This year, 2018, was full of ups and downs personally, but for my business, it was my best year yet. In January of 2018, I read “You are a badass” by Jen Sincero and kind of had an epiphany. I felt empowered to live life on purpose, take risks, and not give a shit what anyone thought about what I had to do to achieve my goals. I learned so many life lessons this year and I want to share 3 of them with you so in 2019 you can level up too.
Invest in yourself
I decided to take the bull by the horns and immediately invest in a business course to get organized, created especially for designers. Although I had been working in the corporate world as a designer for nearly 10 years with tons of experience, I had never taken to chance to get organized and take my skills seriously. Although I balked at the steep price tag of the course I thought about it in a logical way. I just needed to to get one client because of the course and it would pay for itself. So I took the plunge! The course changed everything! I felt more confident, powerful, and equipped to give my clients not only the best designs but also the best experience.
Money is a renewable resource, time is not
Before this year if I thought that I could do something by myself, I would do it. No matter how long it took me or how many youtube videos I had to watch. I would spend my valuable time fixing tub spouts, troubleshooting the WiFi, or other things that I knew nothing about. I didn’t realize that when I spent my valuable time doing things that weren’t my expertise, I could be building my business, spending time with family and friends, or even just taking some much-needed self-care time.
Hiring a professional that could fix my spout in 10 minutes instead of 3 hours or movers that could finish a move in 3 hours instead of 2 days is something that I should have done. Because I can always make more money, but I can’t make more time.
Not everyone will support you but always support yourself
I had some people warn me about what I was undertaking by starting a business. How hard it was going to be and how risky it was. Don’t let this get to you! They’re coming from a place of concern for your stability. But you can’t listen to them as it’s likely that they ignored their dreams and called them risky.
Other people have surprised me by giving me nothing but support. These people recommend me left and right and always have kind words to say about me as well as my business.
I know that I will continue into 2019 keeping these lessons in mind. What lessons did you learn in 2018 that you will be bringing into 2019?
