Last year I was telling you about my plans of starting a business while living with MS. Today I’m going further on, and begin talking about how I think of making it a reality. I hope sharing my story can inspire you to do great work yourself.
The first thing I learned in my journey so far, is that you need to focus on your strenghts, on what you can and love doing. All the rest is weighing you down from achieving your goals, be them career or personal ones. We are all good at something, or do some things especially well. Think about what you love doing and what are you really good at, what do people always compliment you on.
Money and financial security keep you healthy and basically alive, as they provide for all that helps you going on living from month to month. But on the long run, are they really worth your health, mental clarity and emotions?
Adjust your current conditions at work. Talk to your employer about what your needs are and what can you both do to continue having a productive and healthy collaboration. If all this fails, go back to your main resource: yourself.
Invest time into searching for a new job or take a leap of faith and start your own thing. Read here some of the conclusions of the twittchat #WorkOutMS that I was on last year, organised by shift.ms and the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform. You'll find it useful.
Invest time into searching for a new job or take a leap of faith and start your own thing. Read here some of the conclusions of the twittchat #WorkOutMS that I was on last year, organised by shift.ms and the European Multiple Sclerosis Platform. You'll find it useful.
By age 25-30 you are certainly very good at something. Think how you can transform that into a product or service and start your own business. But start small and gradually go upwards. It’s going to be hard at times, but think that the alternative can be having no job at all, and not being able to contribute to your family’s income. You have MS. Can starting a business scare you more?
Of course, there are also the cases when you can’t move, or have a mobility issue. As long as you can write, speak and express yourself, you can do it. There are tens of examples of people with major disabilities who have made it through and established a name for themselves. Prove society wrong! You are a perfectly gifted individual, who has a lot to offer to the world. Be that only your MS experience. Write about it, turn it into a workshop… You know best what you’re good at.
For me, I decided last year to focus on my writing skills, on portrait photography and on developing my yoga practice. The business I’m starting is all about visual storytelling and family portrait photography. Starting this while I dedicate the rest of my time to writing and developing my yoga practice (planning to become an instructor someday).
This is one of many articles to come regarding work issues and how to start and manage a business while living with multiple sclerosis. It’s a broad subject and a passionate one for me, as I always was an independent spirit who loved to do things my own way, and help people along the way. You will be seeing more of this topic! Hope you like it!
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Love,
Alexandra
