Once you leave your day job and start working online as a freelancer or entrepreneur you will get rid of all your troubles. Right?

That’s what many people believe. And I admit that this is what I believed, too at times – It gave me the fuel to dream and eventually wriggle myself out of the commuter’s lifestyle. So I’m not saying it’s bad to have this outlook.

But be prepared:

Working Online will not change who you are. It will tweak a few external factors and free up loads of resources that will be completely at your disposal, but what will happen is that you will become far more aware of the inner workings of the mind than you ever were when you kept yourself distracted by exercising your Excel moves or yakking around the water cooler.

I am fully convinced by the way that this is one of the strongest reasons why people work in supposedly dissatisfying jobs in the first place: To get away from themselves! In this way – the most “succesful” people are those with the biggest drive to get away from who they are. Not exactly what they tell you in school, I know. But it makes sense, doesn’t it?

Being one’s own boss: What will change

you can sleep as long as you like
there’s no boss breathing down your neck anymore
no need to commute
you will have lots of time on your hands
and other enjoyable niceties…

A bag full of fleas: Loosening the Noose

If you are very used to “keeping yourself busy” in an office for hours on end your mind has been conditioned to a lifestyle of denial: When negative thoughts, feelings or whatever come up, you stuff the cork of “Not now – I’m working!” into the bottle of your life and seal it shut with hopes and dreams of after-work drinks or the next vacation.

But the moment you remove the outside pressure that keeps the cork inside the bottle – all kinds of highly unglamorous stuff will leak out:

The moment you leave the rat race – after you’ve enjoyed the first few moments of not having to do anything – your mind will start idling and produce all kinds of uncomfortable consequences.

Self-doubt and open-ended questions of “What is the meaning of my life” are just the tip of the iceberg of what will be released into the open and begin to pollute your new found freedom just as you started enjoying it.

What to do?

Find alternative “coping strategies” – People say they go to work because they need the money – While that may seem the obvious case – the actual truth is that we go to work because we need to feel important, relevant and useful – so far from high rolling talks about “realizing oneself” and “building a career” most of what we do is simply that – a coping strategy. But the cool thing is that it’s up to you: Would you rather do mind-numbing tasks like editing spreadsheets or learn to play the piano? It’s not bad wanting to feel useful and relevant, but why not define your own rules for it instead of running with the herd?

Have the guts to admit: Now that the gears of your mind are becoming exposed and maybe unconfidence, fear and feelings of unworthiness are slowly being released like a deadly gas – don’t pull back. This is the fertile crap our civilization is built on. Don’t think that those feelings are your enemy and keep stuffing them back in to the bottle – simply view them as phenomenons within the canvas of your life. And – maybe it helps that the greatest geniuses were full of this stuff themselves – Some of them got carried away (and those are not less revered!) but others even managed to creatively transform this manure into timeless works of art!

Service: From the richest millionaire to the poorest of the poor: As long as we only live for ourselves we will be tormented by the aforementioned poisonous feelings and thoughts. Deeply engrossed and obsessed by our own happiness and sadness we spiral down the more we navel-gaze. The solution is simple: Help others! No money, fame or so called success in the world will give you the same confidence. By making other people’s happiness or sadness your own, you stop worrying about your own. And no, this is not some kind of Mother Theresa trip – although she was totally living this! You don’t have to become religious, overly sentimental or zealous. But if you devote your life to helping others instead of trying to patch up the poorly crafted straw-man of “me, myself and I” you will be less terrified and exhausted from gyrating around the axis of your own cosmos all the time. In short: Helping others is the best way to be happy and make a living at the same time.