Did you know that some people aren't successful telecommuters simply because they are trying to work from home for the wrong reasons? Indeed, most prospective telecommuters fail in their goal because they are focused on the wrong reasons to want to work from home. They tend to be 'self-focused' rather than focused on the employer's needs. In order to be truly successful, you must first change the way you think about working from home. 

 

You must realize that you are not the one who decides where you are going to work from. Ultimately, it is the employer who must agree to hire you to work from your home. If you approach your work at home goal slightly differently and start thinking like your employer would, you will be far better able to get a telecommuting position. You will have placed yourself outside of your own needs and will be focused on your employer's needs! 

 

Think about this concept for a minute; really think about it. If you truly want to be successful as a telecommuter, you must step outside of yourself. You must start thinking like your prospective client. You must stop thinking about your own needs and start thinking about what your prospective employer needs from you. 

 

This one simple concept is a critically missing component of most job search efforts. Most jobseekers make the biggest mistakes by approaching prospective clients or employers with clearly selfish motivations showing. Instead of saying "My services may be valuable to you because ___," they approach employers with "I want the job because I need ___."

 

If you think about it, haven't we all been guilty of doing exactly this at one time or the other? We are all essentially selfish creatures. It is the nature of the human condition. It takes a lot of struggle and effort to change our mind set so that we focus on the needs of others rather than our own. It's not something that happens overnight, but if you consciously will yourself to switch your focus, you will find that you begin to approach everything in life with a whole new vision! Your eyes begin to open with awareness of what is really going on around you. See how different your future can be, simply by turning yourself into an empathic telecommuter. 

 

In other words, if you start acting like an empathic telecommuter, you will "Put yourself into your customer's shoes and try and imagine what he or she needs." 

 

It’s time for you to start to train your mind to forget all about why you want to work from home and start to focus on why your potential customer needs you to work from your professional home office.

 

This simple "turn of the mind" will transform every aspect of your life! You will find that success and money come more easily to you and your prospective customers will sense that you really care about their needs. They will have more trust in your ability to go beyond what they expect of you. 

 

Believe it or not, when you become an empathic telecommuter, you will never again need to search for the right opportunities, because you will find that all the right opportunities will be drawn to you!

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This article is excerpted from “You Can Work in Your PJs”, a real world guide to telecommuting. Sylvie Charrier works from home full time and wrote this book to share her unique techniques with others. You can download your copy of “You Can Work in Your PJs” by visiting http://www.inyourpjs.com =================================================