emotional hangovers and your vision
I just got back from a little work-cation with a dear fri-ent of mine.
(see what I did there? heh)
the weekend was absolutely wonderful - it was good to talk a bunch of work things through while enjoying great food, games, and wine.
the place we stayed in was right on the water with a glorious view of the mountains...it was pretty much my vision board brought to life.
I would take breaks walking on the beach, soak up the view, and bask in all the feelings. I felt expansive, rooted, and free all at once...it was exactly what my soul needed.
I pretty much decided that we need to move there. I was so stoked and started looking up houses on real estate websites so that I could crunch the numbers and figure out what it would take to make that dream a reality.
(by the way - that's a great way to reverse engineer your business goals - ask yourself "what do I want, how much do I need to make that happen, and what will it take to get there?")
then, we got home.
and all of a sudden the dream that seemed so tangible the day before felt totally impossible. and I crashed into a major emotional hangover.
(I feel like I write a lot about crying because my emotions are hard-wired to my tear ducts. but - part of the struggle of running your own business is dealing with the emotions: the fear. the anxiety. moving past the paralysis of perfection. the business part feels easy compared to the internal work sometimes.)
The point is, I spent part of Monday night feeling like a hopeless failure.
I'll spare you the snotty details and jump straight to my big takeaways:
don't be afraid to let yourself feel the fear and the anxiety. face it head on. talk through it. just don't hide from it or avoid it by distracting yourself with social media or Netflix (not that I've ever done that...)
it's so important to work through the emotion and come out the other side, because you need to prove to yourself that you can. if you can talk yourself off the ledge, the next time you feel the anxiety...you'll know you can get through it.
trust that after you let yourself feel crappy, your body is going to deliver the response required to bring you back to normal. fyi - the body's quest for balance is called homeostasis. so an hour after my sob fest, I felt totally fine again. I was tired, but felt relaxed and content.
having a little..."emotional awakening"...skews your balance into the biological badlands, and your body will respond by sending out some hormones to calm you down. so take some time and let your body to do its work. close your eyes. breathe. move. use a mantra to remind yourself that you're going to be okay.you don't get glimpses of what "could be" as a cruel joke...you get those glimpses so that you can have a taste of what's possible. it reaffirms that you're headed in the right direction, or persuades you to change your course. (I can thank my business bestie Nadeena for reminding me of that)
this weekend was the motivation I need to get things going in my business. I've been dabbling here and there, but have held back because I'm scared. I'm scared to put myself out there...but I have to get over that if I want to change my life. and I do want to change my life.
I know - more than ever - that I want the life in my vision.
being clear on that vision guides every single choice I make in my business and life - the goals that I set support my vision. and so should yours.
so the next time you're facing a decision and aren't sure which direction to take...use your vision as your guide. ask yourself "will this get me closer to where I want to be, or is it just a distraction?"
find your focus. see it through.
now tell me - what do you do to pull yourself out of an emotional or creative slump? where do you find the motivation + inspiration to get yourself going?