I have worked my entire life.
So of course when I made the decision to start my business in 2011 after being fired, I worked hard.
I dived in, working full days and long nights.
I created and created what I thought “they” would want.
Because, of course… I knew.
It would be one and a half years of working hard, making attempts to figure out who my tribe was, getting comfortable with networking, and making cold calls before I realized that my old family beliefs were fueling my efforts.
It wouldn’t be until two years into the business that I would realize it really wasn’t about me working hard, nor was it about what I was doing. At least not from the perspective of having to prove myself or having to “make it happen.”
That was a corporate mentality. That was what I did when I worked my 9 to 5. I would go in early and leave late, proving my value. Sure, at first I loved my work. But 20 years in, that still small voice had started calling me to step into a grander version of myself.
I ignored it for too many years.
I just kept my nose to the grindstone and kept working and working.
I really didn’t know if I could do it, but I wanted to.
So being fired gave me the permission to say yes to an entrepreneurial path.
I wrote my blog post—500 words, three tips—and basically identified the problem and gave the solutions. I worked so hard that I fed my tribe until they were fat and lethargic, because I didn’t call them to take action for a higher vision.
That all started to change when I realized one key element, and I trust it will change the course you may be on. The key element was that my success wasn’t to be found in what I was doing; rather, it was who I was that was of value. How I was “being.” It was “me,” my sacred value, that people wanted to know about, wanted to experience.
How this may apply to you is, do you take care of everyone first, leaving you last on your “to-do” list? Do you work at your career or in your business with the mindset that you have to create the boom.com product, event, or tele-seminar, so “get the people there?” Perfectionist by any chance? Or are you simply working hard, long hours from the underlying thought that YOU “have to make it happen,” that YOU have to do it all?
Well, what I’d offer you is that it’s not what you do … for your career, in your business, for your clients, family, church, or community. It’s who you are that is the key element to everything you do. It’s the value you bring when you show up.
I know many of us were taught to work hard, and that if we took care of ourselves, it was selfish.
I know many of us were masters of multi-tasking before that was what it was called. (It’s a gift of our feminine creative energy.)
But I ask you to pause, to reevaluate the quality of your living.
I’m calling you and me to move forward toward a higher, grander version of you … to know that you have value first and foremost, and it’s based on who you are, NOT what you do.
Much love and respect to you,
Rev. Jenenne