By Books Writer – Denise Turney

Technology has busted open the door to the entrepreneurial life. More than a few people are taking advantage of this shift. In fact, Nasdaq reports that, in the United States alone, 1 in 3 people have a side hustle.1 More money, flexibility, opportunity to work your way into a new career, lifelong learning and the chance to slowly launch your own company are reasons why you might want to consider a side hustle.

So Many Benefits Working a Side Hustle

Because you could work a side hustle from home or even while out on the road, you could work a second gig from anywhere. You could even tap into income that you receive from your full-time job to fund a startup. Another thing that you could do is to use money from your full-time gig to pay for marketing, office supplies and other resources that you need to keep your side hustle going.

Thinking about starting a gig on the side? Check out these additional benefits associated with having a side hustle:

• Pay off credit cards and loans
• Set aside more money for retirement
• Build a savings to travel, pay for home repairs or put your kids through college
• Explore new careers
• Invest more money in real estate, stocks and bonds
• Work your way into better financial health to eliminate money worries

Are Your Organized for a Job Side Hustle?

There are plenty of benefits to be gained from working a side hustle. That’s for sure. However, even if you love the second gig, taking on additional work is going to chew into your time. If you have strong organizational skills, you might enter a smooth flow while working your second job.

On the other hand, if “being organized” is not your strength, you could still make it work. To realize success while working a side hustle, consider why you want to work another job. Knowing the why behind the move can definitely help you realize when you’re on track.

For example, if you want to work another gig to pay off a high interest credit card, write that down in a notebook. Then, pay a certain amount extra on your credit card until it’s paid off. Believe it or not, you do not have to keep a credit card balance. You can actually live very good without one.

Set Yourself Up for Job Success

Here are more ways to yield successful results after you take on a side hustle. As a tip, the number one thing is to take on a side hustle in a field that you’re passionate about. This is a part-time job, project, freelance work or consulting work that you absolutely love.

Now, for the ways to increase your chances of experiencing side hustle success:

• Set days and times when you’ll work your side hustle. The last thing that you want is to keep taking on more work until you end up having to manage two full-time gigs. So pay attention to when and how much time you’re investing in your side hustle.
• Determine how much money you’re going to pour into this new job. For instance, if you’re writing books as a side hustle, get clear about how much money you’re going to spend on book marketing, attending book festivals and promotions.
• Keep your side gig separate from your full-time job. This might take some discipline. In other words, focus on your full-time job while you’re there and on your side gig at other times.
• Delegate and grow. Reach out to the “experts” when you need to complete work that you’re less experienced with. In this case, you might hire someone on Fiverr, Upwork, etc. to design logos, write and distribute press releases or design a website.
• Keep clear records. You’ll really appreciate this one when you file taxes. Also, educate yourself on quarterly taxes or any self-employed taxes (and deductions) that you might deal with.

And, network. Just as you can benefit from networking at your full-time job, you can continue to move forward by networking with people in your side hustle field. Who knows? One day soon, your side hustle could become so successful that it becomes your main source of income, earning you a lot more than you ever made working a traditional gig.

Resources:

1. Nasdaq:  https://www.nasdaq.com/articles/1-in-3-americans-have-a-side-hustle.-here-are-the-benefits-to-having-one-2021-07-24

By Books Author Denise Turney

What do you think about this? On average, you have anywhere from 12,000 to 60,000 thoughts a day.¹ That’s a lot of thinking! If you’ve recalled your dreams, you’ve experienced your mind thinking while you’re sleeping, which brings up an important fact.

What Never Stops Thinking

Your mind never stops! Even more, what you think creates situations. Continual thoughts influence how you feel and what you think about yourself and your environment. Your thoughts are powerful!

During a day, you might think about a project you’re working on, a community event you’re interested in attending, how your body looks or feels, a relationship, your finances and what you’re going to do over the weekend. Furthermore and although you might not consider it, there’s something you think about a lot and it’s having a huge impact.

Can you guess what it is?

It’s YOU!

How Long Have You Been Wrongly Judged?

