Sometimes it’s good to just STOP and think: what are the things that make me happy right now? What actually matters for me even while the world around me burns down? It’s important to stay balanced while we live extremely uncertain times.
Like this week: I’ve been on the highest cloud and the next second at the bottom of the deepest pit. My life is always a roller coaster and I’ve said it before; there isn’t much that can surprise me anymore! But sometimes life does throw some curve balls that really test my patience.
For example, this week I was on cloud 9, jumping around happy as a kite, because I got a positive response to a collaboration request. Note, just a response… But after sending piles of collaboration e-mails any reply is a win. And then, about an hour later I found out that my entire site was down.
I mean, the whole domain had been inactivated. It turned out that when this happiness-project of mine, aka blog, was created my boyfriend put the domain under his hosting account, not mine. In other words; he had stolen my website!
That meant that I had zero control over my own site. If he didn’t pay the yearly hosting invoice, my site would stay down because officially it’s not mine. This was the last drop which resulted in me (finally!) ending the relationship. But he still had my website…
For a year he blackmailed me with it until he finally agreed to my site being transferred under my name and account. Fucking cunt!
After ordeals like that I like to return to basics: despite it all, what is still good in my life?
1. I’m healthy and well
The past two years have made it very clear to me that health is something that we should never take for granted. As my dear friends and family have suffered from leg injuries, miscarriages and different kinds of cancers, I count my lucky stars!
So, one of the most important things that make me happy in the middle of all the shit that life sees fit to throw at me is my health. Mental and physical. Because there’s absolutely no doubt about it: without health there isn’t much to life.
If you can’t move normally because of a physical injury or illness, it limits your life to an incredible degree. And even worse, if your mind goes… Well, even if it is possible to get back on your feet, the amount of mental gymnastics necessary is immense and intense. Too much for too many to handle.
The world around us is also completely mental, and has been since the most recent pandemic. Things may collapse at any moment, and the only way we will survive is if we have our wits about us. For now the future is not bright but we push on.
2. Being an entrepreneur
Talking about pushing on, despite not having any clients to invoice at the moment, one of the biggest things that make me happy is the freedom that being my own boss brings. In fact, the situation is even worse:
- I lost my biggest client (that basically paid my bills and travels) already in January and since then I’ve had only random work from a friend
- The Blog brings in quite good money some months but nowhere near enough to cover my business’s monthly costs
- In March I made 0€ and in April only 200€… May was much better but still not good enough to be of any significance
I lost the client because they decided to replace us SEO writers with AI. Shame they didn’t know that artificial intelligence can’t speak Finnish or that it isn’t intelligent to begin with. Oh well, I didn’t like the work: the industry was an abusive one so what I did wasn’t ethical at all.
The funniest thing is that despite my business account’s severe bleeding, I’m not worried in the slightest. I haven’t done much to find new clients because truth be told; I don’t want to do what I used to do anymore. I want something completely new! Which brings me to the next point:
3. Knowing my worth
My life has never been easy but it has been rewarding: I always get what I want but never the way I wanted it. For example, becoming an entrepreneur was NEVER even an option for me. The way entrepreneurship had always been presented at school and talked about at home while growing up made it clear that it was not a path for me.
And yet life happened and I found myself fired yet again. I decided I will not apply for jobs ever again so all that was left for me was to try freelancing. And it worked!
These 6 years since I started freelancing (and 9 months later had to register a company) have taught me so much! Not just about entrepreneurship versus having a job but also about me. Among things that make me happy, knowing who I am and what I deserve is a true privilege because it makes life clearer.
Some of the biggest things I’ve learned include:
- The job market is the biggest scam there is! We’re supposed to gift away 8 hours every day for a salary that doesn’t correspond at all with the amount of money our time and effort actually generates for the company. In other words, having a job = being a slave.
- As an entrepreneur you have bigger challenges in terms of how much work you have (as I am your proof), holidays, lack of benefits etc. But the freedom to decide how much you work and how much you want to earn from that work is totally worth it!
And now that I got the taste of it, I absolutely refuse to participate in the sick game that capitalism is. Wasting my time on work that I don’t give a fuck about and that doesn’t pay me enough, no way! I’m worth so much more and better!
More on the topic: Capitalism is Dying – 5 Reasons Why I Believe So
4. The Outlandish Blog
While I am clientless and have no clue what that next ‘new thing’ that I want to do is, this Blog is an absolute lifeline. It’s not a coincidence I’ve called the Outlandish Blog my happiness project from the beginning. I’ve never been passionate about any sort of work but I am passionate about this blog and website.
I want this site to be a high quality resource for tips, interesting information, new ideas and inspiration. My goal in life has always been to be an example of living life authentically. And this blog is how I present my alternative lifestyle.
Since my recovery from shopaholism, I got really into sustainability in terms of fashion and lifestyle. It’s been a really interesting learning curve and as I am not a gatekeeper, I wish to share all of those lessons with the world. And what could be a better medium for that than this beautiful blog of mine.
As I’ve built this site I’ve also learned about search engine optimising (SEO), which later became my work! Nowadays I’m a professional SEO writer and all that knowledge obviously helps me to improve the Outlandish Blog as well.
It’s such a joy to follow the Analytics how the amount of visitors on this site grows globally! And as the popularity of the blog grows, so does its credibility. Now this site is an established resource for sustainable fashion and travel enthusiasts, which also attracts advertisers.
As one of the things that make me happy every single day, it would be appropriate that the Outlandish Blog became one of my many substantial income sources. Perhaps the main one!
5. Whatever the future brings
As explained, things should look pretty gloomy for me at the moment. But still I can’t despair even if I tried! Because life has taught me many lessons, and the biggest lesson of them all is the fact that life always carries me through.
Whatever the hardship (and there have been plenty!), I can get through it, I always find a way forward. Sometimes it can take years but I always manage! To be honest, this time I can’t afford to wait for years because money is running out and once it does, I’ve decided to end things for good. I will not be homeless! So, we’re going to have to put a move on if I’m supposed to see what next year has to offer!
The funny thing is that I’m not the only one who knows that I always figure things out (eventually). When I told my best friends about the loss of my client, none of them expressed any worry or doubt that I’d be in trouble. They know me better than to worry!
Eventually I also told mum (I didn’t want her to worry cause she’s a bit too gifted at that…) And thank goodness even she took it much lighter than I could ever have expected! And since then she has not called me every week in panic “Any clients yet?? Any money yet??” Which is good cause that would stress me out and I don’t need that.
I have absolutely no clue what future has in store for me. But I’ve been in this situation a dozen times before. What comes next is something I could never even imagine. Knowing this gives me a nice sense of freedom and calm… I can’t worry about what I can’t know about.
And with that modest note, I hope you’re all hanging in there regardless of circumstances! This too will pass, everything is only temporary. Take of that what you will but hopefully something positive ♥
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