One of my main motivators for starting my own business was my family. At the time, I decided to go into business my son was nine months old and my daughter was approaching three. Whilst on maternity leave I had been redundant from my job and I was not sure what I was going to do when it was time to go back to work.
Add to that was the fact that my husband was in a contracted role with no guarantee of ongoing work once the contract finished. As you can imagine there were significant financial stressor too. If that wasn’t enough, I had just experienced the worst period in my life, trying to cope with a baby with sleeping issues for months and months on end which had almost sent me to the brink…
But in all of this comes a silver lining, in my efforts to find a solution to my son’s sleeping problems, I had gone to sleep school and met another OT who had a very similar work background to myself. She was self-employed and doing the work she loved, all the while still being able to put the needs of her family first.
After much deliberation, my husband and I agreed that this was going to be the best option for us too – boy talk about taking a massive risk! I wanted to be the best mother I could be and what this meant was a flexible role that allowed me to work from home. A role where I could do the work I was passionate about, and at the times it was convenient for me. This all started over three and a half years ago now, and I am lucky enough to have been able to create all of that and more. I won’t say that it is easy, running a business and working from home has its challenges too, and balancing the demands of your business and your family can be difficult to juggle at times.
However, I wonder if you are like me, and you started to feel pain while at work? We all know employers have responsibilities to provide safe and healthy workplace but the pain I was experiencing as a self-employed mum worried me – a lot. I was scared of not being able to work; not be able to earn an income and contribute; not be able to care for my children; and most of all scared of failing at this life I was working so hard to create.
What made it worse for me is that I’m an OT. I specialize in helping people manage complex, chronic health conditions – so here I am thinking I was failing in my profession too.
Dealing with the challenges of parenting is difficult enough without the added complication of pain. Pain doesn’t just impact your productivity and your ability to get things done in your business; its affects are far more widespread. I know how pain has affected me - my relationships, my mood, my ability to be a good parent and to cope with the demands of my children. You know when you are in pain, your tolerances are lower, you are irritable, you snap easily…
Then I realised that I could do something about my experience of pain while I was working. Call it pain, discomfort, soreness, stiffness, aching, niggle or whatever else you might want to label it - the bottom line is that YOU should NOT be experiencing any of these symptoms at work! If you are like I used to be then these symptoms may have become the norm. You may have been experiencing these symptoms for so long, even at a low level that you have learned to just live with them and get on with it. It doesn’t have to be this way.
Is your pain stopping you from working as much as you would like?
Do you worry that your pain is getting worse and you may not be able to earn an income anymore or achieve your goals?
Are you frustrated by the temporary relief of other treatments and the amount of money you are forking out on a band-aid solution for your pain?
What if I could show you a way that means you could find a solution for your pain that is long lasting?
Want to know more? The first step is identifying the underlying cause of your work related pain. That’s where my Pain Free Matrix comes in. I created this free tool to help people get to the root cause of their pain and help move them in the right direction to eliminating it: http://bit.ly/painfreematrix
You know something has to change. You want the days of struggling with your pain to end now. Here is your opportunity to take the first step. Go on, grab it with both hands and run!