Letting Go of Guilt when Working from Home

I remember when I was dying to work from home.

Like I literally thought – I will do anything & everything just to be my own boss & work from home.

Well, it’s been 17 months since I left my full-time job. (Kinda crazy, actually, because I worked full-time for 17 months while growing my business, and now I’ve been a full-time small business owner for 17 months – AH! Pinch me.) To be really honest with you, over the last 17 months, I’ve experience a lot of guilt over working from home.

Maybe I’m the only one – maybe you never felt bad about working with no bra on or taking a few hours off to run errands in the middle of the day (Hello, Target). Maybe you don’t struggle to actually take a shower, or rush to change out of your pajamas just before your husband gets home (Come on, I can’t be the only one). Maybe you don’t struggle with figuring out work hours or boundaries or staying motivated with just your pup to tell all your big business ideas.

But I do. I struggle with all of that. A LOT.

See as work-from-homers, I’ve found we do one of two things:

1. Because we’re creative, we fight system & structure with everything in us; therefore we spend the day treating our business like vacation instead of business  – we sleep until 10am, we work from bed, we take hours off of our inbox to browse social media when we just aren’t “feeling it”…

OR

2. Even though we hated the structure of our 9-5, we try to place those limitations, rules and boundaries into our work-from-home philosophy. So we wake up, shower, “dress for success”, instill super strict hours & ONLY work from our “office”. But it never works & instead of getting things done, we feel like our creativity is being stifled.

We feel like there is ONLY Option 1 or Option 2 … we make it too loose OR too strict. And therefore we aren’t motivated, productive or disciplined. But here’s the TRUTH: I DO work from home. And so do YOU! You left corporate America for the chance to work in sweatpants from the comforts of home. EMBRACE that. Don’t be ASHAMED of that. And don’t for once think that you’ve done something WRONG by living your life this way.

Who says we have to jump up, running around like a chicken with our head cut off, spilling coffee all over the counter, wearing mis-matched socks & answering emails from our iPhone? NO ONE.

Who says our office hours can’t be 10am-6pm instead of 8am-4pm?! NO ONE.

Who says you can’t take Monday’s off because you work Saturday weddings? Or you can’t spend a day working from bed because you just feel like it? NO ONE.

Who says you can’t get up at 8am, shower, put on makeup & “dress for success” even if the only one who sees you is your furry friend?! NO ONE.

The beauty of all this is that YOU get to DECIDE! Just do you, boo! Yes, you need structure. Yes, you need creativity. So find a happy medium between structure & freedom that allows you to do BOTH. The truth is, you’re doing the hard work of running your own company so that you can potentially have days where all you do is eat popcorn in your pajamas from bed, with you pup asleep on your feet & your favorite music blaring.

Replace that guilt with confidence in who you are and what you’re doing. It’s time we feel own up to our entrepreneurial schedules – however wacky & unconventional they might seem. I know I am.

xo! kat

Photography by Bessie Black Photography