Photo: Me skydiving with an instructor approx five years ago.
It was close to this time three years ago that I got laid off from my day job. You can read about that awful day in this older post. I said back then that I felt like I had jumped off a cliff and to be honest, I still feel like I have and I don’t know if that feeling will ever go away…
I feel that anyone who freelances feels like this too. We are all free falling with no real guarantee of what’s next which for many is absolutely petrifying. I never really know what I’m doing next month or next year which when I think about it might be a good thing compared to the 9 to 5 where I knew exactly where I would be for years. Confirmed pay days were reassuring but the rat race feeling was a quiet frustrating depression.
Free falling as I like to call this, is freedom but it’s like a two sided coin. One side is immeasurable happiness but the other is the scary ‘OMG but what do I do next?’ Those two sides constantly flip in my head.
So three years on from that day, this post is for the freelance world that every October reminds me I was pushed into.
True story: Michael surprised me once about five years ago with a sky diving trip. The worst part was going up in the plane where I had time to think about what could go wrong. Your mind can really kill what your heart wants to do. Don’t let it. When I finally jumped I thought: “that wasn’t as bad as I thought!” That feeling going up in the plane was the same feeling that I had at my desk job when thinking about what could go wrong if I quit my job. The fear petrified me for years.
Even though I have literally no idea what the future holds I am glad that my heart and not my head has got me thus far.
So this post is for those that jumped. Now we are all free falling no matter how we got here. For those still on the plane and thinking like I did, it’s finding the courage to take that first step into doing what you already know you love. That step took me almost TWO YEARS to make: I procrastinated that long before starting Where Did U Get That and doing “something in fashion.”
This road isn’t easy but my worst day now is better than the best day doing what I did before. Like I said earlier , I’m still figuring this out as I go along, but the journey takes on a more powerful meaning when it’s to benefit you instead of someone else.
Whether you jump or not, I will tell you this: ultimately do what your heart wants and do not let your mind talk you out of it.
. . .
“Sometimes you’re ahead,
Sometimes you’re behind.
The race is long, and in the end, it’s only with yourself.”
– Baz Luhrmann