Working for Yourself Isn’t Just for Other People
If you’ve ever thought, “I wish I could work for myself,” this one is for you. Self-employment may feel too big, too risky, or too late, but it might be more possible than you’ve allowed yourself to believe.
I wrote about this in my newsletter this week, but it’s been sitting with me, so I wanted to share part of it here, too.
The number one response I get when I tell people I’m self-employed is usually some version of, “Wow, you’re so lucky,” or “I wish I could work for myself.”
And I get it, because that used to be me.
I remember watching HGTV years ago and seeing someone work from home in their beautiful home office, somehow available to pick out tile on a Tuesday afternoon, and feeling this ridiculous wave of jealousy. Not really because of the tile, though I’m sure the tile didn’t hurt. It was because I wanted what that life seemed to represent.
Flexibility. Freedom. Building work around life instead of constantly trying to squeeze life into whatever scraps were left over after work was done with me.
Before 2007, I don’t think I ever seriously considered working for myself. I wished for it. I envied it. But I didn’t see it as something regular people actually did. Certainly not women with bills, kids, and responsibilities.
It wasn’t until I was forced to think outside the traditional employment box almost 19 years ago that I finally realized starting my own business might actually be possible.
And honestly, that makes me a little sad.
Because when I look back now, there were so many years when my kids were in school that I could have brought in income we very much needed while still having the flexibility to be the room mother, the PTA chair, and the involved parent who could show up when showing up mattered.
I didn’t know that was an option. Or maybe I didn’t believe it was an option for me.
This article is the kind of thing I write about in Shift Notes: work, identity, alignment, systems, and the real-life moments when you start realizing something may need to change. If you’d like those notes in your inbox, you can subscribe here: Click here to Sign Up for Shift Notes
I think a lot of women are sitting in that same place right now. They want something different, but self-employment feels too big, too risky, too complicated, too late, or too much “for other people.”
But sometimes the life we keep calling impossible is really just asking for one practical first step.
Just one step. One conversation. One skill you stop dismissing because it comes easily to you.
So if there’s a little voice in the back of your mind saying, “I wish I could do that,” maybe don’t shush her quite so quickly.
She might be onto something.
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