My husband, Dan, and I are celebrating our 11th year of being in business for ourselves.
It’s been such an interesting journey filled with so much learning and growth along the way.
When we started, we didn’t know anything about running a business. We just knew that we wanted to be together, follow our soul’s calling, and create things that inspired people in some way. So we took the leap to live our dream – having no idea how we would make a living or how we would spend our days. We just knew that we had to do it and trusted that it would all work out.
And thankfully it has. But it hasn’t been easy. Definitely not.
We jumped into the deep end and spent many years struggling to stay afloat. We hustled and struggled. We pushed ourselves so hard to get our business off of the ground, and we put every piece of ourselves into making sure that happened. We didn’t have a Plan B, and we were determined to make it successful. Thankfully, we did. But there was a cost: our own well-being and a balanced, ease-filled life.
In so many ways, running a business has been wonderful and rewarding and satisfying and soul-opening. And in other ways, it’s been exhausting and overwhelming and stress inducing.
A little while back, we realized that we had spent so many years pushing to bring our dream to life that we forgot to actually live our dream. We forgot to pat ourselves on the back for creating something from nothing and for spreading love in the world through our writing and our products and our communities.
About a year ago, the universe helped us slow our lives down for long enough to see something special: we were living our dream. It had come true. It maybe didn’t look exactly how we thought it would when we started our business, but it felt like home for us. It was constantly evolving and changing, just as we were evolving and changing. And it was worth celebrating and grounding ourselves in. It was worth breathing into our hearts.
This process of slowing down and feeling grateful has helped us consciously make changes about how we want to live and how we want to bring new dreams to life moving forward. We created a revised vision for our dream that included the pieces of our business that we love: writing, helping others, and creating. And we added in some really important (and essential) pieces: self care, balance, surrendering, asking for help, easing up, having fun, and resting.
We are living our dream, and while there are new dreams that we would love to bring to life, there’s something really special about feeling grateful for what’s already here.
The more I focus on this, the more grateful moments will come into my life. It’s so true that what we focus on expands, and I am definitely ready for the next phase of my business to be one of less struggle, more ease, less pushing, and more self care.
No matter what our dreams are, we are the creator of them. We get to decide if we’re going to be stressed out and burned out while we’re bringing them to life or if we’re going to embrace each moment and take time to truly experience and enjoy our dream as we’re living it.
I’ve seen both sides, and I am now choosing to consciously live my dream while it’s happening from a place of trust and faith and joy.
I would love for you to join me in this – no matter what your dream is. Business can flow. Life can flow. Business can be easy. Life can be easy. It’s truly up to us and our perception and our choices.
I’ve chosen a pretty hard path over the last decade, and I’m truly ready to go for the easier one now. My externals won’t change very much – I’ll still be writing and supporting others along the way, but my internal experience will be much less constricted and much more expansive. It already is shifting, and I am looking forward to having this continue.
I love how the universe brings things to us at the exact perfect time. I just found out that my friend, Priscilla Stephan, has created a free 14-day challenge to help all of us live our dreams and connect with our soul’s desires!
It’s designed to help us embrace the moment and take love and ease-filled actions each day that are fun and that help bring our dreams to life right now.
Here’s what’s included in the challenge:
- 14 days of simple actions that help you live your dream
- Each e-mail is filled with ease and love that opens your mind to living your dream
- Reminders that what you have isn’t just enough, but is amazing
- A new outlook on the beauty of you, your life, and living your dream
I’m definitely signing up, and I look forward to participating! I think it’s so important to focus on what IS already working rather than what isn’t. It sets the wheels in motion to create a beautiful life that’s filled with love and positivity and joy. Something we would all welcome more of, I’m sure. 🙂
If you would like to join us for this free challenge, please click here!
The challenge begins on Feb. 9th, and you’ll receive your first email then. Be sure to sign up before then, so we can all start together!
I’m so excited for all of us to start living (and embracing) our dreams right now!
Hugs,
Hi Jodi, you are spot on in this post! I feel the same way. I’ve been working for myself as a freelance translator and writer for the last 7 years, and I often have to pinch myself to remember that I’m living the life I always dreamed of. Twenty years ago I’d never have thought it was possible. I still struggle, at times, and take on too much work, so recently I’ve adopted a “more walking less working” and I’ve been forcing myself to take a morning walk every day, even when I’ve got a lot on. It’s helping me to feel more balanced and to step back and smell the roses, plus I’m more focused when I do sit down at my desk to work. Thanks for doing what you do. You are an inspiration. I will sign up to your friend’s course and see what new things I learn. Thank you. Hugs.
I’m in! Hey, I never realised you guys had been going for 11 years!! Me too! I didn’t celebrate the decade, because I was worn out and fed up of the relentlessness of it…but I’m definitely celebrating 11 years!! <3 you and this post. xxx
Hi Jodi, of course I´m signing up for this challenge too!!! I´ve been dreaming about my own business (an altered-couture store with a strong ecological footprint) for several years, but for some reason I´ve never found the courage to leave my current -hated- job as a lawyer, and simply go for it! Perhaps I´ll find some clues there… Thanks as always for sharing your experiences and for motivating us your readers to improve our lives!
Warmest hugs from Uruguay,
K.
WOW! What a great post! I am relatively new to having my own business, but I do understand the stress of bringing it to life. It is work, but it is fun….at least that is what I am trying to keep into perspective as I forge this new path. Thanks for sharing.