Every Day is Independence Day – For Some
July 4th – Time to Celebrate Your Freedom and Independence!
We’ve always been an independent minded nation. It’s at our core. Our very foundation.
There’s been much to celebrate lately for those believing in individual freedoms, and still a way to go for fully equal freedoms.
We’re also more than ever a nation of independent workers, entrepreneurial in spirit if not in action. Some of that by choice, some by forces out of our control.
But .. we can choose whether we stay on our own Freedom Trails or not.We can celebrate Independence Day EVERY day. I know I do. It’s a trail I’m glad I took.
We have been given the freedom to choose – whether we stay in a employer-controlled job, to work for a nonprofit, to volunteer, to moonlight, to freelance, to consult, or to wholly own our own businesses. We can choose to go back to j-o-b-s, to retire, to teach, to work part-time, to work multiple jobs or gigs to make it and stay afloat. Never forget that you have more choice than you think. What paths to take, what the trail and winding journey looks like for each of us.
We on the Freedom Trail are not alone
More than 50 million Americans are out on their own in some way – freelancing, consulting, work-for-hire, running their own business and own lives. Small businesses (with <49 employees, so truly ‘small’) have contributed to most to overall job growth in the US lately (BLS, SBA). America has 3.7 Million ‘microbusinesses’ (<9 employees) and they make up 75% of ALL private-sector employers. Wow. Are you one of those? Do you want to be? That’s a lot of other solos to be out ‘alone’ alongside.
What might work independence look and feel like for you? For your work with clients, your community, your family, your fellow entrepreneurs? What small and big freedoms will you celebrate?
What will be YOUR freedom story?
- Freedom to work wherever you choose
- Freedom to believe in yourself, your abilities, your skills, your gifts
- Freedom from working with sabotaging bosses or co-workers, time- and soul-sucking tasks
- Freedom to choose your own projects, your own clients, your own boss
- Freedom to work on projects you really, truly love – with people that respect and love you back
- Freedom to pursue your dreams in all their forms
- Freedom to break rules and create your own
- Freedom of flexibility
- Freedom from trying to please everyone, and never being quite happy with yourself
- Freedom to be who you are, play to your strengths, and love what you do
I recently gave a presentation on top tips for going independent as an information professional at SLA 2015 in Boston. Home of the Freedom Trail. Tips gathered by survey from hundreds of my independent info pro colleagues – who celebrate freedom in different ways, every day. Take a look and learn the tools of independence from them.
Take time this 4th of July, Independence Day holiday weekend to celebrate your own freedoms. Claim your Freedom – now and every day going forward. What has led you to take a different path, or just begin to contemplate it, and the happiness that independence brings you.