Work: on your terms

For people starting out in business, there’s a whole lot of info out there about the way you should operate, about things you should do. Often times those insights are useful. I also think it is important to consider all business decisions through the lens of: What is Actually Right For You.

To illustrate the point, I’ve dug up a few examples from my own professional experience:

+ Twitter – Twitter just made my introverted brain freak out. So, after persisting for a while because I thought I should, I just stopped. I removed the Twitter link from my website. And I’ve never regretted it.

+ Pop-Ups – I hate pop-ups on other people’s sites. I hate them! Almost to the point that I’ll stop reading if they keep on popping up! So I don’t use them. Despite the fact that I’m told they convert traffic into business. I just won’t do it.

+ Networking – I don’t really go to networking events. The thought of walking into a room filled with people I don’t know and attaching a name-tag and making small-talk and offering my card and spruiking my services. All that actually makes me feel a little ill. But I do meet up [and engage on social media] with brilliant women in business and beyond, who are doing inspiring things. So I definitely network but I don’t network.

+ Instagram – my Insta feed doesn’t look the way I think it’s meant to. That is, it doesn’t have a perfectly curated feel, I don’t always use the same filters, I don’t balance images with inspirational quotes, I don’t post in accordance with a schedule and I write stuff rather than just relying on the image. But the thing is, I like my feed. And the feeds that I’m most drawn to myself are not the ones that look the way they’re mean to, either. So that’s cool.

+ Website photos – As a life and career coach, I think I’m meant to use stock images of whimsical girls drinking green juices or groups of professionals sitting around boardroom tables. But I can’t, I just can’t. So I use my own [and having a photographer partner helps…]

+ Suits – The year I finished law school I went and tried on suits, because that’s what you wear if you’re going into Something Professional, right? The minute I had it on something really weird happened; I started to freak out. My mum had to break the door open, extricate me from the suit and calm my panic. Now I don’t wear suits and I never wear heels. I wear clothes I love, clothes that feel like me and that make me feel great.

+ Language – I don’t say things like Unlock Your Potential or Discover Your Destiny. I also don’t say things like moving forward let’s action that and facilitate key players to synergise in strategising core competencies and blahblahblah. I can’t speak woowoocoaching and I also can’t speak corporatese. I just speak like a normal person.

I am convinced that it is possible to do Great Business on your own terms. Actively choosing What is Actually Right For You might be scary and challenging but it will yield effective, satisfying results that are sustainable, long-term.

And while I have related these ideas to business, they are also highly relevant if you’re employed or looking after little ones at home. Instead of doing what others expect of you in your role [or what you think others expect of you], it makes much more sense to operate in a way that aligns with who you really are.

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One of the biggest game-changers in choosing to live and work on your own terms is having the confidence to do so. If you’re feeling like you could do with a boost in self-belief, you might like to receive the [free!] Upstairs Confidence Primer. Just sign up here.

Tags: life-coaching, Melbourne