My 2023: The Year I Transitioned Away From Self-Employed Life
Pursing a writing job, a hobbyist mindset and a well-rounded life
At the end of every year, I write about my creative year. This is my review of 2023.
My dream of a creatively self-employed life began in 2015. I worked towards that dream for five years. In 2021, the dream became reality when I quit my job.
The dream ended in 2023, when I realised I no longer wanted to be self-employed.
A shift set in motion
I entered 2023 with a 50/50 balance. Half of my work week, I was at my content writer job. Half of my week, I ran my creative coaching business. After being fully self-employed for a year and a half, it had been a welcome change. So welcome, in fact, that I realised in January that everything I wanted less of in my creative life related to running a business.
On January 5th, I wrote in my journal:
I’m sitting here writing my 2023 intentions blog post, and I write about how I don’t want my business to consume all my mental energy. And I have to ask myself, do I even want this anymore?
It was a scary thought. I had worked towards my own business for so long, and accepting that I might not want it anymore was terrifying. What if I closed it and then regretted it?
But I couldn’t deny that I was so incredibly tired of striving and trying. And, that I loved being an employed writer - an option I’d never really considered possible before it happened.
I picked a life-affirming, unproductive and mischievous word for 2023: Frolic. I made it my main yearly goal to enjoy and embrace a well-rounded life. I read the book Quit by Annie Duke while I explored the idea of leaving behind my dream of self-employment. Then I talked to my boss about the possibility of increasing my hours.
And so, the ball that has kept rolling throughout this year was set in motion.
In March, I increased my hours to four days per week at my content writer job and I wrote about the end of the self-employed chapter.
Returning to blogging with Substack
I first mentioned Substack in my journal in January. But it was not a project I considered in my yearly planning, it was just a vague idea.
As my mental shift away from self-employment began, the seed of Substack started to grow and it grew fast.
In the beginning of February, I wrote in my journal.
The big question mark is: how do I sell through a Substack?
I still ran my membership community Companions In Creativity in my one day a week business, and I relied on my email list for bringing in new members.
But I was starting to prioritise differently. Moving away from self-employment meant more creative freedom to do whatever I wanted to in my creativity, and it quickly became clear that Substack was something I wanted to do with that freedom.
In February, I went with my fiancé on a weekend trip to Amsterdam. The sun was shining, spring was in the air and when I sat down in a café to write, I wrote about starting a Substack. The decision was made then and there - perhaps an unwise decision from the perspective of running my one day a week business, but I was tired of making smart business decisions.
I ran a last marketing campaign for my membership community, and then moved my blog and email newsletter to Substack. As I did, I retired my serious-looking blue notebook and started a new one, reminiscent of ones from earlier blogger years. On the first page, I wrote:
A notebook for my creative life. For self-expression, inspiration, ideas, joy, creativity, artistry, thoughts, feelings and a well-rounded life. A new beginning.
Substack came to represent the shift I longed for in my own creative projects. Away from business building, coaching and strategic content. Towards self-expression, inspiration, artistry and writing. It was the fresh space where I could reimagine what I wanted to create, where I felt the freedom to do exactly what I wanted. Without it, I think my shift would have been more difficult and would have taken longer to make.
And while Substack was new, it was also a return. My journey sharing my creativity online started as a blogger, and now, on the other side of building a business, coaching and getting a writing job, I returned to my roots. It felt amazing.
Stepping fully into my writer self
Just before the summer, my boss asked me if I wanted a full-time position. I said I’d think about it over the summer. And think I did.
During spring, I had kept my business going one day a week and it had worked pretty well. But I was running out of steam for coming up with content for my membership community and for marketing it. I felt myself drifting further and further away from that part of my creativity.
I considered adding a paid subscription option to my Substack, but it felt too early and I didn’t want to lose the freedom I felt around it.
To keep running my business one day week had been a way to still hold onto the dream of being a creative business owner. But it hadn’t given me the full creative freedom I craved in my own projects. I knew I was moving away from the business era of my creative life, and towards an era of simply being a writer.
I finally made the decision at the end of the summer. I started working on a rebrand of my online presence and since October, I work full-time as a content writer. My membership community, Companions In Creativity, retired at the end of October.
The shift that started at the beginning of 2023 came to its completion in November. I have a job where I get paid to write and I love it. While I still have some resources for sale on my website, my own creative projects are fully hobby projects. I feel a lightness in my creativity that I haven’t felt in a long time. In all areas, except one.
