It’s June 2019 and Forging Finance is 6 months old. That may not seem like much of an accomplishment, but for me it is. The only regret I have is not having started it sooner! I thought I’d share how this all began. I’m sure there are others out there that have gone done a similar if not the same path.
How it all started
I thought about starting a blog for several years but never did. Then in January 2019 Forging Finance was born. It wasn’t a New Year’s resolution or anything like that. Instead it began after about a two week vacation between Christmas and New Year’s 2018/2019.
I had the time to start a blog. I had a Word file where I had already started some blog posts. I write a lot at work, so I think my writing is at least good enough. Why didn’t I start sooner?
Some may quickly point out it was procrastination. I won’t argue that, but I think I can go a bit deeper. Rather than write about what this blog has done for me or what I expect to gain, I thought I’d start with a more detailed post on what I had to do to get to this point. I’ll save the rest for my one year anniversary.
9 to 5 Mindset Trap
There’s a certain mindset that develops once you settle into your surroundings. Ask a seasoned entrepreneur if they would ever go get a corporate job and they’d say no way, I cannot see myself doing that! Ask a seasoned corporate employee if they want to be an entrepreneur and they’d say yes, I’d love to, but never will because it’s too daunting.
While the mindset of an entrepreneur and corporate employee are very different in some ways, there’s a similarity as well. By “seasoned” entrepreneur or corporate employee I mean someone that has years of experience in one or the other. They’ve already started small, learned, built up momentum and are well down the path.
Why on earth would you leave your successful homegrown business to go back to a cubicle. Why on earth would you risk leaving the safety of your cubicle to try and start a business!
What I noticed when I’m on vacation from my corporate job is that it takes about one full week for me to really get the “work thoughts” out of my head. The internal politics, the needs of my clients, my full inbox, upcoming conference calls, travel and meetings. All this stuff is just a cacophony of noise in my head, and I suspect the heads of everyone in that same environment, that keeps your focus on your job.
After about a week (with no checking email or voicemail) I notice that most of that noise goes away. It’s the second week that I tend to get more creative and entrepreneurial thoughts going through my mind. For anyone that has taken a break from work, be it a mini-retirement or sabbatical, or maybe just a month long vacation, chances are they are thinking “welcome to the conversation dude”.
The reboot your mind gets from a long vacation cannot be overstated.
Breaking the Pattern
The break between 2018 and 2019 was the same as previous years when I took this time off. This year was a little different though. During this break I pretty much did nothing of substance. I just took time to relax. Toward the end of this two week period I started thinking about blogging again, did some internet searches to see if there were any cool jobs out there. But I didn’t take any meaningful action.
Then got back to work. It was a typical Monday after a long break, I spent most of the morning clearing out my full inbox and looking ahead for what’s to come that week. Then I got on the phone with a colleague to talk about a project.
This particular person does not like their job very much, they complain a lot and are pretty depressing overall. I distinctly remember having our conversation, then hanging up the phone, and then it hit me. All of the creative and entrepreneurial energy that I had felt toward the end of the two week vacation was sucked out of me and completely gone. This had happened many times in the past, but I never noticed it like I did this time.
Talking to some depressing dude at work made me feel the same way. I quickly snapped out of it though, and went back to my vacation mindset. I realized this same pattern had happened several times in the past, and this is what has kept me from starting a blog.
I made the decision then and there and immediately opened up my Word document to start brainstorming blog names. I went ahead and started up my WordPress account even though I didn’t have a domain, and I started learning how to build my website.
The process took longer than I’d care to admit, having no prior website or Word Press experience. All I had to do was remember my conversation with that depressing colleague and I was motivated to keep going. It took a couple of weeks, but I finally got my blog up and running.
During this time I also started to rearrange my morning routine to include time to write posts, as I tend to write better and more in the morning before my head is full of work stuff.
As I wrote earlier, I wouldn’t argue anyone if they accused me of procrastination, in that I didn’t start my blog years earlier. However, the procrastination tag doesn’t do it justice. There’s more than that.
Here’s a summary of how I broke the pattern.
The Busy Trap
Credit to Tim Kreider for writing this post.
In my line of work, consulting, when someone asks how you’re doing at work, the immediate response is typically “busy”. It’s bad to be not busy, so you naturally get conditioned to have that response.
I think this quote from Tim Kreider’s 2012 post “The Busy Trap” says it all:
Busyness serves as a kind of existential reassurance, a hedge against emptiness; obviously your life cannot possibly be silly or trivial or meaningless if you are so busy, completely booked, in demand every hour of the day.
Tim Kreider
That pretty much sums up the corporate 9 to 5 job mindset right there. That also explains why it is so hard to break free of a 9 to 5 job to do other more meaningful or personally fulfilling things. Which leads to:
Get Away and Detach
Time
In my experience a long weekend or even a full week are nice but don’t do enough for expunging all of the work thoughts from my mind. I personally need two weeks or more, and in the near future will test the waters with the “more” part.
Work Tethers
I also need to stay away from the work tethers. Email, voicemail, instant messages, texts. All of that stuff is toxic when you’re trying to detach. If you’re work colleagues and clients are so relentless that they won’t leave you alone, then go to extremes. Turn all notifications off, or even more extreme, delete the enterprise app or other app from your phone.
Leave your work computer closed and shut off. If you need to, you can buy a refurbished laptop on eBay for less than $150. Get on Google Docs for free and start writing your blog.
Location
This can be the tough part. Now you need to get away from your normal surroundings. It just needs to be anywhere but where you reside most of the time. The combination of having different surroundings, time away from work, and elimination of work tethers are what is needed. I personally need all three to get my mind back into the creative and entrepreneurial place it needs to be.
Beliefs can really hold you back
You obviously have beliefs and convictions you know about and hold dear. Then there are the beliefs that are tucked down in your psyche from being in the same environment for a long time. If you can break the pattern by getting away and detaching, sprinkle in some existential reflection, perhaps those hidden “beliefs” can surface so you can change them around. Things like you’re not good enough, smart enough, wealthy enough. All kinds of things like that are in the backs of our minds.
Write it down
If there is something in the back of your mind that you’ve wanted to start, I’ve found that it is very difficult to take any sort of action until you get your thoughts on paper. I’ve discovered that things I thought were well thought out were not, and things I thought were simple concepts turned out to be very complex.
In Summary
When I finally got past what was keeping me from starting this blog, I had no doubt I’d make it to 6 months. Given what experienced bloggers have written, I don’t even expect significant readership before year two! I’ve realized several benefits to starting a blog that I’ll write later. I can say though that the biggest benefit I’ve realized is making a daily habit, taking time that was not productive and transforming it into something productive.