As great as it sounds, working from home is hard. It’s easy to idealize making money in your PJ’s or not having to answer to anybody, but if you want to be able to make money working from home, there are important character traits you will need to have.
Anyone can jump into something new with the boundless energy and excitement that seems to flow in the beginning, but in order to truly be successful working from home, you will need to hone a few things first.
Let’s dig into 5 character traits that you will need in order to be successful working from home.
1. Discipline
No one is watching you. You’re on the couch with your laptop in front of you and yet there will be a thousand things calling your name.
The TV sits blank off to the side, begging you to watch just one more episode of Netflix as a “break”.
The dishes are piled high in the sink.
The dog is giving you puppy eyes and, really, she hasn’t been taken on a walk in a while. And the exercise could do you good.
Or that friend you haven’t seen in ages finally calls and asks to get lunch.
The list can go on and on and before you know it, hours can go by without getting so much as ten minutes of work done.
Now if you are at work in an office or school or anywhere really, and you end up sifting through Facebook for a few minutes, you’re still getting paid.
When you work from home, you only get paid for what you do. And in the beginning, it takes a lot of work.
Time is no longer money, but the effort and hard work and discipline are what makes the moolah.
You need to be able to focus and cut out distractions. You have to have a game plan, set goals and work hard to achieve those goals. Discipline is essential to be successful working from home.
2. Drive
In order to be successful working from home, you will need a strong sense of drive.
This is where setting goals is crucial and the drive to stick to those goals will make or break your income.
Sometimes, I like to call this character trait hard-headed and hard-working.
If you have the drive to set out to accomplish your goals each and every day, despite setbacks and failures, you will find a way to make it work.
3. Love of Learning
This is one of my biggest character strengths. I absolutely love learning. I love when I find something I enjoy and dig into books, articles, courses and all that I can get my hands on to learn it well.
If you want to make an income online, not only will you have to learn something new - like blogging, and you will have to keep learning it.
Things are constantly changing. Every few years, new things come into play. I remember when online courses were just starting to take off. Now everyone has them and you have to learn what is unique and create something different that people will engage with.
In an ever-changing market, you will need to constantly be learning how to grow an income working from home.
4. Confidence
This is a trait that I slowly took on once I started working from home. It may take time to build this, but as most people say, you’re going to have to fake it til you make it.
You have to believe in yourself if you’re going to make an income online.
The market is saturated, there are thousands of other blogs on the same topic and thousands of other people trying to do exactly what you’re doing.
If you don’t believe you’ll make it, chances are, you won’t. So take some time to focus on believing in yourself.
Answer the question, why are you unique? And how can your unique gifts and skills benefit others?
You do have something unique to offer, everyone does. It just takes some soul-searching and focus to find that niche.
5. Guts
It will take a lot of guts to work from home.
Not only will you probably fail, but you will probably fail over and over again.
But know this, most people who are successful working from home fail more times than they can count! Some of the biggest bloggers and online business owners I know have failed over and over and that’s what taught them how to succeed.
It takes bravery and guts to get up and keep trying when things are looking impossible. It takes bravery and guts to give something yet another try when it has failed before.
But as you overcome that failure, you will learn to thrive. As you take chances over and over, you will learn how to succeed.
If you work from home or are considering working from home, take time to journal through each of these character traits.
Some of them may come more naturally, but all of them can be honed and cultivated.
As yourself questions like how do I display this trait in my life already? What specific thing can I do to grow this trait today?
Practice, practice and get out there and try! Your dreams are waiting. If you want to be successful working from home, find the courage to boldly chase after your dreams.
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You definitely have to be a self-starter to work from home! It’s so easy to find excuses to not work.
I am finding that discipline and GUTS are the two biggest things for me.
interesting the traits you chose. this was a good read!
All of this is so true and so ME! Love that you were able to define this.
This is a good read, I am still figuring out number one because this girl right here can procrastinate like it’s nobody’s business😂😜 thanks for sharing this. I will keep putting 1 on my new year new me plan lol
I wholeheartedly agree with all of these. I have been working from home since 2014. If you don’t have discipline, you in trouble, sista!! That’s the biggest one to me. Haha
Before I started working from home, I vastly underestimated the amount of guts I would need. This is such a good list! I wish I had read it earlier.
Whoo hoo! I have all of those?? Ha! I agree with this post, but only because it makes me look so good. 🙂
Working from home definitely has a lot of challenges. Thank you for laying these out. I think it helps to see them written down so I can see areas I need to continue to improve on!
discipline is probably my top thing! It takes so much to be able to make yourself work. I am a WAHM and with my kids I have to set a schedule and stick to it.
I have strongly been considering working from home, if possible. If I choose to do so next year, I’ll keep these tips in mind!
Working from home is so fun but I definitely agree with everything you said here! Discipline is the hardest part for me, especially as a mom when I have so many distractions and things to do!