Today is Day 3 of my entrepreneurship journey . I realised 3 challenges today and thought I’d jot down (before I forget) to share. I believe every new entrepreneur would feel these early on as well. The key is to expect these. From my experience, it makes a difference expecting vs having them come to you unexpectedly.
- Criticality of scheduleing your goals (maybe monthly) and tasks down to daily. Up to yesterday (Day 2), I felt on track to accomplish the few tasks I’d set out to do during my 2 weeks’ leave. I had completed Google Analytics set up, researched on Pinterest biz account and pins, worked on technical website functionalities of my blog site. Today though, I felt a bit overwhelmed with the technical aspects of the blog and Pinterest pins. I guess these are the aspects I’m not naturally talented in, so I told myself I’d do more reading today. I think that was my way of being easy on myself. That’s when I realised how important it is for an entrepreneur to have sustained motivation – I absolutely think there needs to be monthly goals, broken down to weekly and daily tasks for sustained motivation towards the big goal. Being an entrepreneur is not a short term goal, just like investing. It is for life, hence it’s critical for you to be able to sustain this…like a lifestyle.
- Equal importance of rests and happy breaks – I realised the risk of not having breaks and feeling down and demotivated due to some tasks (like claiming my website on Pinterest! or validating rich pins) taking way longer than you’d expect. By happy breaks, I mean to spend time on things you look forward to doing. For some it could be baking, going out to get flowers, meeting good friends etc. For me, I’d work a maximum of 5 hours/day, 3 hours/meals, 8 hours of sleep, 1 hour of exercise and the remaining 7 hours to happy breaks. For 4 days a week. Wow, the thought already is inspiring! Exactly my way of making entrepreneurship a lifestyle as opposed to a short sprint.
- Psychological strength to be okay with the uncertainty of how much I may or may not earn. I did not think I’d have this issue given the amount of financial planning preparations I’ve been doing for the past 2 years. I guess it still requires mental preparations. It still scares me given my blog hasn’t earned any income yet. This thought hit me when I was on my way to the gym this afternoon, and I had booked a massage after the gym. I was wondering if I would peacefully be able to take time off in the middle of the day to go to the gym or to go for a pampering session even if I did not know how much I would be earning that month.
Well, that’s why I guess it’s important to have the blog up and running and start to consistently earn some income before you quit. That’s part of how to prepare yourself mentally for the lack of certainty that comes with being an entrepreneur!
I will continue to share my thoughts as I progress further into my own entrepreneurship journey. I’m still loving my plan of 5h work day for 4 days a week and the rest of my awake time is for happy breaks. I can see myself being able to sustain that lifestyle.
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