If you want inspiration, motivation or a good kick up the proverbial to maintain momentum for your start-up business, just get amongst the 9-5 commute in any capital city around the globe…at least, that worked for me!

 

Today I happened to be in London, leaving the east headed toward the city. It was prime commuter time (AM peak period), and all at once, I felt a rush of unjustifiable frustration and annoyance.

 

What the hell was I feeling? Was I feeling peoples tension? Was I tense? Or was it the overbearing armpit smell in my face plus darting looks of disdain along sandwiched rows of suits, ties, heels and phones?

 

It was everything. It was me - it was them. It was the metal grinding tube and  ‘slightly-too-loud-commuters’. It was the mortgage on everyones faces and new bills on their iPhones.

 

No-one, was smiling. No-one. Not one person! Now I know what you're thinking 'but Abby, maybe they smile in their free time?' and you're right! But I want to smile full-time, not half-time! Or, at least be in a forum where a smile doesn't have to be vacuum sealed and 'dealt with later'...

 

Looking around, I was jolted. I was them once. For nine years. How had I forgotten this routine so quickly? Given, it wasn't one I aspired to or enjoyed. There was such a heaviness about it.

It’s not a rejection of work in itself, or even traditional office environments. It’s not a mightier than thou vantage point or a preppy commentary on 'purpose'. This is just a simple honesty that I one day, had the courage to give in to.

 

It was the very simple, all powerful human realisation, that we only get to have once in a while: I don’t want to do this anymore. 

 

The electric clarity that it built up to, demanded my attention. This was one life lust/longing/need that I could no longer ignore.

 

So one day I just, stopped. Stopped doing things that I really didn't want to do anymore, instead I started doing the things that I really wanted to, and it took buckets of courage...

 

The flip-side of not doing things you don’t want to do, is finding, believing in and then maintaining what you chose. Sometimes that means walking a 'lonely' road (but I'm not sure it has to be lonely), other times it means connecting and collaborating with likeminded kinfolk, delving into possibilities and exploring paths taken...

 

But one thing is for sure. Where I'm at? There’s no cubical structure and no  boss. There's no chatty colleague at the cooler or vague job description to interpret.

 

There's a window with a view (but it ain't the Ritz). There's a lot of empty paper and a lot of ink-filled pens. There's no pressure (but that can be a bad thing), and there is isn't anyone to defer submissions to, except you.

 

You quickly learn your private strengths and weaknesses, answerable only to yourself. You get overwhelmed, overjoyed and overworked easy, eventually tapering all energies down into something of a structure and something like a routine. 

 

At the start and end of each day, there’s just you and whatever you chose. For me? It was writing. My tool is a crappy, ridiculously heavy MacBook and despite a terrible budget and measly income - I am as happy as a pig in the poop. Why? Because all of this means something. This raw, energetic output, means something. I'm not without hard/sad/boring/frustrating days, but the difference is that now they count toward a bigger picture, that I had never factored in or dreamed possible before... 

 

These days I don’t commute but I take that drudging commuter look with me to the laptop before I churn out something I believe in. Because the truth is, the drudge of repetition and routine, is still laborious even when it’s a labor of love…

 

Entrepreneurs and new business owners need to know this:

 

When you start something up and remove the falsehoods of things you used to do, you enter a new paradigm where you actually need some drudgery, rules, boundaries and expectations – on and of you. If not for productivity then for an energetic movement toward that which you have invested in: yourself.

 

So while I don’t think I’ll be going back to the 9-5 commute again, I will be in my own little commute, one of the inner workings. The one that says ‘you can do it!’and on slow days ‘no you can’t!’, back and forth like a work commute...

 

To all you ‘inner commuters’ out there, doing start-ups, new business, or something totally new – GO FOR IT. Make your commuting count. And if you ever need a push/shove toward what you believe in, revisit that thing or place which made you take this great leap, ‘cause whatever element(s) made you leave it, will surely remind you why you’re in this new, meaningful venture.

 

Here’s to you, you little rebels...

 

#gogetem

 

 

 

 

Written by Abby Kempe for AK Services LTD.