Just Go A Little Bit Further!

I had an experience the other day that felt like a metaphor for my life. I was driving down a road I often get confused on. There are twists and turns that make it a challenge to remember which way to go.  I started feeling like I had made a wrong turn. I thought, “I’ll just go a little further and see.” Which I did. Ultimately though I doubted myself & turned around in favor of the “safe way”  I was familiar with.

The safe way meant I added extra time, travel & aggravation to my day.  The funny thing is I realized the very spot I turned around at was a mere 100 yards away from landmarks I would have recognized as having been the right way to go.  If I had only gone just a little bit longer…

This felt like a metaphor for my business.  I had been feeling discouraged that day.  I was driving thinking about all the work that needed doing. Overwhelm set in & I started questioning if I was making the right decisions purusing this dream? I have made tremendous strides over the year but it didn’t feel like enough. I have been working really hard.  I was tired and felt very alone in my journey.

These thoughts came to an abrupt halt once I figured out I had been so close to successfully nagivating the road I was traveling. I had quit moments before I experienced the breakthrough. We have all heard the saying, “It’s always darkest before the dawn.” I decided right there & then I wouldn’t quit my business no matter how tired or hopeless I felt. I would solider on. Victory goes to the decided heart!  I would work smarter not harder.

A few days later I was presented with an opportunity that could really take my business to the next level. What if I had quit that day? I would never have known.  I want to encourage you in your business journey to have a decided heart. You never know when you are just around the corner of success!

Revolving Door Mentality

I have been very busy writing my book due out in Spring 2009.  Today as I typed away I added some thoughts from millionaire mom, Nancy Bogart from www.jordanessentials.com. She is an incredible mom and business woman.

At the beginning of her journey running her bath, body and spa business she found herself surprised whenever someone in her company left. She explained to me, “Not everyone will love your dream like you do. If you are the owner, you really do care more than anyone else.  It never occurred to me people who were with me in the beginning would ever leave.  I had to learn to get over how I felt when this happened. ”

She went on to say,  “There are seasons in life and ways of life.  A season of life is temporary and short term.  A way of life is confidence, strength, purpose and vision.  Seasons come and go, be sure to keep the main thing, the main thing, and that is Love.  Nothing is greater and strive to be loving to someone as they end a season with you. You never know what will happen in the future. A good friend once told me to have a revolving door on your business and life.  Let people come and go as long as it is healthy. Living life with this mentality will lead to an abundance of people in your life.”

I love the concept of a revolving door with relationships. Instead of burning bridges or passing judgement let’s  strive to understand everyone has different needs, wants and desires. This does not make them “wrong” for not seeing things your way. This is a beautiful metaphor. I hope you recall the next time you feel the sting of someone exiting your life whether in business or personally. Love abundantly and create rather than react. These are two things at the top of my to do list for 2009!

Mom Entrepreneurs Are Like Sharks?

Have you ever wondered if you were an animal what type of animal you’d be? OK, maybe not but I have after observing a man with a dog that just seemed to have his essence. You’ve seen people who sorta ”go” with their animals. Here’s another couple of random questions: ”What would you name yourself if you could have picked your name?” ”What grade do you think your future son or daughter in law is in right now?” These are questions I have developed to zen myself in stressful situations (like the 35 minute wait at the post office yesterday). Read my post on happiness to gather more information on this subject. I have satisfactorily answered these riveting questions for myself. If you have any interesting or humorous ones to share by all means post it. We could all use a few more mental mini-vacations! 

My youngest sister came over last night for an impromptu visit. She unsolicited offered an answer to the “What kind of animal” question. It turns out I’d be considered a marine vertebrate (a/k/a “shark”).

She walked in the door with a bottle of wine. I shouted out, “Party is in the laundry room!” as I was folding clothes.  I am trained like Pavlov’s dog to the dryer. If I hear it beep I will race from wherever I am to get those clothes out and folded/hung. I don’t iron so its our clothes only hope of being presentable. Afterwards, she watched me feed the kids, answer questions about homework, discipline my 5 year old for walking on the coffee table barefoot. Besides being dangerous how do you explain footprints on a newly polished coffee table? I let the housekeeper go in an effort to force myself to train 3 boys how to keep a house. I created the tagline ”Team Bone” for ourselves to help build camaraderie for moments like this weekend when all five of us went nuts cleaning together. We scrubbed walls, toilets, the dog. Anything that was dirty got handled.

It was a typical night at our house-lots of activity. My husband is out of town so I had to handle it all. We normally ”divide and conquer” especially if I have a guest over. I started showing her various business projects I am working on one of which required a tv.  We went into my bedroom and she noted I was painting it and asked “Why?” I pointed to the nasty booger stain on the wall (Why use a tissue when you can use your mom’s bedroom wall?) and to the hole in the wall where the doorknob was smashed into the drywall after a particularly energetic burst of “Chase and kill your brother” spilled over into my room. The booger stain on the wall (which is gone now I promise) did it for my sister…she had a mouthful of red wine that darn near came out of her nose. She managed to spit it into the glass before rolling on the bed in peels of laughter. FYI and fair warning: I have a talent for making people shoot liquids out their face. In fact, I used to make my younger brother blow milk out his nose at least once a week at dinner with my stories. The Irish are known for their storytelling abilities. To this day he won’t drink milk around me. It was then that she said, “You know your like a shark. You are constantly moving.”  I am constantly moving. I wasn’t sure I wanted to fall into the shark category as they don’t conjure up a warm and fuzzy, do they? I’ve done my best not to encounter one since Jaws worked its psychological magic of keeping all kids born in the late 60’s and 70’s out of ocean water. However, there are some similarities between sharks and mompreneurs. They are constantly moving and so are we. They bounce on opportunity when presented and so do we. They will rip you to shreds if you threaten their young and so will we! According to Wikipedia, sharks are rarely observed mating…perhaps another similarity? lol! Of course, I like to think we are also like a warm puppy….you can read my earlier post on that one!