Reflections On My Year So Far

At the beginning of August, I took some time to reflect on the first half of the year. This Louisa May Alcott quote came to mind:

I am not afraid of storms for I am learning how to sail my ship.

January through June have been about learning how to sail my business ship with the brilliant Kim Argetsinger by my side.

Business ship is very much a metaphor for life ship, because having been in business for myself, for over a decade, I know my business reflects back EVERYTHING about me.

The biggest things Kim helped me to get clarity about was knowing which problems were the right problems to solve and how to stop creating problems that didn't exist.

My goal is to have a fully-booked 1:1 coaching business that makes 5+ figures every month.

What's your goal? Do you know what problems you need to solve in order to reach your goal? Or, are you running around being busy and helpful but you feel a little lost and exhausted, wondering why being helpful is taking a toll, and, on top of it all, you're still not where you wanna be?

It could be a relationship that continues to feel strained and you don't know how to change it. Maybe you lead a team and your culture needs a boost but you're not sure how. Or, maybe you feel disillusioned with your life wondering why everything looks good on paper but you're not feeling excited when you wake up in the morning.

I learned that I was busy solving the wrong problems and to boot, I learned there were many I was creating.

For example, someone recently offered me a website audit and previous to these 6 months I would have thought, oh yeah, that’s a good idea. Because surely, as a business owner, my website needs to be optimized and as good as it can be.

Yet, traffic through my website isn’t the strategy I’m using to build out my customer pipeline. So it isn't the right problem to be solving.

And I swear, I didn’t know that.

I’ll give you another example.

I used to put on my own events. I was good at them, I always got great feedback and it was a great way to heighten my visibility.

Here’s what really happened.

My best strategy at my events was HOPE. I’d hope my speaking was impactful enough that it would make someone want to reach out and hire me. Fun fact: it usually didn’t because I wasn't strategically inviting them to take a next step.

As a result, I was left feeling grateful because I knew I made an impact, AND exhausted, disillusioned and lost because it didn't lead to any growth.

This seems so obvious now and I swear I didn't know how to do it differently.

Being in business has brought many a stormy night. Like I mentioned earlier, I created some of those storms because I was scared to let go of the chaos in my mind and let life be easy and good.

If you're anything like my clients, you have a lot of outward success and, on the inside, you're scared to let go and prioritize feeling good over achieving more, even when you've already got the "achieving more" part down.

I'm proud of the storms because they taught me to be resourceful, patient and resilient.

Now, I’m sailing this ship and I'm ready for what lies ahead, storms and all. I'm well-resourced to not whip up any storms simply because they are familiar. I'm learning how to curate my own smooth waters and let life feel really, really good.

I promise you that you can stop wasting your time on unimportant problems and learn how to solve the right problems that will let you have your success cake, eat it, and enjoy it, too! Because what's the point if you're not feeling great along the ride of YOUR life?

Everything in your life will prosper including your business (if you have one), all of your relationships, your success and your everyday impact. Life's too short to not love who you are and invest in feeling as good as you can.

Loving who you are isn't a nice-to-have. It's the whole enchilada in this wonderful life you live.

With Love,

Sarah x