saw the 7-year-old me who wrote poems in a diary for a decade until she joined university. This entire journey has been about personal and professional growth for me.

And you can do it too by following this 6-month strategy. You have nothing in your way that prevents you from reaching where you want to be.

Month 1: Set an intention

What is it you want to be? Not do, but how do you see your happiest self?

For me, I saw my happiest self doing things I enjoy and earning well. I’m not shy to confess that I love money, and multiplying it gives me a kick. Financial independence makes me feel strong because the society where I come from gives only a fraction of women the freedom to work and earn.

Apart from that, my ideal life comprised a lot of time with my family and myself and lesser working hours and stress because I look at work as a part of my life but not my entire life.

From this, I derived my vision statement:

Work lesser but more profoundly on meaningful things and earn solid money.
Inspire readers when they read my work and help individuals and businesses with their content needs.
Have enough time to spend alone and with family.

The next steps:

Find your vision statement: Close your eyes and picture your ideal life from morning till you sleep. What do your surroundings look like? What all do you do in your day? Who is around you? Write all of this down. Now, derive a 2/3-sentence intention from this because that’s the vision you shall align with — something which will make you go forward even through the tough times.
Research: Read about the experiences of people who are living the life you dream of. Research about what you can do, the opportunities available, and what you would like to do to be your own boss.

Start doing the task you plan to do. Whether it’s coding or writing, no matter how much you suck, start practicing it right away for your skill muscle to grow.

Month 2: Find your models

You don’t need to reinvent the wheel if it’s already there. I don’t support hard work when it’s not required; it’s a tremendous waste of time and is demoralizing. If there are people who are doing what you aspire to do, learn from them.

Of course, your journey will not even closely be the same, and you will carve out your own path. But it’s important to learn from other’s experiences, their failures, and their strategies that kept them going.

The next steps:

Pick up 3 models and read up.

Figure out how they started and what their journey was.

How long was it?
What did their initial years and months look like?
What were their failures?
What makes them an outlier today?

If they sell books and courses you can learn from, consider investing. Whatever approaches they believe in which helped them, try to incorporate them into your own practice.

Month 3: Write your goals

Your intention is how you see your happiest self and the person you want to live like. Now write what will help you get there. Don’t worry; goals can keep changing, so this isn’t your ultimate life goal but your goal for now.

“A goal is not always meant to be reached; it often serves simply as something to aim at.” — Bruce Lee

Writing your goals gives a direction to the place you want to be in. Otherwise, you’ll just go with the flow. And if you are still reading this, I’m assuming you want to be above average instead of just flowing where things take you.

The next steps:

Steal my goal-setting exercise. Write the answers to the following questions:

Where do you want to be in one year?
Where do you want to be in 6 months?
What will you do in the next 3 months to be there? (Write Monthly)
Now for the next one month, what will you do to get closer to your 6-month goal?
Set your weekly goal for the coming week.

After every week, see what worked and what didn’t so you can re-strategize and set the next weekly goal accordingly. Similarly, do so with monthly goals.

Month 4: Evaluation + plan to build the bank balance

By now, you’ve completed 90 days of practicing your craft. Most people get out after 3 months. These 3 months is like a trial time for you to get a feel of is this really how you want your life to be.

It’s not necessary that just because you like something, you want to do it forever for a living. But if you’ve made it so far and have enjoyed it, you have no reason not to believe that you’re set to achieve your dreams.

Now is the time we evaluate ourselves and work on building a bank balance. I told you I don’t shy from my love towards money, and I don’t recommend following your passion broke/ to get broke.

The next steps:

Evaluate: In the last 3 months, what worked and what did not? Can you increase your output without being overwhelmed? If yes, set a plan with a gradual increase in output. If you’ve been sticking to a certain method (e.g., same genre of writing/ making videos), why not experiment and play around a bit? Keep stretching your creative muscle.
Money: I know you’re overwhelmed with doing your current full-time role as a student or at work and side-hustle takes up the rest of your time, but can you do something little now and then to make extra money? If you’re a writer, can you freelance edit or copy? When you get these gigs, your confidence will only go up, and you will also explore other niches in your domain.

