Are you a baby boomer who’s been slogging through the drudgery of a 9 to 5 job for years, and now feel like you might explode? Are you just plain fed up? Although it may not be of much consolation, know that you are not alone. Millions of boomers trudge through their daily job, hating it. And, the closer they get to retirement, the worse it seems to get. If this sounds like you, isn’t it time you took a stand to do something about it?
Here are three steps to get started turning your drudgery into your dream before it’s too late:
1. Stop Accepting the Drudgery
We’re each solely responsible for making changes in our life. If you’re stuck in a rut and want to change, then allow yourself to just do it!
Your first step in making a change, and doing something to better your life is to quit buying into the idea that you are stuck in a rut. Many boomers go blithely along believing that there is nothing better for them out there, especially as they are nearing their retirement. And as the old say goes: “the devil you know, is better than the one you don’t.”
While there are a multitude of reasons why people believe this, one of the biggest is lack of training, education or skills. However, a Bachelors, a Masters or a PhD are might look impressive on your resume, but these qualifications aren’t necessary to start your own home-based business, or to become a millionaire. As long as you are willing to do whatever it takes, and learn whatever you need to learn, you can succeed. Once you realize this, there’s no valid reason left for not making a change. You no longer need to make any excuses.
2. Define Your Dream
To get your dream home business off the ground is to start with the end in mind. What does your dream home business look like? Set aside a couple of days to brainstorm in a quiet place, away from all distractions. Start by listing your dreams, and their major components. Let’s say you want to own a restaurant. You will need to research what this would take. Would you own your own place or buy a franchise? Where would you like it located? How would you fund your business? What about staff, vendors, marketing, and so on to get started? Under each of these components, there are action items that you could start right away, such as look for a great location and do some market analysis. You could create a business plan, and apply for a bank loan at the bank. The list goes on, and on.
At this point, all you are doing is creating an outline, defining the steps you will need to take to make your dream come true and then marking out the specifics for each step, to get you to your final result.
3. Just Do It!
Once you have outlined your dream home-based business, together with the action items, you can get started. This is probably the toughest of all the three steps. All sorts of fears might loom up in your mind, and cause inertia. Alternatively, you keep researching and researching which might then lead to paralysis, because you feel you always need more information before you can get started.
Now’s the time to work on convincing yourself to just start, one baby step will lead to another, and another. Once you begin to do something your energy and motivation will kick into gear. You’ll suddenly notice that things start to take shape with your home business, and, like magic, pieces will fall into place.
There are tons of people who make plans, and then never do anything about them. Don’t let this be you! Just follow your outline, make adjustments as necessary and get out there and do it! Begin to start the life of your own design. You will be glad you did!