I was chatting to someone this morning who is in their Happy Business Start-Up phase. However, the Happy part may be pushing it a bit, their tears pretty much gave it away.
Like many who are creating their passion in the form of ‘a business they have come to the beautiful, unplanned, unexpected and often painful part where they’re realising the enormity of what starting a business really means: all the parts that need to connect, how they need to connect and – the biggie – the gaps in skills because to do teeny tiny A, they have to have done great big this, this and this first, and they haven’t a clue how to do this.
I remember that stage well.
It was the day I was sitting on the kitchen floor, I was sobbing my little old sorry self into a tea towel because I genuinely didn’t know what to do. I was bringing the business online after 5 years with no website, and I hadn’t got a clue in what order things happened.
I was, I thought, out my depth.
That all the little parts would never float together to create the big picture.
Add to that the amount I was reading along the lines of, ‘Do this, or you’ll die!’ didn’t help much at all.
I had huge expectations in my planning and goals that by a certain date all my webbysite dreams would be done, finished, completed, in perfect working order.
No delays. No hiccups. No massive learning curves.
Ah, how naive. A fantasy. The reality was very different. Is still different today.
You have all the resources you need for what you need to do now.
But, to get things done, you have to know how far you can stretch them, and when you need to look outside yourself for help.
Sure, we can work on our goals 24/7 but that doesn’t mean we are 100% any use or productive to the goals in that time, or that life is really being lived.
We can keep it real by accepting distractions will probably pop up, we may need to go a different path in order to learn something that is needed for the goal long-term, not a short-term quick fix.
We may need to put a goal down, pick up another, then return to the original one because it’s the only way to move forward. And that’s okay. It is. It is okay.
How long does it take to reach a goal? When you’re done with it or you don’t want it anymore.
“It seems so impossible to believe that your best time in life exists at no other time and in no other place than the present. But this is another vital part of your strategy that you must have in order to rebuild a better life: You must let go of what’s happened, forget about what could happen, and take charge of your present. There is only one moment in which you can experience anything, and that moment is “now,” so don’t throw away your time by dwelling on past or future experiences, by living in moments other than the current ones.” Art E. Beg
If it’s taking longer than expected. Who says that’s not okay?
Sometimes we have to be brave with ourselves and lower our over-optimistic expectations just a little (yes, I did just say that, but I didn’t say lower your goals and dreams).
Allow yourself the time and space to embrace the new.
Understand it.
Remember why you are creating.
Know in your heart the reason why you started <- and that’s the core, as long as everything aligns with that, you will find a way through.
Love.
Dawn xxx
