It’s My First Day of Self-Employment, What The Hell Do I Do!?

Today is a day I have dreamed of for as long as I can remember.

Ever since I can remember, I have wanted to work for myself in some form or another.

Back when I was younger, this was a pipe dream, but as I got older, and realised my travels could be monetised through my travel blog, the dream started to flesh out.

It’s taken a lot of hard work to get to this stage. Even now, I would still consider working for myself as a gamble. There is still a chance it could go wrong.

However, it’s one I had to take. The only problem is…

I don’t know what the hell to do with my time!

I woke up this morning in a haze and forgot I wouldn’t be going back to the office job I detested.

I was eating breakfast when it dawned on me, that I work for myself after quitting! While this thought brought a brief wave of excitement, it also brought with it a jarring reality.

That as much as I have wanted this day to arrive, I haven’t paid much thought to what I would actually do when it arrives.

So, I have spent today in a bewildered state trying to figure out what to do, when you have no one to tell you what to do, apart from yourself!

I’m not sure if I’m any clearer!

The Plan Is As Important As The Dream

As humans, we tend to dream more than we plan. For all the hard work I have done to get myself into this position, I have barely given any thought to what to do once I get there.

I may have thought about it once or twice, but they were brief moments and I never fleshed out anything substantial.

Why is it that we fail to plan as much as we dream?

Personally, I feel it’s because planning isn’t as easy as dreaming.

To dream, all you need to do is stare into space and let your mind run wild. It requires little effort, and it can be a welcome relief from work.

Planning requires a lot more effort and thought, which is not something a lot of us want to do after we have been working for 8 hours already.

It’s easier to dream about what you will do when you reach your goal and do the necessary work to get there, rather than look ahead into the future and set out a plan for yourself.

When it comes down to a choice between something that is easy to do, and something that is difficult, most of us will plump for the easy route.

Looking into the future and envisioning what you will do when you reach a goal is not something humans are good at.

We are short-term thinkers, who lack the foresight to plan into the future and think about the long-term implications of where we are going.

You only need to look to politics for confirmation of this!

While I put so much time and effort in getting myself to this point, none of that same drive was centred on how I would manage my time once I got there.

Maybe it was a mistake, maybe it won’t be, only time will tell.

The Path From Here

This article might be a bit premature, I will figure things out in the next few days, but right now, it feels like the best thing to write.

I am undergoing a huge change in my life, something which I haven’t undertaken since I left to spend a year in Australia six years ago.

Back then, it took me a while to figure out what I was doing, though a lot of that was due to jet-lag in the initial stages!

If I look back to those early days in Australia, I didn't have much of a clue about finding a job or where I wanted to live, I just spent the first few days wandering around, relaxing and enjoying myself.

It was something I had wanted to do for ages, I had dreamt about going to Australia ever since I was a small child. I had to pinch myself at times, just so I knew it wasn’t a dream and I really was in reality.

Not that I have written these words down, it all feels familiar. I’m in the initial stages of a life-changing event, even if I did plan what I do once the day arrived, it may have been no good when I put it into practice.

I feel like I am being a bit harsh on myself for not knowing what to do when today is the first time I have ever been my own boss!

If I had it all sussed out on the first day, you could argue I should have made the leap a long time ago!

While I’m still none the wiser about what I should be doing on a day-to-day basis, I know will figure it out in the coming days.

If there is one thing I have learnt about myself since I first set foot in Australia, it’s that I’m adaptable.

It may take while a while to understand my routine and how I organise my day, but once it all clicks into gear, I’ll be on the path I’ve worked towards for the past few years!

That is an exciting thought!

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