Eight years ago today, I pulled the last few things off my desk at work, put them in a box, and headed to the elevator bank one last time. I had been at my corporate job for 12 years (minus a year stint hopping around) and was setting merrily off to start my own business. I had put out my shingle and I. WAS. READY.
I have learned a lifetime of lessons in those years about building and running my own business. And I’ve shared some of those in past blogs.
But after these years, I’m starting to see that the most important lessons are the ones I’ve learned about myself personally but also as a human walking this earth:
My ego can save me or sink me. And it’s up to me which way that cookie crumbles. When my ego is feeling healthy and strong, it reminds me I can do more than I think, pushes me to reach just that little bit further, and tells me to go for it! But in its tired or weak moments, it tells me to hurry, if I don’t work harder everything will fall apart, and everyone will know I have no business being in business.
Like life, business ebbs and flows. But also like life, business needs you to keep showing up every day, day after day, to put one foot in front of the other. There are seasons within a year and seasons within a business. In my life, I still show up to exercise each morning, no matter what the season. Sometimes it changes – in winter when it’s raining, I may do a little indoor circuit on my stationary bike and some HIIT reps, whereas summer will find me out on the trail for a run. But the point is, I’m out there, every day, in some form. Life, and business, wait for no one.
Sometimes the disappointments that sting the most are the ones we end up being most grateful for later on. Things rarely go exactly how we planned or how we wanted, and sometimes those deviations can feel earth-shattering. It’s only in retrospect (after time has passed…and sometimes it’s a lot more time that we would have liked…) that we are able to see it was all part of what got us to that next big thing.
A life best lived is one that is frequently re-examined. Business is no different. Am I doing the things that I am most called to do? How do others respond to how I show up? Can I learn and adjust and still hold onto what matters most to me?
What are the lessons in your life you are most grateful for?
