Work-from-Home Survival Guide

I know, I know... I'm selling pipe dreams, there's no success in working from home, and there are about several million other blogs out there saying the same exact thing that I'm saying. I get it. There was a time when I thought so, too.

But (and there's always a but), I do have something that they don't. The ability to break down the process to it's core, so that we have the necessary steps to success, without the Three F's (Fluff, Failure, and Fillers).

While doing my own research on successfully working from home, I found tons of articles, videos, and information on how to "get successful overnight." Of course, none of these were very helpful.

But, one night while I was laying in my bed thinking, "What in the hell does tapioca pudding have in it?" it came to me!

Eureka!

I've been attending HubSpot Academy for marketing for two years. I am certified in Inbound Marketing, Content Marketing, and Contextual Marketing. Yet, I was struggling to work, successfully, from home. Just what in the hell was I doing wrong?

Well, as it turns out, I wasn't completing the proper steps necessary to successfully work from home. I skipped over them, just as most others do, because they are so simple that we completely forget how important they are! I'd like to take the time today to share these steps with you.

1. Self-Actualization

Before anything we need to decide where we want to go. Exactly what do we want to gain from working at home full-time? More time with our family? Financial stability? A creative getaway that puts a little extra in your bank account? Whatever the case, you need to be clear and honest with yourself about what exactly you want to accomplish.

Also ask yourself, "What exactly do I want to do?" "What home career is right for me?" "What type of work environment do I thrive in?" By asking yourself these questions, you are solidifying your goals.

While doing this, you may find that your ideals are prevalent; meaning that they are very widespread and generalized. This, in turn, may send you into a slight panic. But don't worry! This is actually a great thing and brings you into step two...

2. Experimentation. Implementation. Failure. Repeat.

What is E.I.F.R.?

1. Experimentation: Experiment with all of your ideals that interest you. Let's say that you found content writing, content marketing, and video production interesting. You would single each one out and do a mini-experiment with it. Download some free software trials or read some how-to articles tailored to your specific interests and play around with them until you feel comfortable.
2. Implementation: Implement your ideas and newfound knowledge. Now that you know a little bit about the specific industry your testing, go ahead and offer a few people some services. Of course, it may take a while to get work, depending on your skill level, prior knowledge, and initial presentation (if you're having trouble creating a profile on a freelance website, try reading through similar profiles until you find a structure that works for you).
3. Failure: Just assume that your first attempt is going to Fail. This serves a dual purpose. Either you won't be so disappointed when it does, or you'll be pleasantly surprised when it does!
4. Repeat: Considering we're assuming that multiple attempts are going to fail, Repeat the process until you find the perfect home career for you and your personality.

For example:

Maybe at first, you wanted to do freelance content writing as an at-home career. However, after only two weeks of working and working in front of your computer, you're still not getting lucky.

Keeping in mind that this is normal and perfectly okay will help you stay focused, not get disheartened, and persevere. Also try and keep in mind that, no matter how many people and articles say that they got rich overnight, it probably isn't true... Or, they're the luckiest people in the world. Being successful and working from home takes hard work and a lot of time.

Anyways, you're not excelling very well at the whole content writing. Now, let me tell you why this is fantastic! You finally have weeded out one of the many ideas you had. Instead of getting frustrated and giving up, try telling yourself, "This is great! Now I have one less thing to try and can move on to something else more interesting!"

The most important lesson here is simply this: You didn't fail because you weren't any good... You failed because it isn't what you really like or what really interest's you. That is why failure is a beautiful thing.

3. The Last Missed Step

The last missed step is really a backward step; but, it's impossible to do without the failures of your previous experimental endeavors. Every time you fail, reevaluate what's important to you, why you're doing this, what you're trying to accomplish, and how you're going to do it.

Believe it or not, these things will change over time, so it's important to continue reevaluating them on a regular basis. You may have started wanting to work-from-home because you wanted to spend more time with your family, tried content writing and failed (and maybe you were spending too much time doing it, anyway), and then decided that you enjoy video production. After this, you may realize that the perfect home career for you is doing toy reviews for various different companies.

After realizing this, you may have struck an inner gold-mine! You may be so excited that you found something that you could do with your family that's fun and exciting! You might do research on how to create affiliate accounts with various toy companies and how to market and publicize your YouTube channel.

If you're happy doing it, you will be successful.

One Last Tip...

Don't get ahead of yourself. Always follow the steps to ensure that you don't put too much time and effort into something that isn't right for you. It's a lot of wasted time that could've been spent getting one step closer to your dream.