When dreams die
There's a funny thing that happens as an entrepreneur. There are so many ideas, so many inspirations, the question "what if...??!" rolls off the tongue like melted butter (or gets spit out like hot tea). But what that equates to is the realization that 98% of those ideas never come to fruition (and most probably weren't meant to anyway so don't beat yourself up about it). And the remaining 2%? The small but sweet 2% that actually flourishes into existence via blood, sweat, and many many MANY tears? At some point, through all it's successes, the actualized idea must come to an end, die it's very necessary death.
Death comes in a number of ways. It can come as many people assume it does, as a result financial negligence or ill-management. Death can come after a successful run yet lack of desire for someone else to take the ball and run with it. But many people don't consider the possibility that though a business can appear "successful" on the outside, success doesn't feel the way the owner thought it would on the inside. I have an amazingly successful friend who has demolished practically every goal she's set for herself. She's a powerhouse in cute boots and has the balance sheet to prove it. Yet she's ready to pack it all in because this version of her success "just sucks". It sucks the energy out of her, it makes her cranky (which believe me, is NOT her style), and it takes away her creative life force - something that she treasures.
Many of us have hopes, dreams, ideas of what life could be like 'if only...' Yet, we never really know how something is going to make us feel until we're actually doing the thing. What's more, is that most of us dive fully into something as my mama liked to say "with the best information we had at the time." But information expands, life shifts, the goals we were chasing may have been designed for a life we aren't living anymore or may not want to be living anymore. This was the case with me. Business #2 was shaped and molded to support an expired version of my life but man, it took me quite some time to come to this awareness... that recurring, nagging sense that something just wasn't clicking the way it used to. Say hello to your soul's biggest clue = It just doesn't feel right any more. Looking back, the universe was giving me plenty of opportunities, signals, indicators. I just wasn't ready to pull the trigger...
...until I was. I read recently this note about 'being ready' and it helped to clarify that I wasn't procrastinating, I wasn't afraid, I wasn't incapable. I just wasn't ready, and that's ok. Welcome sweet relief! At some point everything dies, and it's not a bad thing... 'versions' of your life, 'versions' of who you are, 'versions' of your relationships expire... and that death leads to (hopefully) a better version, a truer version that fits better, and ultimately, feels SO much better. Say hello to another soul indicator = sighs of relief, lightness in the shoulders = you're making the right moves, baby. Shine on.