jalléCafe

What comes with career change

As of March this year, I will have operated my little business for five years.  "Five years and still standing."  People often say to me that if you've managed to get this far, that's a big milestone.

I am grateful for the chance to do it, the creative adventure, the dream. It's far from a sure thing even after five years.

I can also feel sacrifices - worrying at night how I'd make a living, having enough cash to pay bills.  Less free time without responsibility to check-in.  Often happy, but just flat-out tired from the intensity.

Now that I've learned a lot about how to flow with being an entrepreneur - how to live with the rhythm of it's rewards and uncertainties - I ask the next question:  what do I want it to look like at 10 years?  Is this about making a living or building something that will last? Or both?

And can I do it while still living my life?  Not letting life get away from me too quickly through narrow focus on only one part of it?  

My business has nurtured my personal growth and professional maturity - there is no "all or nothing" "right or wrong" "for sure or totally risky."  

It's more about instinct and adaptability.  Doing the best you can. Taking a minute to feel the experience.

That's the real gift of my career change that started even before my business (nine years ago now): the ability to slow down and notice how great it is to have such possibilities now, no matter how they "turn out" in the end.

Finding a healthy rhythm

Back to work it was this week!  Jumped right into client meetings Monday morning, Professional Women's Group monthly event Tuesday evening, more meetings on Wednesday.  I wondered how I'd get back in the rhythm again after the holidays and a lovely mountain vacation.  

Turned out it was less like finding the rhythm and more like flowing along with the current.

That's a good thing, btw, if you own the business.  When you don't have to think about what to do next - when your clients let you know. Lucky. I try to remember this.

Yet I know that a good rhythm needs a balance between a deadline pace and creative space.  That's one of my goals this year - finding my own rhythm, not just a "work is the main thing" one.  We shall see.

I think it will need my courage and test my strength to sometimes say the creative and exploratory is more important than the next Swiss franc.

Yet, I suspect a healthy life and business depend on it.  That's a good challenge to begin the new year.

 

Listening to the mountains

I know, I know.  I've been away from my blog a while.

It's the slowest time of the year in our business; so, after Mom left on 28th December, I spent a quiet week in the office getting the year-end paperwork together.  Then I ran for the mountains.

Here I sit today.

 

    The weather has not been perfect.  Record low snow and high temperatures.  

But mountains always look beautiful to me.  And this week, they sure had something to say.  They've given me a lot of new ideas that are bound to make 2011 exciting.

More on that soon.  For now, I will enjoy the miracle of a world much bigger than me.