If you want to seize control of your life and reap a bountiful harvest, there’s no better way to achieve this than the gig-economy as a self-employed worker
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There comes a moment on everybody’s journey of self-discovery and self-empowerment when they have to stop and evaluate their career trajectory. According to John Parrot, employment is a massive contributing factor to stress. This is particularly true for the rising generation who tend to find traditional models of employment stifling amidst the growth of the gig economy.
For some of us, employment brings welcome challenges, stability, and security. As a freelance writer and best-self advocate, I don’t want to alienate anyone who feels fulfilled in full-time employment, but I do believe that making the leap into self-employment can help people to live more fulfilled and mindful lives.
The self-employed lifestyle is about promoting what’s most important in your life: You. No one else is going to do that for you; no one else can encourage you as you can.
Here are 6 reasons to embrace self-employment as the path to living a best-self lifestyle:
1. Most of us are unsatisfied with full-time employment
It’s a staggering reality that half of Americans are in jobs that make them unhappy. This means that most of us are heaping a net-gain of negativity into our lives. Studies suggest this is especially true when issues of race, ethnicity, and gender are a crucial factor. The undeniable solution for more and more of us is to become self-employed. Becoming self-employed inevitably leads to an increase in job satisfaction and engagement because we have more control over the variables. This was the case for Best Self contributor Laura Garnet.
2. Freedom to schedule life your way
Life gets hectic when we allow the demands of other people to pile up on us. Without taking time to work on our own self-esteem through meditation, mindfulness, affirmations and other practices, things can become overwhelming. Working a traditional 9-5 job makes self-care difficult at best and impossible at worst because our time isn’t our own. Exchanging your time for money is a difficult model to scale. Self-employment, however, gives you control over your schedule — including taking time out when needed to work on your Best Self. Self-employment can also lead to automating your revenue stream, which can be a scalable model that can afford you even more time flexibility.
It’s important to note that most people end up spending more time at work when they are self-employed, not less, because the lines between work and non-work are easily blurred. Yet, many independent people state that their work doesn’t feel like work at all. As the saying goes, “If you love your work, you’ll never work a day in your life!”
3. Work-life balance
One of the fundamental principles in the world today is a positive work-life balance. This entails prioritizing our well-being and allocating time for self-empowerment and self-discovery. Without balance, our lives are governed externally; we no longer have sovereignty over our lives and bodies if we are forced into servitude to someone else. Working for yourself provides the flexibility to adjust your work-life balance in a way no other career or boss could.
4. Unleash your potential
Many full-time workers regret that they allowed themselves to be used as a cog in a machine they couldn’t escape. I once met a lawyer who had lived a high-flying life as he reached the top of the financial ladder. He told me, “I’d exchange every late night in the office, every business call and every flight overseas on business for just ten minutes playing with my daughter when she was a toddler.” This struck me. To maximize what’s important, we need to stop letting work become the thing that matters most; instead, we should strive to see work as a means of enabling us to do the things that really do matter to us — to our hearts and to our souls.
A good way to start this is to write a statement of purpose. Experts at essaypro suggest a statement of purpose is an essential element of optimal wellbeing.
5. Better than average earnings
On average, self-employed people earn a better living than employed workers. A mixture of flexibility and higher rates can be a great thing, and this is especially evident in the world of self-employment where the average Self-employed salary in the US is around $80,000.
6. Better job security
If you are your own boss, you are not likely to be sacked any time soon! In all seriousness, self-employed people are reported to have a much higher rate of job security than those in traditional employment.
This can largely be attributed to higher job satisfaction. Official statistics put the number of satisfied and secure gig-economy workers beyond 50%.
Getting started in the gig economy has never been easier. There are so many tools for creating websites, online stores and other platforms that you’ll need. An excellent first step is to register with a popular freelancing website (such as Upwork) to help you narrow and gain expertise in your niche.
As a writer, there’s never been a better time to publish your writing with blogs, websites, and other online outlets willing to pay for great content. This can also include working with large brands, which are jumping into the content marketing arena. Additional opportunities abound for medical and technical writers.
The journey to self-employment is not always going to be straightforward. Undoubtedly, sometimes it will feel risky and uncertain as you put aside the conventional security of a steady paycheck and 401Ks. But, once you embark down this path, you are likely to experience an incredible sense of freedom and expansiveness.
As you go forth on your road to independence, I encourage you to journal your progress so that you can look back each day on how far you’ve travelled and celebrated every tiny victory along the way as you carve out your own way to contribute positivity to the world.
You may also enjoy reading A Holistic Approach to Creating Wealth for Entrepreneurs by Stephen and Chutes Bowman
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