This week marks three months since leaving my job. Since that time, I’ve given myself [a little] time to relax, taken on three client projects, ran a test project of my own, and turned that project into what is now my primary income.
But when I left, I had very little idea of how any of those things would work out or come to be.
It was scary and liberating at first, and I basically created a puzzle for myself. How could I build a life in which I:
- Have complete control over who I work with
- Allow myself location independence and
- Make enough money to cover my living expenses
I quickly realized that my puzzle became fairly easy to solve once I reclaimed all of my waking hours to focus upon solving it.
When my schedule isn’t filled with large blocks of obligations and I’m not constantly just looking towards the next block on my calendar, I’m able to be more creative.
So I’ll go for a run, or watch animated videos, or tune into a webinar from someone I’m trying to learn from. I’ll take meetings with no agenda and ask a lot of questions.
Often from these conversations or actions, I come up with new solutions or am presented with new opportunities. It seems that the more space I allow myself, the more ideas I generate.
But these opportunities didn’t just come into existence because I made a career move, but by giving myself more space I was able to be more open and aware of them.
Opportunities are around us all the time, but if we are too focused on what is immediately in front of us, we miss them. You have to broaden your “peripheral vision” to notice what is right around you. And to do that, you need to give yourself some space.