A rough few weeks

I’ve had a rough few weeks. I’ve been away from blogging and practically everything that I enjoy doing. There hasn’t been a disaster or anything but, I think I needed some time to cope with the fact that after 15 years, I’ve stopped a full-time corporate job. I’ve also needed some time to come to grips with the harsh reality that there’s no paycheck at the end of the month.

The first couple of weeks of this downtime was spent mulling over what I should be doing with my life. Or rather, what more should I be doing? I know what I want to do and why I quit my job. My goals have not changed but may be I needed to adjust my plans. I’ve been a little down and I know this is dangerous territory because given my situation, I could start spiraling into a deep depression. With bills catching up, a family to feed and no income coming in the next three to four months, I have every reason to be extremely worried and very depressed. But, I know that it won’t help my cause. So, I needed to think things over and go over the original plan.

Every once in a while, it’s a good idea to regroup. Writers do it all the time, so do project managers. It’s probably one of two situations – either you have a mental block or you have a situation where things are just not going as planned. For me it was a bit of both and I realized that may be my plans were a bit flawed.

Consultants are usually in it for the long haul. While I’ve been very lucky to sign mandates with a few clients, the progress is slow and consequently it will be while until I see any money, which is uncertain as well if I don’t succeed. So things weren’t progressing according to plan, or rather my flawed plan

My mental block stemmed from hitting a few road blocks in the initial phases of my projects. Suddenly, everything seemed very bleak and I was just blank when it came to coming up with further ideas or solutions. In a desperate attempt to moved things along, I started prospecting and getting myself into too many things simultaneously, giving free advice and not actually signing any mandates at all. Until I suddenly realized that I was doing a lot of unnecessary work and spreading myself too thin. I still think I need to pursue multiple avenues for getting new clients but not at the cost of losing my focus on my existing clients. I also think I should be a little wiser about how much time to spend on prospective clients without actually signing a mandate.

It was time to regroup and refocus. This is what I’ve done in the past one week. I’ve decided exactly what I need to do for my consulting practice and where I want to focus my efforts. This time with realistic plans and timelines. I’ve also decided to work on freelance projects in the meantime to cover my bills. This is something I probably should have started a long time ago and I’m hoping that it’s never too late to begin.

I don’t think I’ve written a post this long in a while but, it feels good to share. For now, I am working through my issues and aiming to follow a more realistic plan.