It makes a better URL than the ‘mindf**k of being your own boss’ but that’s what I really want to title this as.
I draft this on a sick day.
From home.
Quiet.
No Distractions.
No I’m not feeling great, but you can’t stop a mind from thinking. So … fingers to keyboard.
A certain message that I’ve heard a lot recently is ‘how unproductive work is’ or more something along the lines of ‘The office is not the place to get work done.’
The more that time moves forward the more I need to agree with this phrase and line of thinking.
Why?
Because in many cases the workspace office is a trap. A mind sucking emotionally and mentally taxing trap that we consciously walk into each and every day. In fact I personally do my best thinking in isolation when I’m in the car either to or from the office.
The moment I hit the car park and actually enter my workspace all of the mental brilliance that I so desperately need to put onto paper escapes. It’s like my ideas don’t even want to get to the office.
You see there is a toxic focus and a careful balance that needs to be struck in any workplace to reach peak results.
Workers need to have time and space to breath and think. If you put someone into a too low stress state, then they go idle. But if you push too far and stress them out, you’re results will be poor. Workers have a sweet spot, where the challenge and demands can take them further.
The other side
But then there is the employer (The Boss) side of the equation. While the boss often doesn’t do the same hours nor do the same tasks as the workers the boss of the whole enterprise situation has more responsibilities, but above all – more flexibility.
This is where the boss (whoever they are) arrive late, leave early, disappear for days on end, Go for corporate dinners, seemingly and carelessly pass on emails with vague tasks and no direction … you get the drift.
But then we reach the cross roads of the mind-f***. If you’re a worker, when the boss is around the only thing they want to see is ‘Volume of work.’
They want people to be busy. In fact don’t be surprised when extra reporting comes in just to create more data to go through, just to know that people are busy while they aren’t around.
‘Volume of work’ as opposed to ‘Quality of work’ is the type of thing that gives workers mental and emotionally destroying complexes.
When 80% of the result comes from 20% of the time, Workers are often expected to ‘fill’ the other 80% of their time with nearly useless tasks just to validate their presence.
The true mind f*** of being your own boss
Nothing screws a worker over more than when they dare to dream about being in control of their own future. But when you first start working on your own side hustle you bring the baggage of the job mentality to your own game.
And this manifests in some seriously bad ways. Rather than spending time reading and researching your next strategic move, you’ll end up hitting refresh on emails 10 times every hour.
You’ll look for little things to keep you ‘busy’ for the hours that you’ve been conditioned to work rather than do what needs to be done today, and look at smaller things later when they actually matter.
I for one have seen this all the time.
At the time of drafting this I’m less than 36 hours from hosting my first online event. All my Instagram ‘Motivationals’ have been done, uploaded and simply need to be posted. All of the automatic emails were written a week ago, and the facebook promo got taken care of for the final push 48 hours ago.
Its’ time to run down the clock. I’m comfortable. No alarm bells are going off, it’s time to log in tomorrow and make this thing happen. The results are unknown. Let’s see what happens and act on the positive data. Its good being my boss!
Related: Training for Emergency and Unlikely situations
But making the switch between oppressed worker and liberated boss is easier said than done. There is no shaking that feeling of ‘Shouldn’t I be doing something … now?’
#sidehustle #wealth #ownboss #business #financialindependence #retirement #BYOB