Start Bossing Yourself Around!

How to Boss Yourself Around

A couple of weeks back I was speaking with my 10 yr old son. I have eight children, four sons four daughters, this son is my fourth child. He was having some challenges in his school work. We homeschool and it seems that he was frustrated with having his mother always "bossing" him. My first inclination was to give him my patented, "She's your mother and you don't have to like it, but you do have to respect her.." speech, but I thought better of it. I decided to ask a few questions.

"So, you don't like being told what to do?"
My son looked up at me, "No."
"And you like it when your mother is happy with you,"
This time he looked at me like I was crazy, "Of course."
"And she's happy with you when you complete your assignments on time, the first time, without being told again?"
He rolled his eyes and grunted, "Yes" at me as if I were Captain Obvious.
"Well then, there is only one solution." I smiled.
"What is it?" He asked, genuinely curious.
"You have to start bossing yourself." I said, and turned to leave.
"Wait, what?" He stood from the chair and grabbed my arm. "What do you mean, I have to boss myself?"
"It's easy. The only way the assignments get done is if somebody is bossing you, and you don't like anybody else to boss you, so, you have to boss yourself." I said, as matter of factly as I could.
"I don't get it."

And honestly I had just gotten it myself. After fifteen years of being my own "boss" it suddenly occurred to me that I was really very bad at bossing myself. This had led to me being bossed by my wife, my creditors and my clients on numerous occasions, all of which was highly unpleasant. I had gotten out of working for others in part, because I did not like having someone else tell me what to do, yet I had failed to take on that responsibility for myself on numerous occasions.

It comes down to this. We are all governed by habits. Good habits lead inexorably to success, bad habits leave the door wide open to failure. By not truly being my own boss, I had been working under the assumption that things would just get done, instead of really managing myself and purposely setting out to do them.

As a writer this is very hard. We want to rely on the "muse" to move us. We want the writing to flow organically onto the paper in the perfect words, and some days this happens. Most of the time it doesn't it, but still no one wants to pay me for weeks of inactivity, they all expect results. They want their content, whatever that might be, and they are more than willing to "boss" me around if they don't get it.

So, what about you? Are you like most freelancers, do you hate being told what to do in a negative sense? Have you ever considered hiring yourself as your own boss? If you did, what would you the manager tell you the writer? How would you encourage, or reprimand yourself? What bad habits would you insist you give up? What would you admire?