Who’s Defining Professional In Your World?

It’s amazing how working a strict routine for years affects what happens when you’re free. It’s like that story about the jumping fleas.

“You train fleas by putting them in a jar with a top on it. Fleas jump, so they will jump up and hit the top over and over and over again. As you watch them jump and hit the top, you will notice something interesting. The fleas continue to jump, but they are no longer jumping high enough to hit the top. Then, and it’s a matter of record, you can take the top off and though the fleas continue to jump, they won’t jump out of the jar. I repeat, they won’t jump out because they can’t. The reason is simple. They have conditioned themselves to jump just so high. Once they have conditioned themselves to jump just so high, that’s all they can do.”

See You at The Top by Zig Ziglar

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I wish I knew who decided that 9am – 5pm was the ideal work schedule. And that anyone working any other time, well woe to them.

I wish I knew who came up with the brilliant idea of boxing people in surrounded by gray or beige walls for 8 hours so they could be more productive.

I wish I knew who thought an hour was good enough to prepare, eat, and digest lunch all so you could get back to your box and continue your 9am – 5pm workday.

Do You?

This morning I read an article entitled 5 Awesome Tips For Entrepreneurs. The #1 tip was “Do Not Work From Home”, really? You’re kidding right? Another person with their idea of what being productive should look like. The reasoning was that you’re 70% more productive in a “working” environment and that clients would rather meet you in your office than at Starbucks. Really?

I have no clients that live where I live. In fact, the few I did work with, it didn’t go so well. They usually thought I was free to come to their office whenever they needed me. Easy mistake I guess; maybe it was the Virtual Hired Hand part that threw them off.

Fortunately, as an online business owner you can decide what works best for you and your business including what’s professional and this includes anything you do online virtually. This doesn’t happen overnight. In fact, you may not realize your professional judgment meter is off.

When I put up my first website for my own business I used a very starchy template. You can check it out in this previous post Happy Anniversary: The Ugly Duckling Site

It was similar to what I’d seen the corporation I worked for use. I figured it was good enough for what I was doing. Hindsight is always 20/20. How can you tell if your professional judgment meter is off?

Ask yourself:

• If I were casually browsing the web and saw my website I would…

• If I had a business that was more artsy, I would….

• If it were up to me I would…

What or who is stopping you? Is it your industry, business partner, or

is it YOU?

When you base your standards on someone else’s professional you get lost. I’ll admit it takes big guts to be yourself. Isn’t that funny? You’d think being you would be easy. It’s not because other people challenge their ideas against yours. The good news is that when you’re true to you other people notice. You know the people who are ideal for you, your work style, and moral values.

If the objective of your website is to draw people to what you have to offer, don’t you want the ideal people coming your way? Certainly you do! A good way to ensure the right ones come is to be yourself and define your own professional.

Now it’s your turn. What does professional look like in your world?

This post was written from a French pastry shop in an area called NoDa. Ummm, does it count as working from home? Maybe the guy who said ‘Don’t Work From Home’ was right. I’ll just change the definition of working from home and say it means working anywhere that’s outside the box. Ha! 🙂