Are you doing what you want with your life?
I know it’s a big question. And I know it’s a question that you can break down into categories.
However, for just these next few moments, don’t think about the parts of your life that you can answer yes about. Nor, don’t consider that you’re sort of doing what you want with your life or that you’re close. For the next few moments just answer the question – honestly – yes or no. Don’t qualifiy, justify or clarify it at all – just yes or no.
For me, personally, the answer is no. May sound odd since I have pretty rich life. But I’m not doing exactly what I want with my life. I’m successfully self-employed, with a mountian of business opportunities in front of me that should keep us very comfortable in our crazy economy. I’ve been blessed with three phenomenal children, each who have their own way of turning my rainy days into sunny ones. And my wife… beautiful – I love the way her eyes soften when she smiles, loving, articulate, intelligent, amazing cook, and an incredible mom. Wouldn’t ask for anything different in my family.
Yet there’s things I’m not settled on in my life. For instance, neither my wife nor I are even remotely interested in living in Michigan any longer. We want to raise our kids in the outdoors, close to mountains, streams, forests and the ocean. We both love the outdoors and want it to be our kid’s playground. So we’re looking for the right place to settle down. Seems like a small thing, but it’s pretty important to us.
My business is another story. We could live a comfortable life for years to come with doing what I’m doing right now – consulting and coaching small business owners on how to use the web to develop and grow their business. But I’m not fully tapping my potential. There’s so much more that I want to do – and can do – with my business. But it means changing things. It means getting out of my comfort zone and trying something new. It means being willing to take a risk.
By risk, I don’t mean destory my business so I can go after some new endeavor. That’s not risk – that’s stupidity. The risk I’m talking about isn’t about putting your life, your lifestyle or your family in danger. Rather, I’m talking about the risk that puts your comforts in danger. It’s your comforts that keep you where you are. And while they’re not bad or good, they are what keeps you from growing your business (and your life) into what you really want.
Look at what Wendy’s done in the past year. First, eMoms took on me – which is risky enough. But Wendy didn’t stop there. She created channels of bloggers to write on different topics under eMoms. This was a huge risk for her in a number of ways – but it worked. And now she’s gone from being a single blogger with periodic guest posters to being a blog network.
But Wendy didn’t stop there. She soon realized that eMoms at Home just didn’t cover all her site was about any longer. So she took an even larger risk – she changed the name of her site, her URL and her brand. And born was Sparkplugging.
Now I’m fortunate to know Wendy well. She’s a visionary. But none of these changes came without her feeling like she was risking all her safety and hard work against possible ruin. Really, she was doing what we all do – making the risk bigger than it is. And because Wendy is who she is and has done the work she’s done internally, she could recognize that fact and not let it stop her.
What’s happening is Sparkplugging is quickly gaining on, and will sometime soon pass, the success of eMoms. But none of this would have been possible without her taking risks – risks with her inner self – with her emotions and her beliefs.
So where is your business along the cliffs of risk? What beliefs are holding you back from developing the business, and the life, you really want? What risks do you need to take?
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