I want to help you not just survive, but THRIVE in these uncertain times. Here is your daily dose of inspiration – because if we set our compass right, we can sail through this!
“Bloom where you are Planted”
Tip #23: Brainstorm ideas for new income streams
If your income has taken a hit lately, I encourage you to think creatively and optimistically about temporary/secondary income streams that are possible right now. This doesn’t mean abandoning your primary work, but redirecting some of your efforts in a way that works with the situation you are in: responding to it rather than resisting it.
Resist the urge to get stuck feeling frustrated, afraid or disappointed when you encounter a roadblock to your well crafted plans. There is a great analogy of a flower who won’t bloom because it knows that the another pot has better soil, which would make blooming easier. But the flower is in this pot. And it will bloom bigger and faster if it just works with the soil it is planted in and blooms today.
Standard business advice is to “hold your focus” and “don’t try to progress too many things in parallel”. Sometimes, however, rules are made to be broken. If you are facing several months where Plan A cannot progress, does this create an opportunity to do something else in the interim? Are there ways that your plan B can strengthen your primary business once things calm down again?
- Do something to get yourself into a good headspace (meditate, go for a walk, have a coffee with a couple of biscuits, take a bath…)
- Set yourself up in a clear, uncluttered space with paper and pens
- Brainstorm ideas for secondary/temporary sources of income that would work right now
- Narrow it down to a small list of things that you will put some energy into to see if ‘they have legs’ and make a short list of tasks towards each one.
For some of you it will be business as usual at the moment, you can still take a moment to ask if there are any ways you might like to adapt your work to respond to today’s landscape.
In any goal setting we always ask you to get clear on where you are right now, so that you can take potent steps to where you are trying to go. Make sure that you accept where you are right now, rather than fighting it with ‘shoulds’ and ‘if onlys’. This will help you to sail towards your goals with open eyes, a good map and a positive mindset that adds wind to your sails.
Recommended Reading
The Obstacle is the Way, by Ryan Holiday
We give up too easily. With a simple change of attitude, what seem like insurmountable obstacles become once-in-a-lifetime opportunities. Ryan Holiday, who dropped out of college at nineteen to serve as an apprentice to bestselling ‘modern Machiavelli’ Robert Greene and is now a media consultant for billion-dollar brands, draws on the philosophy of the Stoics to guide you in every situation, showing that what blocks our path actually opens one that is new and better.
