What is professional freedom?

What is professional freedom?
The online site for the Cambridge English Dictionary defines freedom as a noun meaning:

The condition or right of being able or allowed to do, say, think, etc. whatever you want to, without being controlled or limited.

When you sign a salary agreement, initial an employee handbook, or shake your new employers’ hand, that comes with the knowledge of limitations. When I left my last employer, everything I had created was now their intellectual property: I had absolutely nothing accessible and shareable in terms of the work I’d done for the last decade.

And when I did all that work, whether wrote out an email or stood before a group of people doing a presentation, I was wearing the company logo. Often quite literally.

After being laid off due to Covid budget constraints last May, I decided I needed professional freedom. The ability to represent none other than myself.

The capacity to be authentic and throw away all my clothing bearing the logo was incredibly freeing. And since I was turning 50 in 2020, and I loved writing, the https://freeat50.blog was born!

But is it instant? No. Absolutely not. That said, I’m breaking down my journey into 4 steps for you Fashion by Kukanaana readers, who are used to the “Happy Everyday” vibe. That vibe is the goal of my FreeAt50 concept- we all deserve happiness as much and as often as possible.

1. Shift Your Mindset

For me, it was an inner voice that knew I wanted to own my time and not be part of the corporate life anymore. Not just corporate, but any 9-5. Having the freedom to live as I wanted and be able to work 12 hours one day and zero the next, travel, see family, binge Netflix or take a break to write a book… well that was what was going through my mind after I was laid off.

Then I read the 4-Hour Workweek and my thought process was validated: the mindset that “you must work 9-5 (or 8-6 or 7-7) and be available at the whim of others” was not true. Everyone has skills and I had spent 30 years building mine; why not use them to design the lifestyle I wanted? After all, we found out quickly through the pandemic if not through personal experiences along the way, life is too short. #mindsetmatters Explore your options and know that there are many, many lifestyles. If you want professional freedom to be part of yours, own it and run with it.

2. Know Your Financial Needs

One thing I learned quickly is I didn’t really need all the money I had coming to me in that corporate paycheck. Everyone’s priorities and responsibilities are different but there is commonality in that we all
have minimum amount of money we need to pay the bills, whatever those bills are. With the pandemic, I know many people who have found they need less money than they thought to live on.

Whether you use a spreadsheet or grab a pen and paper, list your mandatory monthly expenses: rent/mortgage, car payment, health insurance and so forth. Add in any annual costs and break them
down into monthly costs. Then determine a do-able allowance for everything else such as food: will you eat out or buy groceries on sale? Now that you know what you NEED to live on, are there expenses that can be cut if necessary (for example, can you decrease your car insurance costs?).

In planning to be professionally free, assess your financial situation and be sure that you can sustain yourself for up to 12 months before earning an income should you go the route of building your own business.

3. Focus On Your Craft:

Skills are important. But here’s a funny thing: you have many. You aren’t defined by one job, or a specific degree. In fact, you are defined by every single thing that makes you unique. In planning to escape the 9-5 and design a lifestyle of professional freedom, assess your skills, along with your passions.

To explain: If you have a master’s degree in business administration, but love to paint, those skills and that passion are equally valid in how you can earn your income. See how you can combine them to build a business. Use your business education and training to build an online art gallery where you sell your paintings. Then start painting! Build up that inventory of amazing art while creating a business plan.

The important thing to note is that you need to determine what you want to pursue and prepare to focus on it wholeheartedly.

4. Take Action

Once you’ve done steps 1 through 3, it’s time to take action! There may be research necessary so you can plan accordingly and ensure you have the right technology, licensing, or business accounts and so forth. I quickly formed an LLC (Limited Liability Corporation) and filed for a federal tax identification number. (All with the counsel of a CPA)

Work with a coach, invest in training, technology or inventory and move forward. Stay focused on your business plan and resist the “shiny objects” along the way. And most importantly, give yourself the time you need to build your income stream and attain professional freedom

Keep moving forward, no matter what.

We all experience self-doubt: “did I make the right decision?” or “did I choose the wrong business idea to pursue?” but even if you need to pivot down the road, it’s ok. Just keep moving forward and take the learnings you acquire along the way into your next endeavor. Don’t look back.

Personally, I have decided to go all-in with the blog and if that doesn’t work out this year, for whatever reason, I have a Plan B to create a course based on my corporate background.

#Keepmovingforward