Footsteps to Freedom was started by Christo A. Scheepers in 2017 when he left full-time employment to enter the world of self-employment and freelancing. It began as the theme of his website at ChristoScheepers.com but evolved to become the official blog on ChristoScheepers.com towards the end of 2021 as the year 2022 is about to be entered.
Full-time employment is often a security blanket as it provides a fixed salary at the end of the month whether you work for it or just sit around; you are ensured of what you will be earning at the end of the month and you can plan and budget accordingly. That is not the case when self-employed, a freelancer or running your own business because then you live within the constant uncertainty of whether there will be enough finances at the end of the month to pay all the expenses.
The big difference between full-time employment and self-employment is the amount of freedom associated with it. When full-time employed, your freedom is restricted, and you have to work specific hours and you do not have the freedom to just attend to personal matters like renewing a driver’s license or attending a sporting event at your child’s school or even going to the doctor for a consultation quickly; you first need permission from your employer. Some employers are so controlling that they even expect you to sign a leave form for a few minutes when you arrive late for work, whether it was your own fault for oversleeping or matters out of your control like traffic due to an accident on the highway. That is a lack of freedom where you have to answer about your time to your employer.
Self-employment offers much more freedom of your time and you do not answer up to any employer, although you can sometimes be your own worst employer because although you have the freedom to attend school events, make appointments and run errands during business hours, you are also fully aware of the fact that you do not earn anything if you do not work and therefore it is not strange if you would work long hours and hours far exceeding the normal eight hour business day full-time employees work. In self-employment, you have freedom of your time, as long as you do your part and work to earn, however, with that freedom comes the additional stressors of uncertainty about what you will earn every month as income is dependent on work completed.
There is a song with the words, “freedom is just another word for nothing left to lose”, which is a very interesting statement because often people are keen to leave full-time employment to avoid answering to an employer, but once self-employed and have time available, freedom often seems like a distant dream when you are unable to earn the income needed to cover monthly expenses and to live a comfortable life. When you do not have enough income, you are also lacking freedom because it seems like having sufficient finances adds to the sense of freedom people experience.
Footsteps to Freedom is a blog on ChristoScheepers.com that will empower people with thought-provoking content in order for you to experience freedom in all areas of your life. In a Ph.D.-degree thesis Christo A. Scheepers completed in 2003, he indicated that a person consists of seven dimensions, namely the spiritual dimension, the emotional dimension, the physical dimension, the sexual dimension, the social dimension, the financial dimension, and finally the profession dimension. Footsteps to Freedom attempts to provide content relating to all these aspects, empowering you to experience freedom holistically to live a life of purpose amidst the challenges that life has to offer.
Please enjoy Footsteps to Freedom.
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Christo A. Scheepers
B.Th., M.B.A., D.R.T.P., Ph.D. Candidate
B.Min.(Cum Laude), M.Min.(Cum Laude), Ph.D., D.Nat.Med.
Tel. 072-800 7243
www.christoscheepers.com
info@christoscheepers.com