It has been 3 months since I quitted my first and ever job. During this period, many friends and clients have been asking me how I am doing so far. My reply is always the same. “Things have been great. Been busy with quite a bit of projects.”

Actually there is a lot more to that.

Physical Health

I decided to get my body in a better physical shape. It started when I stumbled upon Chris Daughtry’s 90 days challenge to get ripped. I had always been working out in the gym but I felt that my body was not ideal with the bulky muscles and barely visible abs. Being out on my own means that I can control my time which gives me more freedom to control my diet and workout schedule. I started to count my daily calorie in-take and prepare my own meals. It was very tough in the beginning as I was uncertain of what I should eat. Sites like bodybuilding.com and builtlean.com were great as they had articles on healthy recipes and workout schedules. A lot of time was spent on reading the nutrition labels (products which are labelled low-fat do not mean that they are healthy!), preparing pasta, wraps, sandwiches, salads and working out in the gym with a structured program (i use this program as a start). After 3 months, I am looking and feeling fitter than ever. Chicken breasts, tuna, almonds, peanut butter, low-fat cottage cheese and eggs are now my best friends.

Business

I have been in this industry for over 10 years, but it was mostly on a part-time basis. 99% of my business were referred by friends and past clients as I did not spend any effort to market myself or to look for business. Now, the majority of my business still comes from word of mouth recommendations but there are a few clients who manage to find me through Google. If you google for “freelance web designer singapore”, I am on the 2nd page, which is a pleasant surprise. Although my website is SEO-friendly, I don’t do any SEO techniques on my website. SEO is certainly something that I want to look into once I have the time. One thing I am certain is that the links which I place on my clients’ websites play a big part in pushing my ranking. So, a big thank you to my clients! Looking at the next few weeks, I am going to be busy with a few e-commerce projects, micro-sites & corporate websites. A great way to start July.

Mental Health

Although I am earning lesser now and won’t be receiving a regular paycheck, I am feeling much more positive, happy and motivated. I gain new knowledge about different industries by talking to new clients. There is a great level of satisfaction when past clients and friends refer me (The peak was when I got referred to a new client by two different people). The different job requirements increase my appetite to learn new things about web design and development. It is nice and humbling to hear that people are respecting me and looking up to me. The tradeoffs are pretty awesome, isn’t it? Of course, in the midst of being busy, negative thoughts do creep in sometimes. Was it the right decision to quit? Why am I working till 1am while earning lesser than before? What will happen if I dont have projects anymore? All these thoughts are pretty scary if you ask me as they are powerful enough to throw me down. Fortunately, I did not dwell on them as I always remind myself of the law of attraction. As long as I focus on positive thoughts, positive results will happen.

I know that I am currently in the honeymoon phase of being self-employed. Things will not be rosy all the time. You have to suffer so that you can climb higher (just like how I spent 2 hours writing this post). But I am ready for the challenge and uncertainty ahead. It is the unpredictability which makes life exciting and worthwhile to lead.

Third time lucky is the belief that the third time something is attempted is more likely to succeed than the previous two attempts.

It is interesting to see that three seems to be the right number of times to try. Two isn’t enough but four is too many. The reason why I mention third time lucky is because this is the third time I am starting a blog. I failed twice previously because of these two statements.

I shall do this tomorrow.

It sounds very familiar isn’t it? It seems that there are always more important things to do than writing my blog, hence it was delayed, postponed, adjourned until it died of natural death. So why do I want to revive my blog again? Recently, I have some free time to think seriously about the things that I want in my life. And I realize that I have always wanted to write a blog to share my thoughts and knowledge with others. It is through sharing that allows one to learn the most and i am always thirsty for new knowledge. And I hope to use this blog to inspire others to pursue their own dreams.

I am scared of writing

Writing a blog is something very new to me. It is very much different from report-writing or writing passages for my primary school examinations. When I previously started my blog, it was the case of typing a few words, then deleting a few words and the vicious cycle continued for 3 hours before I finally finished my blog entry. There was always this fear of using the wrong words or conveying the wrong message. It was unproductive and reduced my level of motivation for the next entry. I dreaded starting the next entry. When learning a new skill, you have to start from scratch and the best way to learn something new is to do the thing itself. There are books and online articles which you can learn from but nothing beats learning on the job. That is when I decide to conquer my own fear and revive this blog again. There are definitely mistakes along the way and learning from these mistakes makes me better in the future.

I will keep the entries short and concise.
I will share the huge number of ideas in my mind.
I will enjoy writing this blog.
And I will be third time lucky.