Wrestling with fiction writing and reading
Alongside my 2023 goal to embrace a well-rounded life, I set a goal to frolic in literature and finish the fifth draft of my novel. As I shifted away from growing a business, I wanted to really get back to writing fiction again. I had also had a disappointing reading year in 2022, and wanted to focus on quality reads in 2023.
I did some editing on my draft in January, then did nothing for months. At the start of summer, I made working on the novel my main focus area for the season. I was committed and began working on the edits at the start of my summer vacation, but again hit a wall with it.
Finally having the mindspace to focus on novel edits and still struggling made me think, and after some pondering, I came to the conclusion that it might be time to try moving on to another project. So I sat down to see if I could write something else, and out poured a scene for an entirely different novel.
During autumn, I have played around with this new novel idea. I’ve gotten to know the characters more, and I’ve experimented with the tone and style. But as the year comes to an end, I’m not convinced it’s the right project. It’s a partly quite heavy story, and one that will require a lot from me as a writer. I’m not sure it’s a book I’m ready to write.
While I’ve found lightness, artistic expression, inspiration and joy in this Substack, in photography and the various small projects I do, I have not yet found it in my fiction writing. That’s what I feel I have to tackle next.
Alongside my challenges with writing fiction, my reading slump has festered. Finally accepting the sad state of my reading life, I wrote about it in December and have declared war on the slump. So far, it’s working well.
I suspect that these two challenges somewhat go hand in hand. My taste in reading is reflected in how I want to write, and my mental space for fictional stories affect both.
Now that I’m no longer busy with business owner responsibilities, I hope that it will give me the mindspace to once again focus on fiction.
In the slow days between Christmas and the new year, I’ve read more than probably any other time during 2023. And I’ve tentatively started to play around with yet another novel idea. It’s one I had just over a year ago and shelved as a maybe one day project. It’s quite different from my former novel project and the one I started exploring this summer, and I think that might be good thing. We’ll see if it goes anywhere.
A well-rounded year with frolics, job and a hobbyist mindset
This year was the first year I set intentions beyond strictly creative projects. I’m very glad I did. My goal to embrace a well-rounded life has guided me to think about more aspects that make life good. And I have loved having Frolic as my word of the year.
At the beginning of 2023, I started learning tarot cards, which quickly became a just for fun creative project. Under the guidance of
and her excellent tarot course, I found joy in stickers and washi tape, and had so much fun that I’ve bought a semi bullet journal type of yearly planner for 2024.
I started using Notion in the beginning of autumn, and it has been a way to beautifully organising both my creative life and other parts of my life - and bringing it all together.
At some point during the year, I started thinking of certain activities as frolicking activities. They were big and small things I did for joy - from trips and meeting up with friends, to DIYing a makeover of my desk and sneaking away to write in a café during my lunch hour. I write down ideas for frolicking activities in my Notion and remind myself to incorporate them in my life. And I have done more of them this year. The two weekend trips - to Amsterdam in February and Béziers in September - were big happenings, but there have been many small frolics as well.
I’ve also started going to the gym. It’s very much a work in progress, and I’m working with a physiotherapist to strengthen my knees to hopefully be able to start running. But moving my body is part of a well-rounded life for me, and it feels good to be making it a priority.
In my writing job, I’ve worked on a myriad of projects. I’m strengthening my skills in copywriting and finding it exceptionally fun. Working in the office in central Stockholm has also been good for me - it brings me energy and a sense of community, and gets me doing things.
When I wrote the blog post about my intentions for 2023, I ended it with a hope for a lighter year. Like I suspected then, the world has kept being filled with darkness and hardship. My personal life has definitely not been without challenge either. And yet, it has been a lighter year.
I’m ending the year feeling at peace in my creative projects. Yes, I have some stuff to figure out in the fiction writing department, but I’ve completely shifted my mindset this year. I’m back in a hobbyist’s way of thinking about my own creativity - filled with joy, self-expression and internally motivated inspiration. And I love it.
For my end of the year reflections and yearly planning, I use my planning guide Four Seasons of Creative Work. If you want to try seasonal planning for 2024, the guide is now 25% off until January 7.
You can have a look and get it on my website. Use code myseasonal2024 for 25% off.
There were so many golden nuggets in your post Elin that I had to restrain myself from jumping up and down at the café I'm sitting at. Frolicking over every word 🤩🤩
Having a day job that frees you up for creative projects and in that way fund them, it is totally undervalued in my opinion.
It's so interesting to read about your shift away from building your creative business full-time. While a lot of people strive for this, I think few take a step back to consider if this is what they really want. It's a great reminder to constantly reflect on what you really want, and if you're actually moving towards that goal. Thank you.