Like working different muscle groups on designated workout days, sometimes gifts change gears and skills shift. Are you considering switching skills in this season?

Maybe we were aware of it before, but now the term “essential services” is becoming more familiar in our ears, on a global scale. As I’ve shared several times on this blog, you and I are more than our careers and trying to define our worth by what we do or have, is misguiding and inaccurate.

Let’s get to the fruit of this conversation: Switching Skills For A Season

If you’re an entrepreneur, what service or product does your business offer and how can you re-package or pivot that at this time.

For anyone who is recently unemployed due to the current global situation, I’m not here to try to make light of what you’re facing right now – here to share some encouragement and a few practical steps forward – I hope.

For many of us in the creative industries, it’s kind of a ‘given’ that verbal agreements and even long-winded printed contracts (with hotel gigs, concert bookings or online magazines) can fall away abruptly.

Sometimes people change their mind at the last minute after asking you to save the date and prep to suit, essentially refusing other potential jobs. (This is why deposits work well for me…but that’s another post.)

We kick dirt for a second, pause for perspective, eat some Ramen, connect with our network, and get right up again. Not that we’re oh so cool…

It’s about resilience…resourcefulness…and faith.

For those who have recently experienced a job loss, you might feel like the carpet got pulled out from under you without notice. That’s probably how company directors feel now they’ve experienced a major decline in business.

We have all never been through this particular situation or season before, so I’m writing this post in my softest voice.

Mindset matters. Sulking doesn’t change circumstances for the better (I’ve tried.) Regardless of what you see or hear in these rapidly changing circumstances, do not embrace a mindset of lack because that’s a trap that leads to nowhere good.

Have a mindset of abundance but hope and ask for an attitude of humility.

Yes, be wise with how you pace your stored supplies, but please don’t limit your skill set to what you have known and done so far.

Gentle questions:

What’s your career field and what are some of your top shelf hobbies and related skills you’ve learned that can be of immediate value to you and others?

How can you help others right now?

A little real-life example to illustrate that point.

Okay, so along with freelance writing, vocal coaching is one of the services I offer, and though online training requests are still coming in, I’m placing more emphasis (in this season) on providing online breathwork sessions for CEOs and the overwhelmed who want to breathe better and refresh their mind in real-time.

Because it’s that kinda time. People were struggling with stress and restlessness before this, and now in this present global crisis where we realize just how much each breath counts, online breathwork sessions serve others better in this season.

Then there’s this blog. itsjoywithin.com now has readers from 24+ destinations – still logging on to read content in this season (thank you) and so it’s a platform that can serve others and help promote businesses interested in sponsoring a post or having visibility on the blog’s homepage for up to a month.

Online writers can also contribute and invite readers here to your website or blog through guest posts and podcast interviews at just Usd.$50. once booked during the month of April, 2020.

This was a freebie before and now with 20 guests posts/interviews from 6 destinations, there’s now a small fee for showcasing your product or service while sharing helpful career or wellness tips with readers here.

Maybe you already have some prime online real estate in the shape of a high-traffic blog and can take that step right away. If so, put that in motion if it makes sense to you to tap into that as an income source, as long as it adds value to your readers and harmonizes well with your content.

Beyond income-generating ideas and salsa-like service steps we might be evaluating in this season, let’s remember that receiving is a direct relative of giving.

So what can we afford to give someone else right now, when some are literally on a ‘lockdown.’

Time. It can look like a short call or online message to encourage or comfort someone who we know lives alone or with anxiety. Deeds. A few canned goods placed within view for someone else who could use some food today.

Prayers for those who aren’t able to stay home ’cause they have no house…for those without hope…for those on the frontline, and our own prayers for help, covering, thanksgiving and direction.

You may very well find fresh skills and a heightened sense of purpose coming to the surface in this season.

Write them down and calmly connect the dots between them and services you can offer, people or companies you can serve or products they can blossom into.

It doesn’t mean that is what’s gonna happen or what you’ll need to do, but it will be a reminder that as long as you’re still here breathing, there is a purpose for your life.

What are 3 skills you can list off the top of your head right now and how can refine and pair them with services or products to launch online, now you’re staying at home in this season?

They may not look flashy or instantly appealing, but once that engine starts turning, you can switch gears or skills, by grace in another gifted season.

“Switching Skills For A Season (encouragement & tips)” was first published on Joywithin blog

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