As an employee, it takes an amount of discipline to show up for work on time every day, do the tasks laid out before you, appease managers and bosses and cope with co-workers.
As a free agent, it takes SELF-discipline to wake up in the morning with nobody to direct you but…yourself. Nobody dictates when and where and how for your day. You do.
I know the thought of that is daunting to many people. As much as we want to have command over our own lives and our time, as a culture we aren't used to calling our own shots.
We've spent our lives as children with parents dictating everything from wake time to daily tasks. Then into the school system where we respond to our alarm, get on the bus or in a car, show up at school and go to class and do what we're told from dusk till dawn with extracurricular activities thrown in. On to college which has a bit more flexibility but in essence is the same. Then…on to a j-o-b. And again…we generally have a time to show up, a desk to sit at and tasks to do.
So to wake up one morning and there is nothing set in place for us to respond to can be disconcerting and in reality, strikes fear in many would-be free agents.
Here are 6 ingredients to addressing your free agent self-discipline:
What
This is at the heart of the issue. You simply need to know WHAT to do. In normal culture as outlined above, you are told what to do. As a free agent, you'll have to understand what to do. But if you knew what to do, you'd do it, just as you do now. YOU…aren't brilliant enough to know WHAT to do at all times when running your own ship. Me neither. I have others on my team to help me see WHAT needs to be done. And I had a team even when I paid nobody anything. You must utilize…
Others
You want to own your work, not be alone. If you've been reading my blogs long you've heard me make reference to a mirror. We can only see our front. If we really twist, maybe our sides. We can't see our backsides, or the top of our head. The only way to know what's going on there is help from someone else. You need a team. Whether a business coach, mentor, or…join Free Agent Academy (my favorite choice).
ProAct
Our culture is 'reactionary.' We react to the schedules and rules and guidelines set forth by society and j-o-b. As a free agent you must be proactionary. It DOES take more responsibility and foresight. But you can do it. If you have a child and it was born at the hospital, remember the day they sent you home? All of the sudden, you are a parent. 100% responsible. Nobody to tell you what to do. Well, I assume you figured it out. You can become proactionary instead of reactionary.
Submitting
As an employee you submit to a higher power. Your boss or manager(s). You submit to their directives, agendas, values and beliefs, timetables and basically…anything. In many ways you also submit to your coworkers. You have to play the game. You submit to bureaucracy, power trips, incompetency, meaningless tasks, your commute, wearing a suit…shall I continue?
As a free agent you submit as well. But you submit to what you believe in. A higher power and it's daily directives? Your ultimate customer and client? Your family, whom previously had to come after the employer. What your gut and heart feels is right, regardless of…anything.
Deadlines
Most of us need these. We DO need to have boundaries we react to. The difference here is that WE set them out. I'm self-disciplined in not eating donuts in the morning, but not buying them the day before at the grocery. I'm self-disciplined to plan out a Free Agent Academy event because I reserved the camp and announced the date! Now I have to deliver.
Passion
The point here is to be working at something you care strongly about. A product or service that you are in fact, passionate about. Something you'd volunteer to promote if you had to. When you have that, you are inherently self-motivated.
"Once in a while it really hits people that they don't have to experience the world in the way they have been told to." -Alan Keightley
So what do you think? Could you be self-disciplined enough to do what it takes? Are you already?
Free Agent Underground Show - Are you disciplined enough to be a free agent?
