Letting Go Of Keeping Up

March 11, 2009 in Growing · Follow Me on Twitter

I don’t want to feel like I am always racing to keep up. But sometimes I do.

The emails that my heart wants to write, the article ideas lost in my head or in a book.

I know the answer is that it will all get done. That I need to tackle each as it comes and not fret about all that isn’t done.

But I wonder if it isn’t an innerpreneur’s natural inclination to see what isn’t created, rather than what is?

Growth is slow

I’ve spent the last week engrossed in my pricing and service platform. I’m trying to figure out how to authentically describe what I do. I’ve added my work-in-progress expertise to the blog. Hopefully it connects.

Rather than pat myself on the back for completing an integral part of my business, I sit and fret over everything that isn’t done.

The Elastic Mind website I wrote that I can’t seem to finish, the innerpreneur blog that I want to improve for us.

The list doesn’t end and it never will

I need to find a way to be okay with this – to not be disappointed by everything I haven’t done. I know this feeling but I thought I had let it go.

It is enough that I am on this path. And working every day to grow it.

But then doubt strikes me and I wonder if I shouldn’t be working harder, longer.

I choose to do this because I want a balanced, bliss-filled life but I wonder if that isn’t possible. The surge of responsibilities that come with running a business make it hard to ever feel at rest. I need to stop worrying that I am disappointing people.

No one cares as much as I do

I am not letting anyone down. It matters more to me.

I am not letting myself down. I am achieving my dreams. How can I be disappointed by that?

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  • HERO
    Remember what W.Churchman said? The value of knowledge is in its use and not in its collection!
    So there is not much to worry about, staying on the path and taking the right steps in the right direction, without seeking constant reinsurance. The first goal need not be the final one, for a sailing a ship sails first by the wind, then another. The point is that it is always going somewhere, proceeding towards it final destination. In preparing for your battles, you may surprisingly find out that plans are useless, but planning is indispensable. Morale is the single greatest factor for success. After all what counts is not necessarily the size of the dog in the fight -it's the size of fight in the dog.
    I would state that leadership is the art of getting someone else to do something you want done because he wants to do it. The successful leader transforms a personal vision into shared vision, making 'my dream' an 'our dream'.
    But Tara, don't forget that - Farming is easy when your plow is your pencil and you're thousand miles from a cornfield! Are your lights on?
  • "plans are useless, but planning is indispensable" - beautifully said,
    Mike.
  • This is great; it speaks directly to me, and you put it such a good way. So much so that I had to add it to my blog post of today, b/c it's exactly what I *tried* to say, and what I feel all the time. Pls. allow me to link: http://meloart.blogspot.com/2009/03/add-magic-to-life.html

    I subscribed to your blog. Was referred to it by leah_art on Twitter, from her Twitter background that she got from you, but I like what you got going here. Serendipity, again.

    Thanks!
  • I am so glad to hear that you enjoy the site, Cris. And I read what
    you wrote and I think you expressed the idea beautifully. We must
    enjoy the journey and try to cease the anxiety about what isn't done.
    Hard to put into practice, I know.
  • I've been thinking about the "Is it possible to live a balanced, bliss-filled life as an entrepreneur?" question a lot. I work non-stop. I love, love, LOVE what I do, and I keep telling myself that I am moving toward a balanced life, but right now, it definitely isn't.
  • It is a hard question. But I suppose as with anything, each of us is
    free to shape the career and life we create. Perhaps like building a
    business, building a balanced life is a slow, step-by-step process. I
    think we will both get there...it just may take a while!
  • Tara,

    I know. This is a trait many of us share. We are always focused on what we "should" be accomplishing. In our minds, we believe any accolade or praise for what is done, should come from others and never from ourselves.

    Some of us are very alone on our ventures. I am learning to give myself credit for what I have finished. I do not have a team, employees, partners....I am my only voice to hear many times.

    My teacher told me the craftsman's path can be a lonely one. In light of this, I realized the importance of allowing my own self to give credit for jobs well done. Never in a self-serving conceded way. Simply acknowledging a good job as it occurs. Then, like all of us, it's on to the never ending list that sits before us.
  • Acknowledgment is so important you are right, Adam. We each much take
    that moment of awareness to pat ourself on the back and celebrate what
    we have achieved. I had even told my husband (who is also an
    innerpreneur) that at the end of each day instead of running over
    everything we hadn't done, we should write a list of everything we
    achieved. That simple act will focus our thoughts on abundance and
    growth rather than scarcity and stagnation. We haven't started doing
    it yet...but we will.

    Thank you, Adam, for always sharing such helpful thoughts with me.
  • g
    >I need to find a way to be okay with this – to not be disappointed by everything I haven’t done.

    Live with it - that's life. Accept and let it go. Do otherwise and 'you'll be fifty before you're thirty'.

    And 'balanced, bliss-filled life, but I wonder if that isn’t possible'... yeah, it is possible - accept more, want less.

    Enough of this, I'm off to start my own lifecoaching business.
  • Helpful as always, gulliver;)
  • Always more to-do and new ideas every single day. Ahhh! Good words Tara. Hard to let go and just be. We live in a culture all about doing. It helps to just stop and be. Thanks.
  • My pleasure, Tim. It is so hard to not get caught up in the story that if you aren't working, you aren't of worth. We need to remember that it is in those quiet moments that we are the most true and receptive to our thoughts.
  • Oh man I need this message every day, heck every hour! It doesn't help that anytime I see a fellow alumni, they're always in the process of buying a house or otherwise living a life of leisure while I wallow in debt and poverty. lol
  • I can relate. Collection-wise, I don't have much either. But we have
    our passion.
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