I work from home and have done now for almost a year. In my case it is the best thing that I\’ve ever done, I love it. I love the flexibility to be able to work the hours that I want to work and I find being my own boss is absolutely divine.

I do however know a number of people who tried to be their own boss and work from home without success so there has to be a secret to it so today I\’m going to share my thoughts.

I believe that there are two aspects, one is “your genetics”. How predisposed are you to working for yourself. Some like me crave it whereas other say to me “no, I\’m a company man, always have been, always will be”. If you\’re in any way thinking that you\’re in this last bracket then think very hard before taking the plunge.

The second aspect is something you control and that\’s your motivation and discipline. Working for yourself isn\’t easy, it take a lot of hard work but doing it at home where there are lots of distractions makes it all the more difficult.

Motivation can be an issue, for me I get frustrated and de-motivated if I don\’t achieve what I set out to achieve at the beginning of the day and that happens all to easily when you work from home. We always choose to do the things we like to do rather than the things that we need to do, so when your spouse says, “can you just nip to the shops and……..” – think carefully. It\’s nice to go and do it because it demonstrates that whole “freedom” thing that we crave and have worked hard for. Remember the worked hard for bit – don\’t throw away all the effort you\’ve put in to get where you are today.

Set yourself a goal. This is the single most important thing that you can do. Why are you doing what you are doing? Is it to earn loads of money and buy that yacht, or is it to spend more time with your family? Whatever your reasons, you must ensure that your goal is in the back of your mind whatever you do and whenever you are doing it.

Draw a picture of your goal. Don\’t underestimate your power of creative visualization, drawing or taking a picture of your goal and having it there in front of you or on the wall is a great way to maintain your motivation and go that extra mile when you\’re feeling a little tired and jaded.

Effective goal setting is is absolutely vital but just as important ins being able to measure your success relative to achieving that goal. How can you expect to be motivated if you don\’t know how close you are to achieving your goal?

In order to get the whole process in place it will probably be necessary to break you goal down into sub goals and further still to individual tasks. Then as you take on this tasks you can tick them off or measure how successful you\’ve been at achieving them.

One final point, when you succeed, celebrate your success. Look at any team, every time they win a game, they celebrate. It might not be the championship but every success along the way moves you in the right direction towards your long term goal.

Author Bio: Paul Yates has successfully learned how to work at home. To write this article he a drawn on resources for setting effective goals and the power of creative visualization.

Category: Career
Keywords: work at home, power of creative visualization, effective goal setting, celebrate success,