If you’re a loyal Leaving Work Behind reader, you might reasonably have wondered at some point over the past four months or so (here was my last post).
The answer is neither short nor simple, but in this post I want to explain what I’ve been up to, what my plans are for the future, and how Leaving Work Behind fits into all that.
The Past 4 Months (In a Nutshell)
I’m not really sure how to explain myself, so I’m just going to go with a flow of consciousness (then maybe edit a little when I’m done ;-)).
The last several months have been characterised by a desire to get ‘out’ of my business without affecting the quality of my service. This has been most relevant to my writing business (what is now WordCandy), as it is the part of my business that (a) makes the most money, and (b) has historically taken the majority of my time up.
After all, that’s the passive income dream, is it not? To have your business working for you, not vice versa?
It’s easier said than done though, to achieve ‘true’ passivity. Income reports of successful online entrepreneurs are dime-a-dozen, but what’s far less clear than the figures is how personally invested these entrepreneurs are in their businesses. I’m not going to start pointing fingers, but it seems to me that the more money these guys make, the more their businesses rely on their very personal brands. They couldn’t simply walk away from their businesses unscathed; their day-to-day involvement is very much a necessity.
I didn’t want that. I wanted the freedom to dip in and out of my business as I saw fit. This was ostensibly with a view to walking across France (something I attempted but ultimately had to abandon after a few weeks due to concerns over my business), but it ran deeper than that. I didn’t want to be the administrator or the manager of my business – I wanted to be the guy on top.
I’m still not entirely sure what that means, but what it definitely doesn’t mean is being involved in the day-to-day running of my business. The problem is – as I have already alluded to – is that the world of blogging doesn’t lend itself well to that approach. As a blogger who has relied for a long time on a ‘personal brand’, to simply step away is easier said than done.
Granted, I’ve done that with Leaving Work Behind over the past four months, but I wasn’t able to do that with WordCandy. I’m still there every day, involved in the day-to-day workings of the business, making sure that things are running smoothly. And I’m still working on how to get away from that without affecting the quality of the work that we produce (and in fact improve it).
So there it is folks – the last four months have involved me trying to get ‘out’ of my business. I’ve been partly successful, but I’ve still got a long way to go.
So What’s In Store for the Future?
In short, I don’t know.
What I think I know is that I thrive on ideas and the bigger picture. I love putting things in motion and tweaking and optimizing. What I don’t get a kick out of is getting drawn into the daily grind of doing the same thing over and over again. I feel like I need to continuously push myself, so that when I’m on my deathbed, I don’t feel like I wasted my life. That would suck.
So at this point, Plan A is to get myself ‘out’ of my business. That includes WordCandy, Leaving Work Behind, Paid to Blog, and so on. I must do this with no undue risk, which means that I must manoeuvre carefully.
If Plan A is successful, I will then be in a position to figure out what on earth I’m doing next. I’m yet to figure out what I want from life, so all I can do is get my head down and work on what feels right to me in the present moment.
What About Leaving Work Behind?
So if I’m getting ‘out’ of my business, where does that leave this blog? For many years it has been my soapbox; a journal of my journey from zero to now.
Well, Leaving Work Behind can’t be the same as it once was. That much is clear if I am not going to be writing on a regular basis. But neither do I want this blog to simply slip into obscurity. It must evolve. It must continue to offer you value while doing so without my direct influence. This is easier said than done, but I have my plans. There’s nothing concrete to reveal yet, but I feel optimistic about the site’s future.
And all that said, I still definitely want to retain the right to write articles here on Leaving Work Behind whenever I want. I’d like to think that I won’t disappear forever – that there will be times that I feel the need to write a post – but it has to be something I want to do, rather than something I feel like I have to do.
So…What Next?
In the short term, I’m planning on re-instigating a weekly publishing schedule here on Leaving Work Behind, with the help of some very talented writers and a community manager / editor. We’ll be focusing largely on (a) freelance writing, (b) the psychological/motivational side of things, and (c) practical tips for anyone that is looking to leave work behind.
In short, I want to continue to help people in the same way that I always have through this blog. It just won’t be me directly administering the medicine 
As for me – I’ve got plenty to be getting on with. And I feel quite excited about perhaps revealing the results of my plans down the line. We’ll just have to wait and see!
Image Credit: Carsten Tolkmit
The post Where I’ve Been (And Where I’m Going) appeared first on Leaving Work Behind.
