beyonditall.net

Drowning in work that is.

Since the new year began, my daily to-do list piles up more and more.  Part of it is my 2010 goal to be more productive, and part of it is catching up on things that’s been left behind over the past few months.  I gave myself a “day off” on Dr. Martin Luther King Jr. day, but paid for it the rest of the week – and this was after I worked the prior weekend.  This makes working a typical 9-5 a little more appealing, (not to mention the added benefit of group health insurance and paid time off) though unemployment is still very high and even more impossible in my field and previous occupation.

I thought about going back to school, but just as I was feeling fourteen years ago when I had to decide what I wanted to do with my life, I still don’t have a clue now.  Every occupation that I’m remotely interested in is either saturated, moved overseas, I don’t have the physical qualifications due to MS,  or there is just no money in it.

Its hard feeling like I’m constantly in limbo when it comes to career, but I guess that puts me in the same boat with mostly everyone else in one way or another.  I do really enjoy Green and Chic, but I feel like I need a “safety net”  just in case.  A friend suggested talking to a career counselor.  That may not be a bad idea.

Have you ever consulted with a career counselor?  If so, how was your experience?

I know I’ve been MIA over the past few weeks, but I am alive and well.  This is my first full holiday season since the beginning of Green and Chic and it has me fully occupied.  The business side of me knows its the end of the year while I catch up with my business bookkeeping and the web store holiday preparations, but the other side of me cant believe its already Thanksgiving time.

2009 went by in a flash.  With all the major changes in life with the diagnoses, having to leave my job, losing my benefits, the pregnancy – and loss, and relocating, I guess its a good thing this year didn’t drag its feet.

I think the only way I’m going to look forward to 2010 and beyond is to have some short and long-term goals.  Since the Multiple Sclerosis diagnosis, I’ve inadvertently put the breaks on setting goals (especially long-term) in my life though I don’t fully understand why. I guess fear have a lot to do with it.  Fear of failure and disappointment if I don’t fulfill what I set out to do.  Questions such as how can I travel next year if I’m looking at over $6,000 in out of pocket medical expenses for MS treatment not including  my prescription drug co-payment.  It also doesn’t include general well-woman care and the dental work I’m facing.  I know it can be done. I know its a matter of remapping my life and thinking outside the invisible force field I put up.

The question is, how?

Every so often, I explore whether or not I should continue the Green and Chic blog. Its something I enjoy doing but wonder if I’m spinning my wheels, wasting my time, or if it will actually accomplish anything. I usually don’t question it until I compare myself to other bloggers and their blogs. These are writers with blogs of similar ages (or younger) but get many more visitors than mine. There is a difference between 2,800 visitors and 60 visitors per day. When I run contests, I may get up to 150 visitors for 1-2 days but that’s pretty much the limit. I follow almost all of the expert advice and I’m constantly learning, but maybe its just not meant to be. It really doesn’t help the Green and Chic store much and I wonder if I should just concentrate on that instead. The blog is over a year and a half old so its not like its only been a few months.

I have mixed feelings because I don’t want to be another quitter, but I don’t want to waste time either.

Photo by PSD

Over the past two days, I had some issues with my self-hosted WordPress blog at Green and Chic that almost made me throw in the towel.

Thursday afternoon, I logged into my Green and Chic Blog admin and got this message:

Syntax error: syntax error, unexpected T_CONSTANT_ENCAPSED_STRING in /home/greenand/public_html/blog/wp-admin/includes/template.php on line 3274

My heart drops, I panic, I log on to the blog itself and its working fine thankfully.  I go to the WordPress.org support to see if this has happened to anyone else before. It turns out that it happened to another user an hour ago, but they were able to solve the problem themselves, closed the question and they were long gone.

» Read the rest of this entry «

Green and Chic has been opened since November (the blog is over a year old) and the one thing I learned about working online  is that its so easy to be isolated.  The isolation increased when I went on disability a few months ago.

Right now, I am looking for fellow etailers/web store owners/ecommerce pros, etc to network with and exchange business ideas.

I am also looking for etailers in the same general genre: eco-friendly, chemical-free, organic, green, etc that sell organic clothing for adults and babies, candles, cleaning products, home decor,  (the list goes on) to do cross marketing with.   I have a few ideas that that I’ve already started implementing.  Feel free to contact me for me for more information.

Over the past several months, there have been floods of articles from bloggers writing about the pros and cons of starting a business “in this economy”.  Articles such as Is Now a Good Time to Start a Business? can really have you contemplating if now’s a good time to step out of the shell.

Recently, Kim Woodbridge of Antisocial Development discovered that this was a good time for her to give her two weeks notice.  The post Freelancing During a Recession goes into what brought her to make that life change decision.

For me, going on disability has allowed me more time and energy to work on Green and Chic and help out Steve with his business.  Is this the career charge I’ve been looking for? I’m not sure if I will be going back in July or not, but I will not be looking forward to it if I do!

If you are self employed, what drove you to make that decision?

Photo credit: Clairity

I just realized its so easy to abandon personal blogs. I put so much work into Green and Chic Blog and website, not to mention the time I put into Steve’s business (I just set up his website this week) that Beyond it All gets left in the dust though I still haven’t defined it yet.

Physically, I am doing better, my skin is healing better  and faster than expected and I am done with the oral steroids.

I am going to make it a goal to post at least 3 times a week, even if its micro blog posts.  I need to keep Beyond it All alive!

One of my favorite online pastimes is reading other blogs. Besides green living, fashion, personal development and whatnot, one of my choice subjects is entrepreneurship. I’m constantly reading accounts of bloggers, small business owners and internet retailers spending all hours of the day and night working on their business. Many times, this is in addition to working at their day-job and family obligations.

According to a lot of entrepreneurs, you can’t succeed if you don’t spend every waking hour plugging and pecking away at the keyboard, making calls, tinkering with your website, upgrading your blog, writing, social networking and many other day-to-day tasks.

If you don’t have the strength and energy throughout the day and your doctor specifically tells you to cool it, how can you start and run a successful business? When I was away in Portland for a few days last week and this weekend, though we were busy in some ways, I haven’t felt this good in months. My legs didn’t give out on me, and I had enough energy to get through the days and have some fun in the evenings. Now that I’m back at work, I am totally exhausted and my legs feel like jello. Looking back, I really didn’t work that hard and we had a lot of leisure time.

Besides any Western and alternative medicine to treat multiple sclerosis, one of the most common advice that is given is to simply rest.

How can I do it all? Should I?

Part of staring multiple small businesses is to have some level of financial freedom. Right now, this is more important than ever since working 45 hours a week is really draining. Bad economy aside, I don’t know how long it will take me to find a 9-5 once we move. Since COBRA will cost me around $600 a month, I need to have something coming in to cover that.
So much to ponder and consider.