Why do you do what you do?
Written by Trish - January 1, 2009 1 Comment During a coaching call with a client the other day, we laughed about how being a freelancer isn't always as cool as it looks from the outside. It can be lonely at times, and then there are those days when the responsibility for creating solo success feels like an incredibly heavy weight across the shoulders and down the back. At those times, it can be easy to wonder why we do what we do.
Why do you do what you do?
I have a theory. I think that we set up our solo service businesses for a number of reasons:
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to make time for ourselves, our families, and our friends.
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to make money for the lifestyles we want.
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to have the freedom to decide our own futures.
I also think that there is another reason, and it is this reason that keeps us going on the toughest days:
to make meaning.
For many of us (most of us? all of us?), making a contribution, making a difference is as important — or more important — than money, time, or freedom.
I was singularly unsuccessful in making any kind of lasting meaning in my corporate job. And after a ftime, the 6-figure salary, bonuses, and health coverage didn't make up for this lack. When that situation got more uncomfortable than I could bear, I went solo.
How about you? Why do you do what you do? What gets you through the tough days?
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One Outstanding Responses to "Why do you do what you do?"
Kate Eaton on February 10, 2009 at 1:14 pm | Permalink
You’re absolutely on target–none of us have time to simply coast in our jobs any longer. If we aren’t creating something meaningful with all those hours, why are we there? In a time of national crisis, it seems to me that innovation and creativity, rather than corporate conformity, should be most highly rewarded. That doesn’t, however, seem to be the case.
Although it’s truly been a struggle to live “free”, spending an hour in corporate America has me looking for the exits. Thanks for your usual insightful comments.