I would love to hear your impressions of this call!

Well, I think if we can see problems, we can also see possibilities – and potential positives. We can fathom ways to overcome roadblocks and be confident in our abilities to deal with all the problems and/or reasons why it won’t work.

Don’t get me wrong. I’m not advocating flying by the seat of your pants with any old work at home scheme. I’m all for doing the research, making wise business decisions, and making a sound investment of time, energy and money into a solid option. But once that’s done, focus on possibilities instead of problems as a work at home mom.

You may have to persist at things that involve you only but you don’t particularly enjoy, and you may have to persist at actions (like phone calls and presentations) by which you hope to engage another person. In the latter case, another key word to remember is effort. You are responsible for your effort. You are not responsible for the outcome (which in these cases is dependent on another person’s behavior). As long as you persist in putting forth the effort, you succeed! Regardless of what the other person says, thinks, or decides. You win!

It is a completely logical conclusion to draw, but it sure can be hard to remember when your effort is met with repeated “no”s. That’s where the work at home mom draws on her resilience and inner strength (qualities that are a given for our breed). You DO have them – draw on them and let them shine. Congratulate your victory in making the persistent effort, no matter what the outcome!!

I have been surprised, though, to learn that I needed a 1-800 number, as they’re called, much less than I expected in my work at home mom field. I think the primary reasons are twofold: (1) with the increasing role of the internet, I have found myself communicating with my customers (and them with me) by e-mail more and more; and (2) as cell phones have become more widely used, with “unlimited minutes” packages common, people seem to be using “land lines” more infrequently. There is no charge to them to call my regular phone number (or my cell number), so the need for a free way to call me disappears. Now, I don’t have any statistics to back that up; I’m just commenting on what I have observed.

Technological advances have made it easier and easier to be a work at home mom, methinks. Here’s another example – you may not have to concern yourself with getting a toll free number. But if you do, they’re easy to obtain (check with your long distance carrier) and relatively inexpensive.

But I was sort of taken aback that the thrust of the article was about the controversy among some very successful mommy bloggers. Blogger A not liking what Blogger B had to say about motherhood. Blogger B responding in kind. And so on. Yikes! That is so not my style.

If what a mommy blogger has to say doesn’t resonate with me, I probably won’t return to that blog, but I would feel no compulsion to shout out my perspective. I don’t agree with every work at home mom blog out there, but so what?! I have much better things to do with my time than to be sure that disagreement is known far and wide.

That type of competitive culture does not appeal to me and that’s one of the reasons I am SO happy with the company with whom I work at home. Technically, all of us who represent the company could be considered competitors, but the culture of the company just doesn’t cultivate that. We are on a common mission, we support one another, and we believe that, at a certain level, when one succeeds, we all succeed.

I recently read The 8 Habits of Highly Effective Bloggers at copyblogger.com, and while some were particular to the craft of writing, many of those habits apply to all of us who work at home. Persistency. Consistency. Planning. Being a self-starter. Yep, those are all critical to work at home success, wouldn’t you agree? You can get more inspiration on all those fronts at the original post.

Any harm done in gazing over the fence occasionally to check the grass color? Anything wrong with daydreaming about the patches of green that surely are there? Only, I think, if I let that derail me. If I spent hours of time at it, I would later be frustrated beyond belief by the consequences of that time usage. After all, I CAN return to the corporate world if I so choose and the choice is mine.

So if it’s truly a consideration, all I have to do is (mentally) put myself there for a brief period of time. I wouldn’t be at home right now. I’d be doing someone else’s bidding on their schedule. I would have to answer to others (in addition to myself). How does that feel? No thanks. My independent streak bristles at the very thought.

This exercise works for me. You can do the same thing if you’re contemplating the transition from employee to work at home mom, just reverse the tables. Imagine yourself working at home. How does it feel? You probably don’t have enough particulars to think about what it would look like. Just focus on the feeling. Go ahead – flirt with being a work at home mom .

Wow – when I try to look at it from the outside, it almost sounds too good to be true. Can one woman with nonmom skills and a mother’s heart really have all that? Well, regardless of how it sounds, I’m living proof that it IS true. And if it can be true for me, it can be true for you!