There’s so much overlap in the lessons of my personal and entrepreneurial journeys, that I thought I’d take a minute to reflect on these last 19 years, and some of the lessons that came with them.
New Beginnings Are Always Possible
In August of 1998, I was 17 and had just moved out of my mom’s house, across the country, with only a bus ticket and $500. I’d been on my own for a month and a half when I turned 18, and was starting fresh… new life, new place, new beginnings.
In the years that have followed, I’ve worked hard to leave my past behind and continuously reinvent myself. This is less from the artificial pretending I came from different roots place, and more from this hunger to really find out who I really was. I graduated from college twice, first in radio broadcasting, then in client relationship marketing. I built a career in marketing and sales in corporate, re-connected with my spirituality, worked in alternative health, started an aromatherapy business then found myself were I am today, where I feel more aligned than ever.
Without going into too much detail (but it will all be in the book I’ve started writing), had I not gotten on that bus, my life would’ve been drastically different. I have the good fortune to have my very own Sliding Doors moment, I am so grateful that I had the courage to begin, and re-begin, until I found myself where I am now.
It’s okay for others to not understand you.
If you know what you want to do and why, that’s all that matters. I had a lot of resistance from my dad when I wanted to move to BC. He couldn’t figure out why a new start meant moving across the country. When I had my breakdown and had to reevaluate everything in my life, how I expended my energy, even who I spent time with, a lot of people didn’t understand. And it was hard to articulate, since it was more of a knowing, and frankly, self-preservation, than it was an informed decision. When I started integrating the woo into my design business, because creativity wasn’t enough – I wanted to help people live their purpose and it meant living mine, there were peeps left scratching their heads.
Because I am guided by this unshakeable knowing, it’s easy for me to do what I’ve got to do. (Okay, not always EASY, but you know what I mean.) The biggest lie the ego has me believe is “I don’t know”. Beyond the knowing is also a willingness to be on the outside, to not be understood, and to be okay with that. To have the knowing be enough
There’s no such thing as ready.
Try as you might to get every duck in a row, there will always be something you can do, adjust, tweak before it’s perfect. Start before you’re ready. Take the leap, the plunge, whatever other cliche I can throw your way. Don’t let not being ready stop you.
Let me be clear, this is not advice to be reckless. I’m not saying throw away your job with no savings and hope for the best, or gamble your rent money because you think today’s your day to win the lottery. I’m saying to not let perfection stop you from taking the first step.
Was a 3-day bus trip with only $500 the wisest way to start a move across the country? Hell no. But it was sadly, better than the alternative. When I started my aromatherapy business, I spent wayyyy too much money on making it perfect. I invested in professional packaging, heat and pressure seals, custom printing and so on. And now, years later, my cupboard is still full of packaging that never turned into product for sale. (I’m actually giving a ton away right now so I can close this chapter for good). You don’t need the perfect website, the expensive letterhead, and the high end coach to get started. I’ve witnessed SO MANY WOMEN hold off moving forward because they’re busy tweaking their fucking logos. Your clients don’t give a shit about your logo, they care about how you’re going to help. Don’t let your fear of failure or success, disguised as unreadiness, get in the way of helping your people.
You Are Good. You Are Worthy. You Are Deserving.
Full disclosure: this isn’t a lesson I’ve learned just over the last 19 years. I think worthiness is the biggest life lesson I’ve had for this entire lifetime. And some days I’ve learned it better than others, because I’m human, and life happens – we’re all works in progress.
There is nothing quite so vulnerable as starting a business. And if you don’t become an overnight success, there is nothing that will trigger feelings of unworthiness faster. It’s one of those things that’s so obvious on the outside, I saw it in my brain clients, and I see it in my coaching clients today, but when it’s you? When it’s YOUR feelings of unworthiness flaring up, it can be hard to be objective.
Your sales, your followers, your post engagement do not define you.
You are not any less worthy of love and joy if you don’t make the sale, land the big client, break records.
You are a child of the Divine, and that is more than enough to make you worthy and deserving. I promise.
Final Thoughts
There’s of course more I could add… 19 years is over half my life. There will be more in my book (due out sometime in the NEXT 19 years, hahaha), but this is it for now. From now until Monday, I’ll be spending time thinking about what I want to let go of to start this next chapter so fresh and so clean, clean. Then I’m gonna BURN it all down… cause fire’s my favourite way to transmute mucky mojo – especially on a full moon.
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