A Few Words on Shelter

Posted on March 22, 2008
Filed Under Shelter |

Earlier this week, I was in the woods. Yesterday, I spent most of the morning in the coffee shop I mention on the home page of the site (this picture was taken during the lull between breakfast and dinner…I didn’t want to freak people out by just snapping random photos).

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So…what does my shelter look like?

Well, there are two answers to that question: the easy answer and the more complicated one. Let’s start with the easy one:

I have several different shelters. You saw one earlier this week, which  I dubbed the ULPO, or ultra-light portable office. Here’s a reminder:

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This is the most spartan of my shelters, kind of like a lean-to…and also some of the most refreshing to use. There are no distractions. No interruptions. The cell phone and flash drive are for special instances when something comes up that needs to be handled right away.

Which leaves the notebook, the pen, and the grey matter inside my head. Sometimes, when all the information in the world is just  a click away, it’s easy to forget how powerful your own mind can be when you squeeze it a little.

A step up from that shelter, is my laptop. My ULPO fits nicely in the various pockets of my laptop case, so the whole thing just sort of scales. Actually, the laptop isn’t my shelter…it’s just the key to the front door. As I mentioned earlier, all of the apps I use to work are online.

Having my entire operation online enables me to live a nomadic sort of existence. It acts like a tent in my backpack. I can get my work done anywhere at any time, as long as I can get to a computer with internet access. This frees me up greatly to live my life without work getting in the way.

And finally, there is my home office. And it is literally my home-office. Yes, I have a designated place with a desk and filing cabinet and a desktop computer and bookshelves and a landline phone all the requisite hardware an office typically has. But as often as not, I’m downstairs in the easy chair with the laptop or the Moleskine. Or out on the patio with a glass of iced tea. It’s my castle, as it were.

That’s the easy answer.

For the more complicated answer, we need to remember one vital distinction: this site is not about survival; it’s about moving past survival mode, and into a place where you can thrive.

Not being in survival mode, I’m not bothered by the usual distinctions of shelter. There is no doubt I will live well working as a freelancer. I don’t need the physical location(s) to serve as an anchor against the fear and the chaos.

I am my shelter. It may sound cheesey to say out loud…but it’s the truth. I don’t fear the elements. I don’t fear the predators. I know what to do when they appear. And THAT is the point of this site.

With knowledge and confidence comes a remarkable sense of calm and flexibility. If a client needs me on-site, I can pick up and go, confident that I can still get all of my other work done. If one of the kids get sick, I can stay in touch over the phone or by checking email on occasion, but my attention is on my child; I’ll get the work done that night after the kids are in bed.

As with all of the elements, the whole reason to master them is so that you don’t panic if you suddenly don’t have it. If you’re in survival mode, then the sudden disappearance of  water, fire, shelter or food can be a devastating and potentially life-threatening loss. But as you move past survival, not having water, shelter, food or fire on hand is no big deal, because you know how to find or make more.

If you’re lost in the wilderness as a freelancer, the loss of a client, a computer, a network of contacts or even  something as simple as writer’s block can be a killer to morale, and has even been enough to convince some to give up. But if you can move past the fear, if you can master the art of finding work, promoting yourself, making time and a place to work and generating ideas on command, then those events are nothing more than a temporary inconvenience.  A hiccup in the long, exciting life of your freelance career.

Have a great weekend. And here’s to your success!

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