Many of the thoughts you have regard YOU at some level, in some way. This means that what you think about yourself is absolutely critical. It impacts everything you feel, do, talk yourself in or out of, believe and more.

If you’ve spent years striving to achieve a goal only to consistently face a seemingly impenetrable wall, your perceptions about YOU could be what’s actually creating the wall. How you see yourself can empower you or rob you of goodness.

Here’s a test. Take a few minutes to reflect on situations and people who you feel happy, safe and loved around. Could be a loving parent, a trustworthy friend, a pet, a certain holiday or a favorite vacation spot.

Is The Thought Door Opening or Closing You to Good?

Are there certain words or phrases that spring to mind when you reflect on these people and situations? For instance, do these descriptors pop up:

• She’s such a good friend
• I can always rely on him
• That’s got to be one of the most beautiful places on earth
• It’s so much fun attending those events
• As long as I’ve had my pet dog, she’s been loyal and so loving

Regardless of how busy your schedule or how fatigued you are, there probably isn’t much resistance when it comes to thinking about being in those situations or with those people or pets. The door is always open.

Do the opposite. Reflect on people and situations that you experience fear-based emotions (i.e. anger, disappointment, anxiety, frustration) when you are around them. Again, this could be a neighboring bully, supervisor who enjoys criticizing you, violent ex-partner, a house that keeps breaking down or a computer that regularly stalls, causing you to lose valuable data.

Linking Thoughts and Emotions

Which descriptors automatically surface in your mind when you’re around these people or are in these situations? Are any of these familiar:

• Never should have bought this house. It’s nothing but trouble.
• This is the last time I’m eating at this restaurant. The service and the food are bad.
• She can’t stand me. Being mean to me brings her joy.
• He’s so unpredictable; he scares me.
• If I had the money, I’d swap this computer out for another one.

Focusing on the above phrases and descriptors, how do you feel? Do you feel like you can trust these people and situations? Furthermore, does life feel good and open to you when you simply think about these people and these situations?

Uncovering Hidden Sabotaging Thoughts

Believe it or not, you’ve probably felt and thought a range of both about yourself. Hiding judgments and perceptions about yourself doesn’t clear out the perceptions and judgments. It just pushes them down, out of conscious mind, and far enough away so you get lost as it regards knowing why you feel the way you do and why you stop yourself from living fully.

To live more fully, pay attention to what you think about YOU.

Simply notice what you think about yourself. Easy ways to do this are to:

• Write in a journal (do this daily or 3 to 5 times a week)
• Type the first thought that pops into your mind in to a spreadsheet when you waken (you’ll start to notice repetitive thoughts and might start to see how those thoughts link to your emotions)
• Sit still in the morning and before you go to bed and just watch thoughts pass like clouds across your mind

Promise Yourself

Beyond noticing what you think about yourself, commit to love yourself. Back to a good friend and situations that cause you to feel joy, peace and safe — start talking to and about yourself in ways that empower you, that help you open to more good. Be a good friend to YOU!

Why is this important?

What you think about yourself builds your self-identity. A strong, love-based self-identity offers the courage to go after what you really want. Additionally, a strong, love-based self-identity lets you know you can overcome challenges, get through trying situations while walking in peace and shift into higher levels of living.

Forbes shares that, “Having a solid sense of self is essential to your overall well-being, mental, physical, emotional, and spiritual health – fueling your recognition of your worth.”² The periodical goes on to say, “Lacking a strong sense of self can make it hard to know what you want – forging feelings of uncertainty or indecisiveness for important decisions.”

Thoughts and Your Self-Identity

Self-identity keeps you stuck or it can set you free. For example, if you see yourself as an impatient truck driver who should be thankful to simply have a job that pays the bills, you might never become a patient, caring chiropractor, even if that’s what you truly want to do.

The way you see yourself (what you think about YOU) determines what you achieve. Whether you live the life you came here to live or not is truly up to you.

It’s been said that nothing changes in your world until you change (on the inside). In fact, there’s a school of thought that the “outer world” is merely a reflection of your inner world. Neville Goddard, Alan Watts, Lisa Nichols, Tony Robbins, Dr. Wayne Dyer and others have shared these truths for years.

