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10 things in 10 years
Susan Grandfield • 18 June 2020
Today - the 8th February 2020* - is the day that my business turns 10!
It’s not particularly significant for anyone other than me and, to be honest, I was quite prepared to let the day pass without any celebration. But, as I sat on a plane heading to Phoenix, Arizona for a weekend of personal and business development I found myself marvelling at how my business has not only survived the last 10 years but it has thrived and is set to become even more successful over the next decade.
So, this blog is my way of celebrating 10 years in business. It is an acknowledgement of the insights I have gained along the way, and my intention in sharing them with you is to reassure you, inspire you or motivate you to take the next step towards creating the kind of life and/or business you want to have.
Maybe you are self-employed, thinking of starting your own business or at a point in your life where you want to make a change but there is fear, worry or doubt stopping you from taking the first step. I know how that feels. I also know how it feels to take first step and to start to feel the fear, worry and doubt drop away.
Take advantage of my learning and see what starts to shift for you as you read my 10 things in 10 years:
There is no destination
For so long I was striving to get to a place where I’d feel like I’d made it or I at least had it all figured out. That place doesn’t exist! I realise more and more that it’s the experience of the journey that’s important. That is the point of it all.
Nurturing connections is THE most important thing
Business and life is all about people and relationships and as such they need your time and attention. When I think about the clients I work with today they have all come from a connection I have created with someone else in the past, sometimes quite far back in the past. But that is the thing nurturing relationships is about playing the long game.
It’s ok not to know how
If I’d waited to be sure how I was going to tackle a project before I said yes I would probably still be waiting to start! Something I learned very early on is to say yes, get stuck in and the “how” will work itself out. The clearer you are on why you are saying yes the easier it is to work out how.
There is no wrong decision
Hindsight is a wonderful thing. It is easy to look back when something doesn’t turn out the way you expected it to and see that you could have chosen something different. However, I have developed a strong guiding principle that we will always make the best decision we can in that moment. Things change and we gain new perspectives but that happens after the fact. There is no wrong decision you can make if you make it fully present in this moment.
Learn but don’t imitate
I am all for learning from people you respect and whose work you admire, I do that a lot. But I have realised that by focusing so much on how others were doing what they were doing I was often avoiding stepping into my own space in the world and doing my work my way. The world is a richer place when we each contribute our in own unique way.
The power in saying no
Wanting to please others, wanting to be liked, wanting to get more clients all led me to say yes even when my gut was telling me it wasn’t for me. I have discovered that there is far more power in saying no. The more I say no to the stuff that isn’t for me the more the stuff that is seems to show up!
Trust yourself and the universe
Every time I have felt as though I was standing on the edge of a void whilst staring at my empty diary a new project, opportunity or client has shown up. Always at just the right time. I have learned to trust that this is how things happen so my advice is to stay open and receptive and new opportunities will find their way to you.
Be patient
Undoubtedly, my biggest learning has come from realising the value in slowing down. Everything is so much clearer when I slow down – my mind is clearer, the world around me looks clearer and I make far better decisions. It has taken practice but practicing patience pays dividends.
Love the quiet times
It is super scary to be facing an empty diary. And yet, over the years I have begun to love the space and time it offers me. A packed diary means no time for creativity, no time to develop ideas and not enough quality time on nurturing relationships. I now proactively put empty time into my diary because I know if I don’t I’ll regret it when things get busy again.
Comparison is a waste of effort
It’s really hard not to compare yourself to other people when you are running a business. I have spent many wasted hours comparing myself to others and ending up feeling inadequate, a fraud or an imposter. The thing I have realised is no one can do what I do the way I do it and it is a far better investment of my energy to focus on doing what I do really well than worrying how other people are doing it.
So there you have it…..10 things in 10 years.
- What has resonated most with you?
- Which of these 10 are you willing to try out for yourself?
- How would your 10 things in 10 years blog read?
If you’d like to explore where you are in your life and/or business get in touch
and we can arrange a conversation to help you get where you want to get to.
* this post originally featured on my previous website and was published on 8th February 2020.
What do you need help with?
Part 4 - the way forward In this final part of the series, we are looking at the way forward. What does this awakening mean and how do we stay on the path that we’ve started to walk down?
This is an invitation to be curious about the freedom that comes from finally letting go of the need to fit in, to embrace how you see the world and how you want to approach life and the ripple effect that can have on the lives of those around you. It is all about self-acceptance and allowing.
The struggle of an idealist in a world of pessimists, pragmatists and realists is that at times it can feel very lonely, like we’re sitting on the edge of the crowd not being invited into the conversation. Everyone is looking in one direction and when we point out that there is another direction they could look in we feel dismissed, not heard and ridiculed for romantic notions about the world. But it doesn't have to feel that way.
Idealist: “Someone who believes that very good things can be achieved, often when this does not seem likely to others”. Rather than hiding away, agreeing with others, making myself wrong for holding a more hopeful view of the world or criticising myself for being naïve I backed myself and stood behind my beliefs.
We are under the misapprehension that we need to push ourselves outside our comfort zone if we really want to experience life and be successful. But that is not true. Finding our way back to our comfort zone is a vital part of experiencing life with more ease, enjoyment and freedom.
The reality of life is that we forget and fall into the predictable traps of the ego and its susceptibility to the outside world but that finding our way back to inner peace and stability comes from remembering that our experience is created from the inside.
We are incredibly talented at creating fictitious stories about ourselves and going through life without editing them, updating them or realising we can actually re-write them. Discovering how quickly life can change when you start to pay attention to your stories.
We begin this adventure of a lifetime as wide open, expansive, creative, loving, curious and innately wise little beings full of possibility, potential and optimism. But through our experience of interacting with others and the world around us we, unconsciously, wrap ourselves up in patterns of behaving and thinking which serve to protect us from the perceived risk of following that childlike energy. Now is the time to "unwrap" those protective layers and reconnect with who we really are.
Experimenting is fundamentally about trying things out and not being attached to a particular outcome. It is about giving things a go and learning from whatever happens. There is a real freedom in approaching things with an experimental mindset and I believe it can be brought to all aspects of our lives.
Like me, are you also someone who tends to plan moments of bliss rather than allow them to happen?
Ridiculous as that may sound, I realise that when I am in my familiar environment doing familiar and routine activities I tend to plan for moments of bliss or joy to happen sometime in the future, when all of the things I need to do have been done. I am discovering the possibility of experiencing moments of bliss at any time and without the preplanning.
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susan@susangrandfield.com
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