Almost a year ago, I found myself in my apartment, looking at all my belongings packed in boxes. I was doing my best to set up a work environment so I could meet deadlines.
I had just ended a long term relationship. I had parted ways with some big clients and other business partners; and my income was meager, as little as when I started freelancing over eight years ago.
I was turning on my laptop when it dawned on me. I wasn’t sad or depressed. I felt free for the first time in years.
The reason was simple; I was giving myself the chance of a fresh start.
I knew there were challenges ahead of me. It felt like facing one of those giant monsters you see in games and movies. It was an exciting challenge (and still is).
I also understood that I was not alone in any way. I have a lot of friends, mentors, and contacts.
Especially, I had my friend and master coach Sandi Amorim who would always help me make sense of my ideas.
I had friends in different industries and a supporting family who had always understood that I don’t take the conventional way.
I set my course and sailed towards this new adventure. And oh boy it was a big one!
I took some time for myself to look at the business I had built. But more importantly, the image I was projecting to the world. I didn’t like it. It felt wrong on so many levels, using what the “experts” would call “best practices.”
I decided to change everything. Rebuild from the ground up.
Immediately, I had to face my fears, which I usually define as my monkey mind. It’s insanely creative; it can create the most fantastic doomsday scenarios you can imagine. Things like:
“What if everything fails, everyone turns their back on you, and you end up living in the streets eating scraps of food as you scavenge the city filled with zombies and deadly robots. Walking the forever wasteland because you decided to start over.”
My Monkey Mind
That quote comes straight from one of my journals. Yes, it sounds completely irrational, even funny. But that was swimming in my head consuming precious brain power, making my decisions harder every day.
I had to do something about it. If I let those thoughts run rampant, I could barely get out of bed, let alone try to work on my business. I started journaling; a great practice, and skill that I believe is a must for all freelancer and entrepreneurs.
But beyond the skill itself, I learned all about my limiting beliefs. They were controlling my life because I was afraid or lazy to change. For example, over the years I decided that my skills defined who I was and what I could do for others. I allowed that idea to define everything about me, creating a prison for myself.
As I wrote about them, they started loosening their grip on me, I felt with more energy. I was empowering myself to start fresh. And I believe that’s something everyone can do.
You don’t need to change everything about your life in one go. I did it because the stress was killing me. But you don’t have to do such a nuclear option as the one I did.
You just need to take the time to put yourself first.
It’s a big process, an ongoing process. But the amount of happiness you can find is well worth the effort.
And as part of my journey to reinventing myself, I want to share it with you. I’m using myself to experiment and inspire you to run your own experiments.
I’ve set myself a challenge. I’ll recover my writing practice and publish what I learn every week for one full year (and by that time I hope the habit has stuck so I can continue for more years to come).
One year, 52 articles packed with all the lessons I’m learning so you can reinvent yourself too.
And you may ask yourself: Why I’m doing this?
It’s because I believe everyone has an insane amount of gifts that the world needs and the only way for you to share those gifts is to be true to yourself and happy in your own skin.
Am I a bit naive for thinking I can change the world with my own blog and business? Yeah, maybe. But I believe in this quote:
“What man is a man who does not make the world better?”
I choose to do that with my creativity, sharing my lessons with everyone who reads my blog and jumps into my newsletter. With my clients, who share their gifts with the world to make it a bit better every day.
Are you ready to align with yourself, to do things differently? Then join me in this quest, let’s create the life we want for ourselves.