» Staying Motivated when you’re Self Employed

The idea can’t be faulted: no-one telling you what to do or when to do it, checking what time you arrived, how long you had for lunch, whether you left early. Then there’s the chance to do something you actually get satisfaction from (although often what you really want to do, and what people want to pay you for, can be very different). For many people the positives of making the move from paid employment to self employment are irresistible.

But it’s not always easy going. When you work for someone you usually know what you’re supposed to be doing each day. When you become self employed you’re faced with a blank page where you have to decide what needs doing, when and how. For people who like structure the change can be quite a shock.

How we stay motivated

It’s nothing to do with lack of interest in what we’re doing, more about that blazing ball of energy in the sky outside. And that’s a beautiful, cloudless, blue sky that we wake up to almost every morning for most of the year. Accompanying it is warmth which, given the English weather of the last few years, is a welcome change.

On its own the beautiful day could be resisted, but add to this the location and the daily fight is easier to understand. We’re renting a small apartment with views across to mountains on the opposite peninsula and to the local beach which is so long it takes a good hour to walk from one end to the other. It’s also sandy, shelves gently into a crystal clear sea which teems with fish, never gets really crowded even in the middle of August, and not 5 minutes from our door.

And after the worst winter for 40 years here in Greece it’s tempting to soak up the warmth while sipping a cool drink on the patio.

Help!!!

But: there’s this website beckoning: articles to write, products to review, blogs to update, research to do.

So how do we stay off the beach?

Try staying motivated with beaches like this just minutes away

Here are our strategies for staying motivated:

self employment means no work = no pay, and sand and sea water don’t taste so good

regular r&r days when work gets put aside and batteries get recharged

deferred gratification – the beach is the reward for successfully finishing the day’s tasks

and sometimes it’s just too hot to sit on the sand and much cooler indoors

Result: the door gets shut on that enticing scene, the computers are switched on and we get focused.

No-one ever said self employment was an easy option, and staying motivated can be one of the biggest challenges, especially in the early days. Read more about staying motivated