Hello everyone, how have you been? I trust that you are well in body, mind and spirit.

It’s been a while and the world has changed since my last jottings…some it for the better and some – well, not so good at all really.

My jottings have been silent over the last few months as I’ve been doing some personal development work with a couple of trusted mentors. I wanted to understand what type of self-employed business suits my personality best and how to make the most of that to create an abundant and flexible lifestyle, doing the work I absolutely adore. And I also wanted to understand whether this could be useful for my writing of my first book.

 I discovered that I’m an introvert

Although I can actually talk a lot with people that I’m really comfortable with and connect with! Many people mistakenly call an introvert a shy person – the terms are often substituted for each other. Introverts can be confident and courageous in their own world.

And so, ‘connection and harmony’ has become my mantra. Connection with other human beings within a framework that works for me and feeling a balance or in harmony with them are the most important things for me in all areas of life. And I’ve recognised that having these two things in my work and in my writing is the icing on the cake!

A really helpful resource if you suspect that you, too, are an introvert is the book I’m reading at the moment:

The Freelance Introvert – Work the Way You Want Without Changing Who You are by Tom Albrighton. Published by Amazon.

Tom makes the very valid point that introversion is a strength BUT you need to understand your own strengths AND weaknesses to make your freelance business work. Some fail because they shy away from learning or adapting to giving themselves all the skills necessary to run a business.

When you are a one-person business

And this applies equally to the ‘business’ of writing, you have to turn up in every department.  Marketing and sales, accounts and finance, IT and technical support, buying and purchasing and so on, the list goes on. If you have a fear of asking your customer to pay their invoice then one of your businesses departments is understaffed/under resourced. Plus you won’t get very far if your cashflow is out of balance…

Finding other freelancers, a co-working group or other writers is really useful. You can talk with like-minded people. They can make suggestions to help you tackle your fears in certain business areas. They have experienced them too. Or you could think about outsourcing some of these worrisome tasks and find someone to support you. Let’s face it – if you don’t like doing something, for example, chasing for payment, you’ll worry about it, it’ll keep you awake at night and you’ll break out in a cold sweat when you think about phoning or emailing your client with a reminder to pay.

Building a support network around your freelance business is key

Connection, even for introverts, is so important. As the saying goes “No man is an island entire of itself…” (John Donne, 1572-1631).

We are human beings and isolation from others isn’t our natural state – we need to be part of a community in order to thrive. Even introverts!

So if you work with introverts like me, you’ll receive a great piece of work because we:

Are great listeners

Will keep meetings on track and running to time

Love to be absorbed and have focus in our work

Are self-motivated

Prefer to make decisions carefully

Are always organised and well prepared in our work

And importantly at the moment – we can work alone – and we love to do so if we have the choice 😊

Most people acknowledge that the Covid-19 and lockdown/restrictions situation are probably going to be here for a while and it can all feel scary and oppressive for some. That’s perfectly understandable, people are having to adapt to new ways of working, thinking and being.

But there are also some positives for introverts like me and it could just be that we produce some of best work ever through this uncertain time.

Until next time, take good and gentle care of yourself,

Joy x