When I learned HOW to work online from home, my whole life changed. Sound dramatic? Believe me, it was…and still is.
My company, Thia’s Place, is on a mission to help you make the same kind of life-changing transition in your work and your lifestyle.
Although I had been working “successfully” in the upper echelons of management, I was–in a word–pooped. (Anyone out there know what I mean?) My primary motivation for pressing on in that career path was the same as many of my peers and colleagues–the limiting belief that I “couldn’t afford” to retire yet. I needed retirement money. At age 56, I still had AT LEAST 9 years, and probably more like 14, to go. That might as well have been an eternity. It felt more like a “sentence” (as in prison) than security. When I came to grips with the honesty of those feelings, I knew that I also had to take action and make new choices or my life would never feel like my own again.
Since I had always succeeded by owning my decisions and acting upon them with conviction, I needed to apply that same wisdom and decisiveness at this juncture in my life. It was scary as anything, but also incredibly liberating. I had opened up a world of new possibility simply by letting myself think outside the box about what kind of options I really had. No more limiting beliefs for me. My inner entrepreneur was back and there would be no stopping her now!
Here are some steps that helped me organize my thinking as well as my actions:
First: I framed my decision to leave my Executive Director role in the nonprofit world, as “retirement” from traditional employment–not just a job change. I was clear that it wasn’t a move to another job I was after (the one I had was as good as that would ever again be for me ). I needed a completely new approach to creating a life that would work for me at this stage of my game.
Second: I envisioned what I wanted in my life and made a decision to go after it. No one would do it for me! Part of what this involved for me, was the fulfillment of a longtime desire to be a writer. Since I also knew that I couldn’t quickly turn writing into the kind of income that I would need to live and pay the bills , I decided to explore ways to generate income separately, that would allow me to have the kind of life and freedom I wanted. The obvious way to do that was to learn how to use the Internet to make money online and work from home doing it.
Third: I went online to start searching for options and opportunities. In doing that, I needed to look carefully, do “due diligence” (completely research and compare opportunities that interested me) before making a decision. While I knew that more and more people were turning to the Internet to make a living, I also knew that there were “bad” offers as well as good ones out there. Being a business professional, I trusted myself to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Fourth: I opened my mind to learning a whole new industry and way of working. The knowledge and expertise that I had gained over several decades in my former career did not cover all the skills I would need to learn to work online effectively. Was I up for starting over? YES! I looked at it as an adventure and a breath of fresh air in a career which had otherwise gone quite stale. What a relief and a joy it was to get back into learning mode!
Fifth: I stretched and changed my paradigm about leadership and learning to embrace the reality that my new Internet marketing teachers and mentors were going to be the ages of my kids, not my peers. Fortunately, I quickly discovered that I was surrounded by other Baby Boomers and midlife career changers and entrepreneurs who were taking the same steps in their lives as I was doing in my own. Turned out that I wasn’t being quite as “original” and “unique” as I felt–but that was GREAT! I had an instant community of entrepreneurial peers as well as a wider multi-age-group community with which I could form new friendships and working relationships.
Sixth: I set income goals, figured out (with the help of my new online sponsor and mentors) what it would take to meet them (and how long), and then worked my budget in such a way as to ensure that I could survive during a start-up and transition. I couldn’t have done this on my own, so I was very glad to join a community that was built on the values of sharing knowledge and developing leadership among its members–it met my needs just perfectly!
The rest is details. I love to tell the rest of the story to anyone who is also searching for a way to make big changes at midlife or beyond. So let me know if you would like to get more information about exactly what choices and decisions I made in 2009 that helped me make a successful transition from employment to entrepreneurship; from working at someone else’s beck and call, to working independently and from the comfort of my own home.
Blessings for a prosperous and exciting year of growth in 2010. I wish you all the good fortune and change that you seek in your life.
Thia
Like this? Please comment or ask a question below. And then share it, bookmark it, ReTweet it and subscribe to Thia’s RSS Feed!
