Independence

“your beliefs become your thoughts,
your thoughts become your words,
your words become your actions,
your actions become your habits,
your habits become your values,
your ᴠᴀʟᴜᴇꜱ become your destiny.”
MK Gandhi

💎 Values are our own personal truths.

Living in accordance with them is greater than reaching for any goal because they determine the course of our whole life.

💪 𝘖𝘯𝘦 𝘰𝘧 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘮𝘰𝘴𝘵 𝘪𝘮𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘵𝘢𝘯𝘵 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘷𝘢𝘭𝘶𝘦𝘴 𝘐 𝘴𝘵𝘳𝘪𝘷𝘦 𝘵𝘰 𝘢𝘤𝘩𝘪𝘦𝘷𝘦 𝘪𝘯 𝘭𝘪𝘧𝘦 𝘪𝘴 Independence

From a young age, I had a burning desire to take charge of my own choices and achieve things without anyone's help. Some of these things might have been trivial, but to me, they were building blocks for mastering 𝙩𝙝𝙚 𝙖𝙧𝙩 𝙤𝙛 𝙞𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙥𝙚𝙣𝙙𝙚𝙣𝙩 𝙩𝙝𝙞𝙣𝙠𝙞𝙣𝙜.

🏢 𝘍𝘪𝘳𝘴𝘵 𝘑𝘰𝘣: 𝘈 𝘛𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘪𝘯𝘨 𝘗𝘰𝘪𝘯𝘵

The first big milestone in realising the value of independence more strongly than ever before was in my first job. I worked in a large corporation as an office manager, dealing with hundreds of people and sometimes having a 12h+ work days.

I already knew that I am not handling authority well from the school and university days, but (not) dealing with authority at work was another level.

💼 𝘊𝘩𝘢𝘭𝘭𝘦𝘯𝘨𝘦𝘴 𝘪𝘯 𝘵𝘩𝘦 𝘊𝘰𝘳𝘱𝘰𝘳𝘢𝘵𝘦 𝘞𝘰𝘳𝘭𝘥

As I was forced to follow many (mostly nonsensical) rules, I felt incredibly constrained and trapped!

This resulted in growing frustration and, eventually, experiencing anxiety, which is a common occurrence for many people, especially when working on things they do not enjoy. It wasn’t until I started experiencing panic attacks that I really had to stop and thoroughly evaluate the direction I want to take in life.

🌟 𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘘𝘶𝘦𝘴𝘵 𝘧𝘰𝘳 𝘐𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘱𝘦𝘯𝘥𝘦𝘯𝘤𝘦

One thing was certain - my goal was to 𝙗𝙚𝙘𝙤𝙢𝙚 𝙢𝙮 𝙤𝙬𝙣 𝙗𝙤𝙨𝙨.

So, I decided to make a complete career shift (this whole journey is a topic for another time).

As you can imagine, this kind of change does not happen overnight.

🦸🏼‍♀️ “𝘛𝘩𝘦 𝘏𝘦𝘳𝘰'𝘴 𝘑𝘰𝘶𝘳𝘯𝘦𝘺”

My romanticised vision of only doing things I enjoyed, earning piles of money, and never having a boss above me had to come crashing down at some point…

Patience was never my strong suit, and I was eager to work independently, even though I was entering an entirely new field. But, as we all know, expertise takes time to develop.

I invested a significant amount of time and energy into education and gradually put that knowledge into practice. However, I still needed to sustain myself financially during this transition.

My main criterion for selecting jobs was the ability to work independently, on my own terms. I wanted the freedom to create my own schedule and not work on days when I didn't feel like it.

But, as the saying goes, "The things you resist, persist."

My fixation on working independently (in terms of a location, time…) sometimes led to compromising independence in other aspects of my life, especially financial.

Several times, I found myself dependent on others, be it for support or needing to find and be tied to certain jobs I hated (but more on this some other time).

It's been a bumpy ride, and looking back I still can’t say if these experiences were good or bad.

They were definitely a great learning.

The greatest lesson I learned from this is that by applying your core values only to certain aspects of your life, you are compromising your personal integrity.

When we live the life outside of our integrity we are hurting ourselves.

This learning reinforced even more deeply the importance of understanding yourself, acting from your values in all aspects of your life, and knowing your priorities.

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Now, after all the efforts I've put in, I can afford to only make agreements that allow me to be independent, and to be highly autonomous in work.

This is definitely the status you earn by jumping into the arena, gaining the experience and honing the expertise, but it starts with the first step:

🌟 Defining your own, personal life values 🌟

They serve like the lighthouses that lead the way, even when it seems like you've been lost.

Independence is still one of my core values and a significant aspect of Autonomy, a topic that is close to my heart and my mission to help people transition from hierarchical (authoritative) to vertical (collaborative) systems of work.

I understand that it can be challenging to generate these concepts from scratch, therefore, I’ve created a short exercise. It might look very simple and silly, but it is a great start in understanding our personal motivations, as well as help us in a decision making process.

🕒 Set a timer for 1 minute.

👉 Choose 3-5 values that you firstly, instinctively resonate with (from the list bellow).

🕒 Set the next timer for 10 minutes.

✍️ Next to each of these values, write down what it represents for you.
Create your own definition of it.

🧠 Now think about all the ventures, actions, jobs, relationships that are ongoing & most prominent in your life right now and run them through the filter of your values.

💫 Do you find them aligned with your core?

🎈 Maybe you notice that the time has come to release something from your life?

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💬 Keep in mind that values are dynamic and can change over time.

What we value in our 20s might not be the same as what we value in our 30s or 40s. It's important not to get stuck with values from our past and allow ourselves the freedom to revisit and re-evaluate them periodically.

By doing so, we can ensure that they align with who we are at present and guide us towards a fulfilling and authentic life.

In conclusion, embracing the journey of self-discovery and living in alignment with our values is a powerful way to cultivate autonomy and the best first step in creating an aligned and sustainable business.

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If you had some interesting insights or thoughts to share, I am looking forward to hearing from you!

Until the next reading! 😉 
I wish you a lovely weekend ✨

Ana