It has been almost a year since I last posted an article on Wish Dish and there’s been a bit of change since then. If you haven’t had a chance to read my first article please do so before continuing with this one. You can find it here: http://thewishdish.com/she-did-it-her-way/
In life, some people are where they are at by mere chance. They leave it up to others to decide their fate. They lack true direction or desire. They avoid making a decision for fear of making the wrong decision, so they make no decision. They wait for things to come to them instead of going after them, especially when their vision is unclear or unknown.
I know this because I was that person 6 months following my first article in December 2015. I was (and still am to some extent which I’ll explain later) an independent consultant who traveled the globe delivering sales, leadership development and employee engagement training to large organizations. I made good money, earned miles every time I flew that has allowed me to travel to other countries for less than $150 for a found trip ticket and did I mention that I enjoyed doing the work I did? In the midst of all this I noticed something. I was comfortable.
In addition to independent consulting I had this side project or maybe you could call it a hobby, I hosted a podcast called She Did It Her Way that was gaining traction but not growing. In my head at the time I thought, “But that’s okay,” because at the time I wasn’t truly focused on it. It was until the past three months that it has become my full time focus.
The first six months of this year I convinced myself that I could grow my consulting practice and She Did It Her Way at the same time.
Wrong.
I had to chose.
Because where your focus goes, your energy flows and results show.
This is where it got tough but to be completely honest, I made it more tough than it needed to be. Had I listened to my gut sooner I would have made this decision at the beginning of the year versus waiting so long.
Why did I wait?
Because I didn’t want to chose. I wanted both worlds: successful consulting company and a full functioning podcast (that would eventually turn into a full on brand).
I had one foot on the dock and one foot on the boat. Sooner or later I would fall into the water, not stabilizing my two feet on any ground. It was like the time when I was at Target and I kept going back and forth if I was leaving or not. It wasn’t until I made the decision to leave that opportunities started showing up.
It wasn’t until I decided to put all my effort into She Did It Her Way that things started happening. In the past few months alone I’ve gotten closer to the brand, the business and more importantly, the listeners.
You can’t work on your business until you know your business. And you can’t know your business without being in your business.
Do I still take on consulting projects, you betcha! As every entrepreneur knows there will be days, weeks, months even years where in the beginning, your business won’t bring in revenue to sustain your personal need of income so you go out and work other jobs to support you. Needless to say the days I’m working a project are a bit longer because I still put time in for She Did It Her Way.
You don’t sign up for entrepreneurship because you want to work from home, think it’s an attractive title or because you think it would be fun or even better because you’ll be wealthy.
You chose entrepreneurship for the love of the journey.
You chose entrepreneurship because you love solving problems. You chose entrepreneurship because you believe in something so much you’re willing to devote all your time and energy to it for long periods of time when you feel nothing is happening but you keep telling yourself by faith that there indeed is something happening, maybe yet unseen.
Everything I just shared and especially the last few paragraphs is what I continually tell myself on a daily basis.
Everything in life is a choice. Your attitude. Your life’s work. Your spouse. Your friends. Everything.
Don’t leave it up to chance. Chose.
