One of the biggest reasons why many of my clients started their business is to have more flexibility and autonomy. To break free from the 9-to-5, from expectations and demands that don’t fit their lives, desires and needs.
And yet for many of us, actually breaking free from ‘regular’ work and the stories we’ve been taught about what work should be, can be really hard.
In this post, I share 4 work myths and how to reframe them. And, if you’d like to dive deeper, I’ve created a workshop to help you tackle and rewrite your own work myths, leaning into beliefs and stories that serve you instead.
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Myth #1: I should work 8 hours a day
The 8-hour workday is a relic from the Industrial Age and was actually seen as a step forward: no more 12 or 14-hour days for factory workers, hurrah! But it seems that we’ve gotten so stuck on it, that for many of us, “8 hours a day” has become a stick to beat ourselves with.
Working 8 hours a day is not a rule, or a law. And for most people, actually working 8 hours a day is neither an option nor necessary. Many of us can or have to do our work in fewer hours a day.
If you struggle with this myth, try to embrace the freedom to put yourself first. How can you shape your business, including your working hours, to serve you, your needs, your body, mind and life?
There is a slower, gentler and more profitable way of running your business.
Discover your way of doing your business with my 1:1 mentoring support.
No hacks, no hustle.
Instead: marketing and launching that is slow, gentle and gets results. Clear boundaries and priorities that encourage you to live a life next to your business. Accountability and support to help you create the live and business you crave.
Myth #2: It if feels fun or easy, I can’t charge (more) for it
My business’ tagline deliberately includes slow, gentle and profitable. Especially those of us socialised as women, and those of us that are attracted to slower, gentler ways of doing business often feel uncomfortable around making or asking for money.
Surely, if you’d create art anyway, you can’t really charge much for it? If your work feels fulfilling and fun in itself, why would you want to charge more for it?
We deserve to be paid well for our work
I love working with clients. I love creating courses and programmes. But I’d not be doing it if I wouldn’t get paid for it—certainly not on this scale, because I’d need to get more income elsewhere.
I firmly believe that we deserve to be paid well for our work, no matter what it is, and no matter how much we love it. No matter whether we’d do it anyway.
You deserve to be paid well. Your talent, your time, your energy is valuable.
Read more: We need to talk more about money in slow business
Myth #3: What I do isn’t “real” work
If you have the freedom to work from home, from your studio, from a coffee place; if you do work that fulfils you, that you might be doing anyway—does it even count as work?
Depending on your background, you might consciously or unconsciously hold the belief that “real” work is hard work. That “real” work is a struggle. That “real” work happens in an office or a factory. That work isn’t work if it’s fun, easeful, fulfilling.
But whatever you do—your work counts as work (and, see myth #2, you deserve to be well paid for it). Your work is every bit as “real” as someone else’s, no matter where they work.
Acknowledging that what you do is work makes it easier to guard the time and energy you spend on it. To protect it and take it seriously, even amidst others’ demands and expectations.
Myth #4: Rest is earned by working
This one is the one that has been most persistent for me. Even as I consciously believed that we all deserve rest, that rest needs to be an inherent part of our days and lives no matter what we do—I struggled.
I found myself wondering why I felt like I needed rest when I hadn’t done much. Why I needed more rest when I’d already rested so much (#chroniguefatiguelife).
Rest needs to be an inherent part of our days and lives.
It’s taken me the better part of the past decade and more to shift my ideas around rest. I remind myself that rest is not just rest—it’s also ‘non-work’, and a big part of what I want to spend my life doing.
No matter what you’ve done today or this week, you are allowed to rest. You need to rest. Rest is not a reward at the end of the day, or something that you need to earn. Rest ought to be a core part of your life as a human.
If you want to dive deeper
Becoming aware of the stories we tell ourselves about work can really help us get out of our own way—and help us design the life and business we truly crave.
I’ve created a 20-minute workshop that’ll help you identify and reframe your stories about work, and formulate beliefs and stories that serve you, your life and your business best.
At the end of this workshop, you’ll feel more confident in the beliefs about work that you want to hold, and how these shape and support you, your life and your business.
Take a look at the workshop 📽️
I’d love to know what resonates with you from this post.
Please feel free to share this post it with business friends, in your newsletter or elsewhere. 💛
I’d love to support you in all phases of your business. Providing clarity, focus and next steps is something that my clients tell me I’m really good at. If you’re curious about how we can work together through 1:1 mentoring, check out what I offer or send me an email–no strings attached. I have payment plans available, and flexible options for mentoring calls.
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Sign up with your email address to receive strategies, experiments and tips to create a slow, gentle and profitable business–no hustle, no hacks.