I must love them because I check them most days. I like that my Sobbing-Child-With-Santa picture and my Little-Double-Dolly Partons (one still sobbing) Halloween picture are at the ready once a year. I tear up when I see the picture of my favorite dog who was eaten up with cancer at that very moment but just hadn’t told me yet. But even so I can appreciate how closely she was guarding baby Iris in the yard and I can show Iris how much she was loved.
Today’s Memory reminds me that I was inquiring about starting a business on this date ten years ago. I had completely forgotten I was THAT serious about starting a business a decade ago! BarnBurner Design is a lot different than the concept I had back then but the reason I’m sharing this today is to tell you to GO FOR IT! Whatever it is that is good, and true and gives you great joy – chase it. Why didn’t I? Time for a little introspective work:
1. Fear. Well, fear can be a liar. That’s an important lesson to learn so I’m glad I learned it over the past ten years.
2. Imposter-syndrome. This is a bit of a buzzword right now and it’s a more complex than you might think. Glamour UK magazine wrote a nice synopsis of a book about the affliction here. I can see myself in The Perfectionist and The Expert. Read the link and you’ll realize I’m not flattering myself! The lesson here is simply that you need to know yourself, your tendencies, your motivations, your internal wiring, whatever you want to call it, in order to avoid pitfalls and give yourself the best chance of success. This is a lot easier for me in my 40s than it was in my 30s. Three cheers for older and wiser!
3. Disconnect. I had a great concept ten years ago and I am confident it would have been successful if I had just stuck with it. But I wasn’t truly passionate about it so all the gazillion details bored me to death. My concept didn’t align with my purpose or my passions. I thought I wasn’t cut out for business if I felt that way before the process became difficult or required sacrifice. The problem was actually that it didn’t bring me any joy or serve anyone in what I felt to be a meaningful way.
There are a lot of things that bring me joy. One of them is a black trash bag and a junk drawer. Another one is a great song set during Sunday morning worship. A third one is reimagining the space my client spends so much time in and overseeing the project as it becomes beautiful and functional. Different joys – but joys I want to keep repeating. Even if I fall short of my self-imposed 2023 business goals for BarnBurner Design I’m proud that I deliver a valuable service and bring happiness to my clients. (The Perfectionist Imposter urges you to check out my client testimonials!)
Follow the joy, friends!