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The first time I entered the freelancing field, I was in the middle of reviewing for my engineering licensure exam. I was 21 and had just graduated from University and I had a crisis. My phone broke and I needed to have a functional one. I didn’t want to ask for money from my parents because we were just making ends meet then and a new phone was something we couldn’t afford. So I thought up a plan to earn money for it and I had a laptop and an internet connection and that’s when I decided to find a job online.

As a rookie in the online job world, I didn’t know where to start. I researched and asked friends for help and advice. I created a profile on onlinejobs.ph and that’s when I started building my online portfolio. I offered my writing skills and was hired by a publishing company that translated books. It was a job with meagre pay but it sufficed as it abled me to raise the amount of money I needed to purchase a new phone. I was amazed then that I could make money, actual money using my skills over the internet.

And that was actually the start of my online career. I went job-hopping a few years in between but ultimately, I ended up solidifying my place as a content writer and built my skills around that over the years.

There are a lot of things you can do should you decide to find work online. Whatever skills you have, you can hone them and offer them to people who need help.

As a writer, I needed to learn how to write for sales and marketing’s sake. I needed to learn new things that I can put into my pieces so that they will persuade people to buy and actually convert potential customers into actual buying customers. And I did that slowly and gradually.

I took online courses, watched a lot of skillshare videos and listened to relevant podcasts to stay updated with the field I’m working in. There is so much to learn and if you really want to upskill, you can. Because in this day, the resources you need are available online, you just have to find the right ones for you.

And this applies to everyone, not only to those who are working remotely like me. This applies to people in every field. Singers take vocal lessons to improve their singing, actors attend boot camps to hone their acting skills, engineers attend workshops to upgrade their knowledge, and so many other professionals attend trainings and seminars to review and learn more about what they do.

Learning is never-ending and this is where I say that in order for you to improve and take yourself to the next level, you need to invest in yourself.

Investing in yourself does not only mean buying the latest gadgets to have better tools to do your work, although that’s part of it. But also, investing in yourself means allotting time and effort to upgrade your skills. Take the time to consume educational and informational content you can find online, whether they be videos or blogs or books. Take the time to learn more. Be teachable because you improve when you allow other people to teach you things.

I’ve always been self-sufficient and though it took me far, I realized that I also need help from the outside as well if I want to make more improvements in myself. I realized that one of the most impactful ways that I can be taught, that I can learn, is by hearing other people’s feedback towards my work. I like feedback, they are like a meter of sorts. Something measurable that I can tweak.

So yeah, the whole point of all my babbles in this episode is just to remind you that there is always room for improvement, that you can always improve. If you want to be better at something, learn more about it. Study and find more resources to back you up. Watch helpful videos about it, read books about it, and attend workshops and trainings. Maybe even pay for online classes. Or attend events. You can go so far with the knowledge you have. After all, this knowledge is something we always use to go through life.

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Thank you for listening to The Single Millennial, once again this is Alexis, your host. It’s been a while since my last update but things have been busy and motivation has come and gone. But I’m here now. Thanks again for giving me your time to listen in on this episode, I hope you had learned a little something from me. Till next time. Stay healthy, wealthy, and happy. bye~

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