Back in November I made the huge decision to quit my corporate office job and come home to work for myself. There was so much inside of me that just genuinely wasn't happy. I was literally in tears when I had to go to work one morning, not because I hated my job, but because I knew I was meant for so much more and felt I was wasting my life away at the office. Working for a corporation and building their dreams instead of my own.
It was terrifying and I knew it wasn't going to be easy. Starting my own company, starting with no steady income, we obviously had bills to pay so I was on a deadline of how long I could give this a shot before needing to throw in the towel and get an hourly job again. There was also the questioning of, if I'm home will I still have the drive to wake up and stay motivated? To get the necessary work done, treating it as a work day and not as an opportunity to stay caught up on the laundry, cleaning, and cooking.
Those were the things the scared me the most, the unknown. So I put my big girl underwear on and said, if I'm going to do this, I'm going to do it right. I'm going to pour all my heart and energy into my business and prove to myself that I can do it. After-all, I knew with every fiber in me that this was what I was meant to do.
My alarm was still going off at 5am every morning, because it was a work day. I was staying laser focused on my goal, making an income. Well, when starting your own business "making an income" means making sales. I became so obsessed with making a sale that I wasn't even sleeping, helping with the laundry, cooking, dishes, cleaning.. All I did was work in my office trying to find ways to make a sale.
Everything that I thought would be the hardest part, wasn't. Excelled at everything I thought I would struggle with. But in the process, I lost sight of the reason I wanted to sell these products. I wasn't able to show the world who I am, because I wasn't being myself anymore. I couldn't post about anything but sales on social media because I wasn't doing anything except for that! And guess what? The sales weren't coming! Go figure. Who wants to talk with the shoe cleaning guy at the mall? Not me.
This was a hard realization for me. Even harder was accepting it and taking action on changing that. It wasn't until I took my foot off the gas pedal, just slightly, to slow down and remember why I was passionate about this in the first place, that my business started coming full circle. I can't lie, there were two months straight that I was thinking I needed to start sending out job applications again. I was dreading that. Because there was no way in hell I could give up on this dream.
You can't force others to be passionate about the same things as you, and you can't force people to see the changes they can make in their lives. But you can absolutely be the example and show them how something has changed your life. That's literally all it took to have my business completely take off.
I guess the point in all of this is to show you that it's okay to be overly passionate and obsessed with something and to take chances. But never, ever lose sight of your why and your purpose. Lead with passion, love, and kindness. Do not try to force anything in life. The right things will come along if you stay persistent and always, always make time to enjoy your journey.
XO,
Stephanie
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