Healing Starts with YOU!

Knowing this, the greatest thing you can pull off is to love yourself. See and feel yourself living the life you want. Actually, see yourself doing and being in situations you want to be in now – not seeing yourself more patient, more loving, more courageous, more insightful, etc. in the future, but seeing yourself that way right now.

Sure. It might take a few days, but you should start to feel and see shifts happening on the inside and outside. Keep at it. Seek support through open discussions with trustworthy people who love you, therapy, books, etc.

Loving yourself is very powerful. It’s also the only way to heal.

Resources:

1. https://tlexmindmatters.com/#:~:text=It%20was%20found%20that%20the,thoughts%20as%20the%20day%20before.
2. https://www.forbes.com/sites/womensmedia/2022/06/16/heres-how-your-personal-identity-and-sense-of-self-affect-your-growth/?sh=14198feb69bf

By Book Author Denise Turney

The pull you feel – that inner tug moving you toward success may never fully go away. Why? You were born for success. Depending on your childhood, it might have felt natural to approach new tasks as if you were going to succeed.

 As a kid, you might have believed and felt that you’d never fail at anything. That’s why you explored so much, learned as much as you did and flexed your creative muscles. Within six years, you may have learned to roll over, stand on your own, talk, walk, read, run, climb, ride a bike, do a somersault and more. Learning was fun because you just knew that you were going to succeed.

Make Learning Fun Again

Now learning might not be as fun. You’re older and you’ve experienced setbacks, disappointments and, the sting of – failure. What you might not notice is that you’ve likely had more successes, maybe even a lot more successes, than failures, which leads to the first point.

To see how easily it is to open to success, get a sheet of paper or open up a spreadsheet. List successes that you have been a part of over the last year. Let your mind go. Recall as many successes you were involved with as you can. Take your time.

This exercise can help you prove to yourself that success does come easily for you. Stay free of judging the successes, categorizing them as simple or hard. Simply list the successes. If you find the exercise particularly enjoyable, go back two years – revisiting prior achievements.

Come On, Get Curious

Next, step away from the past and get curious about a major success you’d love to achieve – a goal you’d love to manifest in the approaching days. Consider the purpose that’s linked to this specific success. In other words, get clear about why you want to succeed at the goal.

For instance, will achieving the goal help you fulfill a promise you made to your younger self? Will achieving the goal help you strengthen people who are now experiencing a challenge you’ve overcome?

Finding out the purpose (or the why) that’s associated with your goal can prove to be incredibly empowering and motivating. Additionally, it could remove mental barriers you have about you being successful.

Linking Success to Greater Gains

As a start, if you think you don’t deserve to have the success you want, linking the achievement with how it benefits others could send you above the self-judgement barrier. Depending on what you’re aiming to do, you could help military veterans heal from mental injuries. Or you could stop human trafficking in the town where you live.

Regardless of the goal, people are watching you. In tangible and intangible ways, your success will inspire others. In fact, you may never know everyone who your wins will impact.

See if you can think of 50 ways that others would benefit if you achieved the success you want. This short exercise will help you to see how big the impact of your goal is. As you continue doing this exercise, you might increasingly start to see and feel how much good is linked to your success.

Start Taking Action

To recap, remind yourself of how much success you’ve already been a part of. Then, discover the purpose that’s linked to a current goal you have. And see how many ways fulfilling the goal will benefit others.

After this, it’s time to take action. Research what you want to do, looking for shortcuts, ways to save time, money and energy. Also, identify step-by-step actions that you’re going to take to get from where you are now to where you want to be. Write down necessary resources too. These resources might include grants and other funding tools, administrative staff, marketing tools, etc.

After you list the actions and resources you need, take at least one action that you listed. Don’t wait. Take action. Just thinking about what you need to do does not count. Keep at it, action-by-action, until you complete all steps required to fulfill your goal.

Measure the results of each action, identifying where you need to make changes. Stay focused. Steer clear of magical thinking. To stay empowered and motivated as you do the work that gets you closer to your goal, read books, articles and research material about your goal and how your beliefs about your ability to succeed affect outcomes.