Self-Employed Celebration & Wine Chart

When you work for yourself, it’s easy to move on to the The Next Big Thing before taking ample time to reward yourself for your accomplishments.  The antidote?  A bit of kindness.  And maybe some help from the below handy guide to wine to discover new flavors as you celebrate.

Being your own boss is more than slightly schizophrenic.  Not only are you your own manager and employee, but you probably detect both a “bad cop” and “good cop” boss personality.

• “Bad cop boss” pushes you to your limits, makes you put in the extra hours the project needs, and pushes you to bring your A-game even when you’re exhausted.  Bad cop boss has no sympathy.  Bad cop boss is like the tough teacher at school or the personal fitness trainer with the personality of a pitbull.
• “Good cop boss” is more in tune to you. While bad cop boss watches the goal and getting you to the finish line, good cop boss is a people manager.  The motto of good cop boss is “Don’t manage the work, manage the people doing the work and the work will get done.”  Good cop boss watches whether the beads of sweat on your forehead are the result of a healthy internal furnace or strain.  This boss knows you’re in a marathon and not to burn you out.

You remember good teachers and bad teachers.  You remember good bosses and bad bosses.  What would it mean if you could be the ideal boss for yourself?

Well, one way to start is to recognize your own accomplishments.  When you hit a milestone, it’s so easy to move on to the next project, the next client, or the next Big Deal before you’ve taken pause.  Appreciate the good work that you do for yourself.  Look back and see the terrain you’ve climbed.  Give yourself a pat on the back (literally, right now, if you’re overdue for one).   Be a good boss to yourself and speak kind words and compliments about the great work that you’ve done.

And as you’re doing so, perhaps discover (and share) a new bottle of wine.  There are over 1,300 wine grapes available.  So how do you find new wines you like?  The chart below is organized by style then flavor.  To use the chart, simply find the name of a wine you like and consider similar tasting wines.  Enjoy!

Thanks to winefolly.com for this great infographic!