’Tis The Season

Note 025: Your Holiday Survival Guide

Oh boy, do I love the holidays!

The slow wind down towards the end of they year.

Pub lunches building in frequency, and length :)

The Office Christmas Party.

The Supplier Christmas Parties.

Then the final race, race, faster, quicker… It must be done by Christmas!

Your boss wants it by Christmas!

Your clients want it by Christmas!

You want it out of your head, for Christmas!

Then the calm.

Autoresponders are already on in those frantic emails you send.

Everyone winds down.

… Chills.

You realise builders have been off site for a fortnight…

Consultants cannot get those drawings back….

You can’t get those drawings out… 

Then the clients have their own Christmas parties.

Then finally….

You wind down.

It’s almost time for that care free, fully paid for, catch up with friends over barbecues, the beach, the bush, or that solo time you crave, whatever it is, which you have fully earned with all that hard slog for the year :)

At least, that’s what it used to be.

Before self employment….

A survival guide for the unexpected challenges and how to handle the holidays as an early-days-in-the-trenches self employed Architect

Keep the dream alive guys, it will all return, I promise!

This note is geared toward this difficult christmases - most likely in my experience, you first one (or few, or in my case, about 7 out of 10 for different reasons!) in which the story is quite the opposite.

Yes all the madness still occurs, but with another interesting twist you never planned on.

Oh.

No one is going to pay me to be on holidays…

*(…string of choice un-type-able words…)

I guess I should have saved for that.

Below are my top tips for the 2 most challenging questions that arise during the holiday period, and my prediction for your future holiday periods:

1. How on earth am I meant to take holidays, no one is paying me?

2. How on earth do I deal with those negative friends or relatives that are making me second guess my dream chasing?

3. The Ghost of YOUR Christmas Future…

1. How on earth am I meant to take holidays, no one is paying me?

Save! Lesson learnt for next year.

If not, great news.

You get to invest in the discipline of being resourceful in a difficult period outside of your studio, thus sharpening an essential small business skill and investing in your mental fortitude in a more difficult environment (around your friends and family when the whole world is unwinding or spending) for deployment back in Studio life.

Even better news, you can choose to keep working.

In the early days, you may have no choice!

There are huge positives here. The runs on the board you will make without the phone ringing from clients, consultants are insane.

If you must do this the entire period, I have had to early days, all good, you will actually realise how efficient you can be.

It is similar to the all-nighter struggles of university days.

There is no procrastination by 3am. You are finishing, and getting to bed!

I find similar benefits through the holidays.

Particularly if you have gone to your studio to work. You want out in a short batch so, for instance, from lunch on you can enjoy normal holiday things.

Or the opposite. If you already have a family, you may find that it is much more valuable to switch it, mornings with the kiddos, and then if they are still young enough for afternoon nap time, crush a bit then.

Either way, you will find something very valuable about yourself.

You can very likely achieve in 3-4 hours what takes you 8 during the working year. Remember that. Which will be easy, because missing fam time will suck.

2. How on earth do I deal with those negative friends or relatives that are making me second guess my dream chasing?

Tell them to *(…another string of choice un-type-able words…)

Haha - Not really! maybe on the inside.

No negative energy allowed! Receiving, or putting out there. This is important - for you.

OK, this can be painful.

And again I will frame this at the newly started or just started, because in combo with Point 1 (no one is paying you), you are likely in a pretty fragile stage of possibly second guessing yourself.

How do really deal with them?

Dont.

This Advice can come in 2 forms:

• Valuable Advice

The first, Valuable Advice, is likely rare in the early days (unless you come from a family of entrepreneur / business owners).

This is because beyond this small community here, you may not have many inter-supportive self starters who will have your back, offer support, and most importantly - by virtue of being a few years ( or many years) ahead of you, be able to say with experienced certainty - yes it sucks - but yes it does get better!

Even better than this, the longer you stay at it, your circle will slowly adjust to include more of your tribe of self starters / entrepreneurs / business people. The numbers start to move in your favour.

This advice is better termed, Informed Criticism.

The second type of ‘advice’ is:

• Terrible Advice

I might be a bit mean there, but you are here for answers to the tough questions.

This is one of them.

It may be terrible advice delivered from a place of love:

Your Mum, Dad, Partner, family, they want to see you happy, and are genuinely concerned for your well being.

If you are stressed, penniless that first xmas, truly loving advice from those close to you is that they want to see that stress end for you as quickly as possible - which yes, going back to a steady paid job is the quickest path there.

If that’s what you want.

The second type of terrible advice, is the other one - from a place of jealousy.

You will get a vibe, I need not put it in words for the forms it comes in likely not nice, likely passive aggressive, but remember this:

You chasing your dreams is likely going to hold a mirror up to a lot of other peoples unfulfilled dreams, and Jealousy can rear its head!

Especially at an Australian extended family boozy Christmas!

Avoid at all costs, and take no heed,

Even better, let it fuel you to show the non believers what your’e made of :)

OK, from my experience, they are the hardest 2 by far, especially in the early days.

Believe it or not, you will get past the not budgeting for holidays white quickly, probably year 2!

Dealing with negative comments, and more importantly discerning criticism from pure negative energy is a very important skill.

You may not realise it now but:

Making mistakes and more importantly learning from the pain to not repeat those mistakes is a very important meta skill for success in your own studio.

Believe it or not, you will continue to make mistakes every single year - Ive made some whoppers this year! - just ensure they are NEW mistakes because you are stretching yourself beyond what you already know - a joy and satisfaction of running your own studio.

As you push yourself into unknown territory, it is very important to be able to discern what type of ‘negative comment’ you are receiving:

Is it informed criticism of a hole in your game?

(Unlikely from the Christmas Family dinner example - but quite likely from your actual clients, or staff)

If so you would be wise to address it, or it will hurt you in the long run.

Is it pure negativity from a disgruntled client or jealous family member?

(Unlikely from a client or staff member. More likely from the family Christmas scenario.)

Smile and nod. I’m investing in my future and living my dream. Great things take time.

3. The Ghost of YOUR Christmas Future…

Heres the great thing.

Keep it close, don’t question it, but just know that it is true :)

• Xmas 1 - might suck. Invest in your future fortitude. Keep going.

• Xmas 2 - will suck less. Invest in your future fortitude. Keep going.

• Xmas 3 - Could be great! Chill a bit. Invest in your future fortitude. Keep going.

• Xmas 4 - Excellent! Chill more, still invest in your fortitude. Keep going.

• Xmas X - Horrific. Market Crash. Great jobs stalled. Lief Emergency. A mortal would crumble.

But, you’ve invested in your fortitude. You withdraw on that fortitude. The act of keeping going compounds that investment.

• Xmas X+1 - This is where you will likely shoot ty a whole new level.

So Merry Christmas, Happy Hanukkah, Happy prosperous creative holidays to you all.

Chill if you can. And remember to invest in your fortitude, at least a bit. If you cant, make this deposits and gains. If you are still employed and jumping ship next year, saver this paid holidays and work on your gameplan!

And yes, ensure you spend tome with loved ones, get outdoors, spend some solitude, express your gratitude, catch up with friends, of course you should do all the good stuff that makes chasing your dream worth it.

Imagine the gains you’ll make in 2023 by keeping a little momentum while the world rests…?

Andrew Donaldson