Month 5: Either you give up or have a success mindset

By now, you’ve spent over 100 days working towards your goal. And it’s hard, I feel you. While it looks cool to do what you love and get paid for it, the journey is full of trials.

So read this as many times as you want to: You will get rejected, again and again. You will have to keep pushing forward through it all.

After I told my boss about quitting 9–5, both my “safety-net” clients turned their backs on me. One ghosted me, and one didn’t have the budget to pay me. But I had worked towards this for 5 months, and I was firm that nothing and nobody would rain on my parade.

And nobody shall rain on yours because you will walk and push through rain, hail, and storm.

The next steps:

Developing a mindset not to give up is difficult. I have battled with low self-worth for so long that it affected my mental health, work, and relationships.

You need to actively work to develop it, just like a skill you want to learn.

Here are things that help me:

Podcasts: Hearing a Lewis Howes podcast when I’m getting ready for the day is a dose of inspiration. You hear success stories of people who were just like you, which gives a ray of hope.
Affirmations: I have been saying this for 8 months, a while before I had a moment of epiphany to do something crazy. However, affirmations only work if you believe in them. This is one of my affirmations taken from the book You Can Heal Your Life by Louise Hay.

I am open and receptive to a wonderful new position, which uses all my talents and abilities. Allows me to express creatively in ways that are fulfilling to me. I work with, and for, people I love and love and respect me, in a wonderful location and earning good money.

3. Talking out: Speaking to my writer’s network or my friends about my ups and lows is really beneficial. Reach out to your support system because some days don’t need motivation but just a warm hug.

4. Visualising success: Every night before sleeping and when I wake up in the morning, I visualize myself sitting by the mountains with my laptop writing. I’m not sure why it’s the mountains, but I’m assuming this picture shows that I’m free. Visualization is a popular technique used by many successful people.

Month 6: This may not always be Month 6

Now is the time to finally take a leap. If you’ve come this far and have seen yourself grow personally and professionally, you can do this. Oh, and there’s a strong chance that nothing will work out, and you’ll fail.

But hey, at least you tried. Imagine being old and looking back that you were there in the booming age of technology, and we’re so close to taking a leap and getting in the game but missed it out. You’d rather try and fail, right?

Now, this may be month 10, 12, or even month 3 for some of you. You may not have found something good enough to call it quits yet.

We all have our different paths to a destination, some take longer, and some don’t, but if we keep walking, we will eventually reach.

The next steps:

So this is what you do; you keep walking. You stay consistent no matter what, and you keep doing what you have to. You keep improving your skill.

One of my friends back in university came from an economically weak background whose parents took huge loans to make him study. He was one of the most accomplished people I knew. Here’s what he said:

“I want to do everything in my capacity to make things work. So even if things don’t go as I want them to, and I don’t that job I’m aiming for, I know that I wasn’t to blame. Because I cant live thinking I could’ve done more and chose not to.”

Stay at it, soldier.

Takeaway

If you are at month zero right now, reading this may feel inspiring but unachievable. I was you, so I feel you, and all I want to say is that inner voice that tells you it’s unachievable, tell it to go to hell.

Nothing will get in your way if you’re putting in the work and learning and improving along. Do everything in your power to make it to month 3, because by then, two things will happen:

Either you’ll know for sure you’re not set for this, or
You’ll be on a roll to take on this journey.

Here’s the 6-month plan in short:

Set an intention: Write down an ideal day in your life and derive a vision statement.
Find your models: Pick 3 models whose journey you’d want to follow and learn about them.
Write your goals: For the year, for 6 months, and for this month followed by this week. Re-strategize your weekly and monthly goals depending on how the previous week/month was.
Evaluate + Build bank balance: Evaluate your progress and try to up your game by tapping into different genres. Find gigs to use your skill for others.
Develop a success mindset: Do this through podcasts, affirmations, and speaking to those around you.
This may not always be Month 6: And that’s okay because more time will only improve your mastery of the skill. Don’t forget to have fun while you’re at it.

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