5 things I learnt in 2024 about work and life
2024 has been a great learning experience. On both personal and professional fronts.
Here is my goal list I made for 2024:
#1. Always have money saved for rainy day or two, or may be the whole season
First half of 2024 was good for the finance bucket. But once the Forbes Marketplace bomb dropped, I lost most of my regular income. Combine that with slow marketing since Sept 2023 as I was busy building 24hoursareenough website, and it was a disaster waiting to happen. And it happened.
I am grateful that I started implementing fiscal discipline in my business at the beginning of 2023. And that has helped me remain afloat. (Almost) maintaining the lifestyle my family and I are used to. Primarily because I had 7-8 months of expenses saved.
If you work for yourself, that is absolutely the first thing you must do – have minimum 6-9 months of expenses saved. Heck, in these uncertain times, even if you are a salaried employee, you should have that saved up.
#2. Be intentional about where you get clients from; winging it is NOT the answer
But the financial dip has also given me an opportunity to think deeply about how I was building my business.
I now realise that I cannot be dependent on 1-2 long-term clients only. I need to have a healthy mix of short term clients too. For both financial health and personal flexibility.
So I am now doing what I should have been doing all along – building lead pipelines and being more aggressive than passive about marketing myself. All the while doing client work and satisfying the customers and wowing them with high quality of work. Some say that’s the best kind of brand building ??.
It has been challenging and scary, but I am starting to get the hang of it. Because I know how the follow ups will snowball after 2-3 months of regular pitching!!
#3. Parenting is all about building that thriving environment
On the personal front it has been a rollercoaster ride but as they say, all is well that ends well. My daughter has cleared her CLAT exam and in the next month or two, we will know which college she will be going to. The next five years are set, and by that time she will be her own person (and we will be relegated to cheerleader role ??). Matured and equipped enough to take decisions that steer the next phase of her life. Till now my husband & I have been very hands-on, without actually being helicopter parents, so that would be quite some relief.
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Without coming across as smug, I want to say this to all parents of school going kids: as parents our job is to guide them, ask the right questions, excite their minds and provide a positive environment to grow. The rest happens organically. There is lot to say here, especially since I stay in a place that would rank number 1 if we had a list of places having maximum helicopter parents. But that’s a post for another day!
#4. Health is wealth. Is it now?
This winter is treating me better than the previous 5-6 winters, a season when I typically cut back drastically on client work. Because my health is unpredictable in this season and I didn’t want to commit to deadlines I might not be able to meet.
This September I finally consulted an orthopedic I had been meaning to for the past year. The medicines have provided immense relief. I am sharing this because women all over the world, especially working moms, tend to de-prioritise their health.
To these working moms, and women in general, here is what I say: nothing else is important at the end of the day if you don’t take care of yourself and don’t value your health. Love yourself first and only then expect others to follow suit.
#5. Learning can happen in multiple ways
For the sake of completion, here is a sample list:
I read many more books (and PDFs) than mentioned here and a few more challenges I don’t remember exactly now.
Over to you now.
How was your 2024?
A more in-depth version of this roundup is available at Shilalekh, my personal blog.