If you’re feeling stressed, over-worked or short on time right now, the thought of having more freedom to do the things you really want to do, has probably crossed your mind. Jo Davison is a Freedom Business Strategist (www.jodavison.com) and works with women to help them create more space and time so they get to achieve what they want. So, is a freedom lifestyle possible for you too? Jo says yes, it is:
Jo Davison
I am a mum of four children, two boys and two girls. The boys are 16 and 15. And the girls are eight and two years. When the boys came along, I was in the thick of things. I had created a business, which I was very proud of, but there was a big problem.
The business needed me to work in it all the time.
If I didn't work, then neither did my business. I would shrug this off and tell myself that at least I had started something I had always dreamed of. At least I was doing something with my life. But the truth was I was trapped. I knew it, but I wouldn't admit it. Perhaps you can relate to this in terms of where you are in your life right now?
One morning my youngest son was hysterical before going into nursery. Every instinct in me was to take him home, soothe him and just be with him. But I couldn't.
I had to work, and so I had to leave my child crying hysterically, to go to work. Now bear in mind, I had already left behind any corporate role and was working for myself. So, by design the buck very much stopped with me. But I felt trapped, and I also felt the dreaded mum guilt, for not being able to be there for my children like I wanted to be.
My mantra has always been that I can and would have it all, but in that moment, I doubted whether it was possible. I want you to know though, that it very much is.
That’s when the notion of a freedom lifestyle first hit me Why can't we as women who want a family life who want kids and all the rest of it, still own and run a business or have a job that works around our needs too? The obvious answer is creating a role or having a business that I worked on, rather than worked in.
As soon as I truly understood this concept, I was inspired to create my own freedom lifestyle. I changed everything. I looked at my mindset – how was I showing up and how could I embrace things more positively? I started to make my working life fit in with the lifestyle that I craved. I changed my timetable and prioritised the things that were important to me.
These strategies have now become my “freedom business blueprint strategies.” The mindset that I had to adopt was one of ‘owner’ and being in charge, rather than employee.
You see, most of us begin businesses or side hustles as we crave freedom from the constraints of a nine to five. If you’re a graphic designer – you will open a graphic design studio. The chiropractor opens a chiropractic practice. The knitter opens a wool shop. But have you considered what if you could earn money without it just being you doing the work?
If you can create way that leverages rather than sucks your time, it will give you more chance to be a great mum, wife, or whatever else you aspire to be – so you can be proud of yourself and not lose your identity at the same time.
So yes, I believe that it is possible to have it all. But you need to be willing to get started in the first place if you truly want to embrace and find the freedom lifestyle that you crave.
Firstly- decide exactly what you want. Change your story around so that you now tell yourself what you are ‘allowed’ to be, do, and have. Then don’t stop until you have implemented and created it.
But you have to be smart, you have to be self-aware, and you have to change your mindset about how you can make everything work for you. Don’t just work in a business or side hustle, work on it. This is the key to creating a freedom lifestyle that you love, where you truly can have it all.