Not The Way We Planned It

By now you should know that I don’t make New Year’s Resolutions. With the way 2019 ended for us, I have to admit that I may need to reexamine that. After seeing a great deal of success with both of our home-based businesses for most of 2019, things took a turn in November. No, the market didn’t take a dip for us where suddenly no one wanted specialty jam or needed any web content written. Both of us ended up dealing with personal health issues.​

How This Affected Our Midlife Career Changes

Brenda’s workload leading up to the Christmas season was astronomical. There were so many products to produce to stock up for what we thought was going to be a very busy season. The thought of the extra work was enough to spook anyone and looking back on it, I’m glad that we decided to downsize what we were doing to get through the season. We canceled vending dates and focused on our weekly venue which took off a lot of the pressure. 
​
Then in mid-November, I got sick. I don’t normally get sick. Sure, the odd cold here and there but it has been a very, very long time since I’ve been seriously ill. What I thought was food poisoning turned into a bowel blockage with several complications. It forced me to stop writing for weeks and sent me to the Intensive Care Unit of a regional hospital. What started out looking like a strong finish for both of our businesses for the year turned into a total derailment.

The Silver Lining In All Of It

I suppose we could have looked at our situation as a devastating end to what was otherwise a record-setting year for both of our home-based businesses. Instead, we looked at ways to reduce some of what was going on that led to our crashes. For Brenda’s business, JamBusters!, we determined that we should cut down on the number of extra vending events we’ve been adding to our calendar and just focus on where the business is already well established.

As for me, I am slowly getting back to ghostwriting for my clients at Looseink Freelance Ninja. I will likely keep a slightly slower pace for the next few weeks to allow me to fully recover. Thankfully, all of my clients have stuck by me and are waiting for me to get better. My goal is to reduce some of my workload and try to manage my time a bit better. Follow up doctor appointments will help me to further define what that change could look like.

We Are Not Changing Our Careers

If anything, we are comfortable in our midlife career changes. All we need to do in 2020 is take the lessons learned from the end of 2019 and use them to guide us into the next year. I don’t anticipate huge changes, but we will be doing some more fine-tuning. That way we will be able to continue doing what we enjoy but maybe find a more efficient way to achieve our goals without having a repeat of November 2019 happening to us again.

Learn How To Survive A Midlife Career Change

It isn’t every day you will have access to someone who has experienced a midlife career change. My wife, Brenda and I went through one at the same time. Then last month we were able to weather disruption to them. I have written an eBook on how to make it through your first career change as an adult. It contains tips and advice from someone who has been there. It is titled “Surviving Midlife Career Changes.” It is available at Amazon by clicking HERE.