Re-imagine Retirement: Learn How To Work Online From Home & “Retire” Early in 2010
When I learned HOW to work online from home, my whole life changed. Sound dramatic? Believe me, it was…and still is.
My company, Thia’s Place, is on a mission to help you make the same kind of life-changing transition in your work and your lifestyle.
Although I had been working “successfully” in the upper echelons of management, I was–in a word–pooped. (Anyone out there know what I mean?) My primary motivation for pressing on in that career path was the same as many of my peers and colleagues–the limiting belief that I “couldn’t afford” to retire yet. I needed retirement money. At age 56, I still had AT LEAST 9 years, and probably more like 14, to go. That might as well have been an eternity. It felt more like a “sentence” (as in prison) than security. When I came to grips with the honesty of those feelings, I knew that I also had to take action and make new choices or my life would never feel like my own again.
Since I had always succeeded by owning my decisions and acting upon them with conviction, I needed to apply that same wisdom and decisiveness at this juncture in my life. It was scary as anything, but also incredibly liberating. I had opened up a world of new possibility simply by letting myself think outside the box about what kind of options I really had. No more limiting beliefs for me. My inner entrepreneur was back and there would be no stopping her now!
Here are some steps that helped me organize my thinking as well as my actions:
First: I framed my decision to leave my Executive Director role in the nonprofit world, as “retirement” from traditional employment–not just a job change. I was clear that it wasn’t a move to another job I was after (the one I had was as good as that would ever again be for me ). I needed a completely new approach to creating a life that would work for me at this stage of my game.
Second: I envisioned what I wanted in my life and made a decision to go after it. No one would do it for me! Part of what this involved for me, was the fulfillment of a longtime desire to be a writer. Since I also knew that I couldn’t quickly turn writing into the kind of income that I would need to live and pay the bills , I decided to explore ways to generate income separately, that would allow me to have the kind of life and freedom I wanted. The obvious way to do that was to learn how to use the Internet to make money online and work from home doing it.
Third: I went online to start searching for options and opportunities. In doing that, I needed to look carefully, do “due diligence” (completely research and compare opportunities that interested me) before making a decision. While I knew that more and more people were turning to the Internet to make a living, I also knew that there were “bad” offers as well as good ones out there. Being a business professional, I trusted myself to sort out the good, the bad, and the ugly.
Fourth: I opened my mind to learning a whole new industry and way of working. The knowledge and expertise that I had gained over several decades in my former career did not cover all the skills I would need to learn to work online effectively. Was I up for starting over? YES! I looked at it as an adventure and a breath of fresh air in a career which had otherwise gone quite stale. What a relief and a joy it was to get back into learning mode!
Fifth: I stretched and changed my paradigm about leadership and learning to embrace the reality that my new Internet marketing teachers and mentors were going to be the ages of my kids, not my peers. Fortunately, I quickly discovered that I was surrounded by other Baby Boomers and midlife career changers and entrepreneurs who were taking the same steps in their lives as I was doing in my own. Turned out that I wasn’t being quite as “original” and “unique” as I felt–but that was GREAT! I had an instant community of entrepreneurial peers as well as a wider multi-age-group community with which I could form new friendships and working relationships.
Sixth: I set income goals, figured out (with the help of my new online sponsor and mentors) what it would take to meet them (and how long), and then worked my budget in such a way as to ensure that I could survive during a start-up and transition. I couldn’t have done this on my own, so I was very glad to join a community that was built on the values of sharing knowledge and developing leadership among its members–it met my needs just perfectly!
The rest is details. I love to tell the rest of the story to anyone who is also searching for a way to make big changes at midlife or beyond. So let me know if you would like to get more information about exactly what choices and decisions I made in 2009 that helped me make a successful transition from employment to entrepreneurship; from working at someone else’s beck and call, to working independently and from the comfort of my own home.
Blessings for a prosperous and exciting year of growth in 2010. I wish you all the good fortune and change that you seek in your life.
Like this? Please comment or ask a question below. And then share it, bookmark it, ReTweet it and subscribe to Thia’s RSS Feed!