Life as a contractor — learning to bridge the gap

I left my full-time job just as the UK was going into lockdown in March 2020. At the time I couldn’t have felt worse. At the time I didn’t realise it would be the turning point for something much, much better.

Nine months on I was fortunate to land a contract which ended up serving me for 1.5 years. After 15+ years of full-time employment, I fell in love with the control, the freedom, the detachment, the focus I had as a contractor. I found myself with a much healthier relationship with work. I was less vested in the concerns of managing my career, in the politics of the workplace. I was more myself which meant I was more authentic, I was more focussed on doing the work instead of managing the optics of everything. I loved the control I had managing my own accounts to suit my needs.

But the challenge most contractors / freelancers are aware of is the ‘security’ of continually having paid work. There will be periods where you are unsure when the next contract will come up. You’re somewhat beholden to ‘making hay whilst the sun shines’ depending on your attitude and risk tolerance.

I’ve completed my contract and now have time on my hands. Time I looked forward to relishing whilst I was working those 12 hr days to get things over the line. Time I had allocated to the things I had willingly put aside to focus on doing my best at work; my physical, mental, spiritual health, relationships, community, wealth management & creation and my career (see my post on the 7 areas of balance).

I had planned to have at least 3 weeks to devote myself back to these things and have appreciated the time to do as such:

• Physically — I’m training for Tough Mudder with some good friends, I went on a Bushcraft weekend (with the fantastic Woodland Ways), I trialled a Brazilian Jiu Jitsu last night which I got a great vibe from and would like to try further
• Mentally — I want to do some Udemy courses (I’m interested right now in learning more about nutrition and brain neuroplasticity). I thought about rejoining my local Toastmasters group (a public speaking group). I also want to write regularly on Medium.
• Spiritually — I’m striving to get back to my 5am club wake-ups that involve elements of meditation, journalling, exercise and reading.
• Relationships — I have more time to savour the time with my kids, my parents, my wife, my wider family, my brother who will be visiting with his family from Australia next month.
• Community — I can devote more time to keeping in touch with the communities I am a part of, from friends, cousins, to various groups.
• Wealth — I need to revisit my monthly budgeting, and get more clued up on managing my investments or identifying new investing opportunities / strategies (including crypto), whilst managing for what is likely to be an upcoming recession.
• Career — I need to consider what I want to do, and if there’s one thing I’d like to focus on is creating a more diversified income streams (ideally something ‘passive’ that doesn’t trade my time for money on a 1:1 basis).

During a morning reflection, I took a step back at the myriad of things I had going. They all made sense to a degree and were keeping me ‘busy’ during the day. But I realised I was spreading myself too thinly at the risk of not progressing any of these in a tangible way.

So going forward, I will be focussing on two core activities, continue with two others, and de-prioritise two I have going.

Two things to focus on:

• BJJ (Brazilian Jiu Jitsu)
• Scalable, passive income (Eloquens, Amazon FBA?), over other gig-type work (e.g. Coaching, Fiverr, Upwork)

Two things to continue:

• Writing regularly on Medium
• Learning something new on Udemy

Two things to de-prioritise:

• Bushcraft skills
• Toastmasters