{"id":5448,"date":"2012-03-27T16:39:03","date_gmt":"2012-03-27T20:39:03","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/?p=5448"},"modified":"2012-03-27T16:39:03","modified_gmt":"2012-03-27T20:39:03","slug":"8-delightful-lessons-self-employment-can-teach-us","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/2012\/03\/8-delightful-lessons-self-employment-can-teach-us\/","title":{"rendered":"8 Delightful Lessons Self-employment Can Teach Us"},"content":{"rendered":"

Everyday people post pithy quotes and sayings on their Facebook page. Last week one of them really jumped out at me. It said:<\/p>\n

\u00a0I\u2019m not telling you<\/p>\n

it will be easy.<\/p>\n

I\u2019m telling you<\/p>\n

it will be worth it.<\/p>\n

For years, I\u2019ve been telling anyone who will listen that one of the rewards of self-employment is that it gives us an excuse to be a lifelong learner. As we all know, learning something new isn\u2019t usually easy.<\/p>\n

What can self-employment teach us? Well, for starters there are the nuts and bolts of running a business. As fascinating as that can be, that\u2019s not the best part.<\/p>\n

Here are some of the learning gifts that come when we set up shop: We learn:<\/p>\n

\u00b0 To think creatively.<\/strong> Inc.<\/em> magazine founder Bernie Goldhirsh used to remind his writers that entrepreneurs are artists and business is their canvas. Building a business that we love keeps our imagination on high alert.<\/p>\n

We discover that imagination isn’t idle daydreaming. It’s a power tool.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 To be an enthusiastic problem-solver.\u00a0<\/strong>While others may see problems as a bother or, even, a punishment, the self-employed see opportunities in finding solutions to the problems that are theirs to solve.<\/p>\n

Just today, Selina Barker reminded me of this in a wonderful piece she wrote on Playing the Money Game<\/a>\u00a0. Her story is a case study in how the self-employed tackle problems.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 It\u2019s okay to be uncomfortable.<\/strong> Charles Kingsley, a writer in the Victorian era, said, \u201cWe act as though comfort and luxury were the chief requirements in life when all that we need to be really happy is something to be enthusiastic about.\u201d<\/p>\n

The successfully self-employed are willing to be uncomfortable when it\u2019s leading to greater good.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 The joy of expansion.<\/strong> The world is full of incredible shrinking people whose lives get tinier and tinier as the years go by. The self-employed, on the other hand, opt for living in a bigger world, extending their boundaries, reveling in new experiences.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 Right livelihood is fun. <\/strong>The Buddhists, who brought us this concept, pointed out that one characteristic of right livelihood is that the work becomes more<\/em>, not less, interesting the longer we do it. The folks who have discovered their right livelihood and turned it into a business seem to be having the most fun of all.<\/p>\n

Pay attention when you encounter someone who is truly, madly, deeply in love with what they are bringing to the world.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 Personal responsibility is heady stuff.<\/strong> Are there times when we wish there was someone else to blame? Probably.<\/p>\n

When we make a commitment to creating a business that grows and prospers, we accept all the twists and turns in the journey.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 To ask better questions.<\/strong> The dreambashers among us may challenge any new ideas with, \u201cHow are you going to do that?\u201d. The self-employed learn that the quality of the question does, indeed, determine the quality of the answer. Asking idea-generating questions is a worthwhile pursuit\u2014and a fine art to master.<\/p>\n

\u00b0 That we can become more than we thought.<\/strong> Our business gives us the evidence, year in and year out. We notice that situations that once were a challenge now are faced with ease and, even, joy.<\/p>\n

As we gain experience and our confidence grows, we uncover gifts and talents that have been lying dormant, waiting to be recognized and put to use.<\/p>\n

Most importantly, we discover what M.C. Richards meant when she said, \u201cAll the arts we practice are apprenticeship. The big art is our life.\u201d<\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n

 <\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Everyday people post pithy quotes and sayings on their Facebook page. Last week one of them really jumped out at me. It said: \u00a0I\u2019m not telling you it will be easy. I\u2019m telling you it will be worth it. For years, I\u2019ve been telling anyone who will listen that one of the rewards of self-employment…<\/p>\n

Read More<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[1088],"tags":[1101,1102,27,1100,166,466,1103],"class_list":["post-5448","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-self-employment-rocks","tag-bernie-goldhirsh","tag-charles-kingsley","tag-growing-a-business","tag-lessons-of-self-employment","tag-problem-solving","tag-right-livelihood","tag-selina-barker","jsn-master"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=5448"}],"version-history":[{"count":5,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":5465,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/5448\/revisions\/5465"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=5448"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=5448"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/joyfullyjobless.com\/blog\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=5448"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}