Carlee here - who else? :P
Last week some of my family and I went to New Hampshire to see the land my partner and I purchased back in January. I'm excited that soon - after 8 months of prep and, of course, waiting for winter to end - we finally are making some progress on developing our land. Before winter we'll have a driveway leading up to the forest that we will soon call our home away from home.
Needless to say I am stoked!
And, while we were up in NH, something else happened....
We drove up Mt. Washington for the first time.
Now if you're not familiar with this mountain, Mt. Washington is literally THE tallest mountain in all of the northeast US at a whopping 6,288.2 feet.
And let me tell you, the drive up that mountain was terrifying.
At some points you could look down out of the window of the car and not see any road...just a steep drop. On top of that, I wasn't the one driving. No control in a risky situation? AHHHHH.
There were even times when another car was coming down the mountain and we had to pull over EVEN CLOSER TO THE LEDGE and wait for them to pass by before resuming our ascent.
You might be able to guess where my brain went as soon as I looked down...
It was making up all sorts of terrifying stories about how we'll never make it to the top of the mountain.
Of course, we made it to the top. It was beautiful and SO rewarding to have done so. We got to see some of the most beautiful views I have seen in my entire life...I'm telling you, truly beautiful. Sublime, even.
Here's the thing I can't shake...
...How similar this experience is to running a business.
The journey of building a business can be terrifying. (That's for damn sure).
There are times when we need to stop and rest.
Times when we need to step back and let our team members RISE to the occasion and run the ship.
There are times when our minds go wild telling us all sorts of crazy stories about how we'll never make it.
But when we get to where we're going, we can look back and be SO GLAD we did it.
Not just that we got to the top - succeeded in business (whatever that means to you) - but also that we enjoyed the journey along the way. Because these moments, right now, are some of the most beautiful views you will experience in your life...
That is if we can befriend our fear.
Fear, uncontrolled and left to run the show, triggers fight, flight or freeze mode which basically takes away our ability to effectively solve problems.
Believe me, I know this one too well.
I used to let fear run the show and would make self-sabotaging decisions like choosing to work myself to the bone, work myself into exhaustion, work until I got sick, work until I lost that sense of awe, creativity and the juice that makes my business successful and exciting in the first place.
And it's at this point that we tell ourselves, "I just can't do this anymore." or we think, "Maybe I just give up and get a job like everyone else."
The sad truth is that fear and doubt have killed many more dreams than failing ever has. Fear leads us to overwork, to exhaustion, to getting sick and our bodies putting their foot down (no pun intended) and saying "NO MORE."
Taking care of ourselves is the most important thing we can do. Doing REAL self-care - managing our fear, our emotions, those stories our ego minds like to play on repeat - so we can run our businesses from our strengths. So we can get to the top and make the impact and the income we've always desired...AND we're alive and well to enjoy it.
So if you're not sure what the hell REAL self-care is, I invite you to join me on October 1st for the Self(ish) Philly Conference, THE self-care conference for women in the Philadelphia Area that I just so happened to co-found. Click here to grab your ticket. Because your ability to take care of yourself can truly make or break your business.
It's time to take care of you so you can make the impact and income you've always desired (and I personally know you deserve).