Every day is a new opportunity for growth
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“Everyone wants to live on top of the mountain, but all the happiness and growth occurs while you’re climbing it.” - Andy Rooney
It hasn’t even been a full year since I started my own business, and I constantly catch myself comparing it to other companies who have been in the game a lot longer than I have. I ask myself questions like, Why don’t I have the big clients like they do? Why am I not fully booked for the rest of the year?
The simple answer is I need to start enjoying the journey more. All the growth I have experienced this past year, the opportunities I created for myself, the failures, and the life lessons are what I should and need to be reminding myself of every day.
Being Present In The Moment
It all starts with being present in your day-to-day. I often get caught up in planning weeks and months ahead, but hardly focus on my daily work and what I am doing at the moment.
As a business owner, I need to be focused on different areas of my business and planning ahead for upcoming events. When that happens, it often leads to me feeling overwhelmed that I am not doing enough. However, once I started to focus on the work that I was doing at the moment, I was able to appreciate it more and started to feel more accomplished.
Instead of focusing on my endless to-do list, I just put my full attention on the specific tasks that I outlined for the day. If you haven’t yet, start a focus sheet and write down tasks that you need to focus on. Note that the task will grow but remember to keep this handy so you know what should have your attention during the day and what can wait until later.
I’m not saying that this will completely rid you of the overwhelming not doing enough feeling because I think that is never going to go away. However, the more I practice being present in my work, the more I appreciate what I am doing at the moment. It doesn’t matter if it is accounting, crafting a pitch, or designing a website. When I am present, I am a lot happier to be on the ride.
Gratitude And Perspective
Learning to be more grateful and changing my perspective has also allowed me to enjoy the journey more. When I catch myself comparing what my business is doing to others in similar fields, I start with telling myself how grateful I am to be in the position that I am in today. I love being able to support myself while working for myself on my own terms. Yes I have clients, yes I have deadlines to meet, but this is exactly what I signed up for.
I wake up every day and get to grow my business. It’s stressful, it’s challenging like nothing else I have ever done before, but it’s also one of the most rewarding experiences as well. Am I going to be doing this in a year's time? I have no idea, but I am grateful that for the time being I get to call myself the boss, and create my own path.
Beyond being grateful, I also realized a lot of it has to do with changing my own perspective. When I get stressed over client work I sometimes let it get the best of me. I have failed a bunch, I lost clients, but changing my perspective from being down on myself, to allow this to be a growing lesson really helped me get past it.
Also, I have been realizing that a lot of people in this world don’t have the same opportunity to start their own business, and the fact that I have this opportunity is something I shouldn’t take for granted.
We live in such an ideal time period where everything can be done online, and have all of the tools accessible through Google. It really is helping to change my way of thinking where I would normally complain, now I am just glad to be experiencing it.
Reflection
Reflection is important in helping keep enjoying the journey at the forefront of my mind. Being able to not only see how far I have come in a year, but also this day compared to yesterday helps fuel the entrepreneurial fire.
Seven months ago I was just starting out and didn’t really have a clue or direction on where I was going or what I was doing. I still am figuring it out for the most part, but my whole business and way of thinking has changed a complete 180 since then. I’m way more focused on what I need to be, know a lot more about running a business and learning each new day.
I know once another seven months have passed that I will be able to look back to this day and think to myself and see the growth of my mindset and company.
I make it apparent to reflect every single day because it not only helps me see what I did that day to make sure that I am on track, but it also reminds me that I have and am doing a lot.
Enjoying The Process
Every day is a new opportunity for growth. I am in the thick of it now learning by doing and remembering to have fun. I’m working more than ever, but I am also feeling more energized and passionate about my work.
The days no longer seem to have to be “check in at 9, check out at 5” anymore. I never know what the next day will bring which is frightening, but also exciting at the same time.
What inspired me to write this was to remind everyone to take a second and reflect on their own journey. I know we all have big goals and places where we want to get to. But, if you remember to take time each day to enjoy the journey, you will realize that this is the destination that you have been reaching after all.
Max Pete aka One Hand Wonder Man is a freelance website designer and digital marketer. Max Pete also specializes in social media management, email marketing, content creation, and paid advertising. You can check out his work and get in touch with him via his portfolio www.maxpete.co.