Welcome to the blog! This week I take a break from scheduled programming to discuss goal-setting in the languages and translation industry!
How are you doing with your resolutions for the new year?
British newspaper The Guardian announced last year that 24th January is the day we are most likely to break resolutions. If you’ve made it so far but are starting to falter, this (hopefully!) encouraging post is for you.
It’s easy to feel overwhelmed when running your own business.
Especially with no formal business training.
And this is the case whether you’re in the middle of a busy period and the work keeps coming, or you’ve suffered a major setback and are feeling discouraged.
In many ways, social media has made this more of a problem.
Whereas you’d once never have thought to compare yourself and your business to others, social media now has your colleagues shouting their achievements from the rooftops, never whispering a word about hiccups and out-and-out defeats along the way.
This makes it easy to feel like everyone is succeeding except you; suddenly the entire world is achieving their goals with ease while yours simply feel out of reach.
The fact is, freelancing and business – nay, life – is a marathon, not a sprint.
A huge number of highly successful people have witnessed all kinds of failure before finally making it, even when they had everything going for them (another good reason, incidentally, to read non-linguist business blogs). I refer you to this picture:
Image: Babs Rangaiah
If you’re in a rut but know you want to run a business, you shouldn’t give up.
However, you should try to work out what it is that’s stopping it from working.
Is it time management, the (lack of) opportunities for work in your current location, or the attempt to transition too fast to a new market (e.g. direct client work)?
Perhaps you’ve moved countries and your business has suffered in the interim, or maybe you’re just being run ragged by burning the candle at both ends.
You don’t have to rush success.
When feeling bogged down, break your goals down into smaller chunks and remember that, like all things, it takes time.
Once you adjust your mindset and expectations (especially in terms of time), you will not only feel more satisfied with work, but will also be able to appreciate the little bits of progress you are making (the Japanese concept of kaizen).
By reducing the time you spend worrying about keeping up with the Joneses, you will find you have more time to work towards your personal goals.
It’s worth remembering that there’s nothing wrong with you being employed part-time while establishing yourself, or even choosing to take on part-time work after the fact. It doesn’t mean you’ve failed; it’s just your own path.
If necessary you can use this time to lay the groundwork for your future breakthrough, e.g. by developing your expertise, gaining experience and networking.
Ultimately, you have to remember that YOU are your business
Which means you can shape it exactly as you want – so if you’re not happy about any part of it, you do have the power to change it!
You just have to figure out what your goals are, what obstacles are in the way, and let go of any unfair expectations you are placing on yourself.
Then, with a little hard work and initiative, the rest will fall into place in time… so how about those resolutions of yours?
Keen for more tips?
Why not check out these fab articles on regaining focus, avoiding burnout and taking the new year by storm?
- The benefit of keeping your day job while running a start-up
- What athletes can teach you about avoiding burnout
- Freelancing burnout: causes, symptoms and how to avoid it
- Thinking of quitting? Remember, the sun will rise
- 5 ways to deal with freelance fatigue
- 4 steps to regaining your focus
- 6 steps to crush your goals in 2015
- Success generally happens after this
***Edit: the darker side of freelancing***
While I’m reluctant to end a positive blog post on a negative note, it has to be said that pervasive sadness/depression shouldn’t just be pushed aside; your feelings are yours alone, and shouldn’t be ignored. If you’re really struggling, all you have to do is reach out for help. The following articles may help to show you aren’t alone:
- 4 tips for dealing with founder depression
- Entrepreneurial life shouldn’t be like this – should it? Depression in business
- Depression for entrepreneurs: the Healthy Entrepreneur’s guide to coming out smiling
- Entrepreneurs, black dogs and depression
I’d urge anyone who has felt depressed for a long period or who has had dark/suicidal thoughts to approach their GP as soon as possible. Depression is a chemical problem and it is treatable, so please reach out.
What have you done in the past to buoy yourself up as a frustrated freelancer? Share you thoughts in the comments!
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Marie Jackson is the owner of
Katarina Andersson
Jan 22, 2015 -
Am following your blog posts, they are very easy-to-read and to the core. However, in this last one, of course you can talk about depression and suicidal feelings, but it seem a bit over the top, normally such feelings would not have to do only with being an entrepreneur, but often with other things going on too around that person.
Would be nice to start reading some tweaky and fun things, a bit ironic stuff from translators in blog posts about ourselves to attract attention, than always these quite boring and clinical blogs about our job field 😉 How are we going to change our field and the view generally about translators if we ourselves do not start to stick out and try to be more ‘fun’ in a constructive way?
However, a good blog post.
Marie Jackson
Jan 22, 2015 -
Hi Katarina, thanks for taking the time to comment!
I appreciate you sharing your point of view, but can’t agree. A quick google will show you that depression is a very common problem for those in business, and not all of those affected have underlying issues. We’re all different and different things affect us in different ways. Personally, I feel it would be irresponsible of me to tell people to power on through when there’s a chance that a reader is struggling. I’m really glad that this isn’t a problem you’ve encountered, but for those that have (hopefully the minority), I hope the post is helpful.
As to fun, I can’t really comment, since we all find different things fun 🙂 This blog is about productive and healthy entrepreneurship and I’m glad you enjoyed the post, regardless!
Carol Bidwell
Jan 22, 2015 -
Hi Marie,
I personally think it’s a good thing that you mention the difference between ‘normal’ stress and feelings of being overwhelmed and clinical depression. As freelancers working from home, we don’t have colleagues on hand to help rationalise things, so it can become difficult to tell what normal (in terms of workload, stress, anxiety) is.
I had never heard of Kaizen before, but it sounds like a great business philosophy! Sometimes lots of baby steps are just as important as one giant leap 🙂
Marie Jackson
Jan 22, 2015 -
Hi Carol, thanks for stopping by 🙂
I think you raise a good point. Without colleagues, it’s easy to look at your peers on social media and assume you just need to ‘man up’. Kaizen is really interesting and a brilliant concept. I first came across it while translating a company magazine for one of my clients. No-one was ever an overnight success; we just don’t hear about the hard work they put in beforehand.
I also think that kaizen leaves room for continued improvement, whereas it’s easy to clip your own wings with an ‘all or nothing’ attitude; once you’ve achieved it all, what else is there? I’m proud of my baby steps!