A few weeks ago, I had a dream that the world was ending.
I was sitting in an apartment building with my family, watching the rain pummel our windows. Outside, the town was starting to fill with water. I learned that epic floods were going to cover the world.
Hundreds of people were already walking up the muddy hillside out of town. Cars had been abandoned by the side of the road, and several were already flooded out in the streets below us.
I realized that we had two or three days, tops, before we were going to die. Somehow I knew (with all that awful inevitable knowing that dreams provide us) there was nowhere safe for us to go.
I remember thinking, “I have to decide how I want to die.” Then, with horror, “What about my child? What about this precious little person I have sworn to protect and love with every ounce of my being and breath in my body? What can I do, knowing I cannot protect him from the inevitable death that awaits us?”
When I woke up, I was relieved to say the least.
I was also thinking clearly.
For the first time in what felt like a long time, my brain wasn’t filled with the flotsam and jetsam of daily concerns.
I wasn’t consumed with petty annoyances or debating minor decisions about my household and business functioning.
I was clear as a bell ringing through fresh spring air on the very few things that matter to me.
My family.
My body.
My wonder.
My joy.
My clients and the people I reach with the spirit and tools that move through me. The ones who are served to live and work with greater wonder, and joy, and love.
I lay in bed that morning with the visceral sensation of how truly precious my life is. How vast and rich, and how absurdly easy it is to take for granted.
You wake up from a dream like that, and you can’t help but focus on what matters. Because the dream wasn’t real—but death is.
Part of the reason I’m so passionate about helping other people say yes to what they truly want, and giving them permission and strategies to pursue and do the stuff that lights them up, is because I have such a fine-tuned awareness of how fragile life can be.
Don’t get me wrong–life is fierce as well as fragile. In difficult moments, on challenging days, it’s easy to feel like life is a champion boxer and you’re getting your ass pounded into the ground.
Some days, life really is about surviving. But more often than not, we can thrive.
If you’ve found yourself getting caught up in the doldrums, feeling fresh out of hope or drummed down into darkness by fear, perceived shortcomings, or failed attempts at greatness, here’s my best advice for you:
Remember why you started—and find the proof that you’ve already made it.
Enjoy the hell out of where you already are and what you’ve already done.
Celebrate yourself for all the wealth you’ve created, all the lives you’ve changed, all the beautiful, messy, human delights you experience on a daily basis.
Start with the question: Why are you in business?
Did you choose this path so you could provide for your family with no ceiling on your earning potential?
Did you do it so you could free yourself from the limitations of employers and managers and create a work day or schedule that fits with your life?
Did you do it just to prove to yourself or someone else that a person like you, with your skills and talents, could earn a living with your gifts?
Know the endgame that got you moving in the first place. And recognize that you’ve likely already eclipsed the big dreams you had when you started.
When you acknowledge what success looks like for you—not just now but from when you started—you can revisit that metric often and CHOOSE to see all the ways you already measure up.
You wanted to make money and provide for your family? You’ve got receipts to prove it.
You wanted to impact your clients’ lives for the better? Re-read those testimonials.
You wanted to showcase your gifts out in public? Congratulations, they’re part of what makes your professional reputation superb.
Whatever you wanted to achieve or create by starting this business, you can have it. And you can have it RIGHT NOW.
You can savor, taste, and experience the wins you’ve already landed in your life.
But you CAN’T do it when you’re so busy gunning for more that you fail to acknowledge what you’ve already achieved.
More is a trap. More is the carrot on the end of the stick that’s dangling just out of reach, just beyond your grasp.
More is the slippery slope and quicksand of consumer culture that says where you are doesn’t matter, where you are isn’t enough.
I’m here to interrupt this pattern and tell you: Where you are is PERFECT.
You are exactly where you need to be to taste the sweet fruits of the amazing career and life you’ve already created.
It’s counter-culture to slow down and inhale. To breathe deliberately and slowly.
It goes against the grain to pause and get present and savor the wins you’ve already achieved.
But don’t let your work ethic and the fun of getting shit done hijack the bone-deep fulfillment you stand to receive.
Give yourself the gift of remembering why you’re doing any of this in the first place. Say yes to the ways you’ve already achieved it.
Then take a step back and just…enjoy yourself for a while.
In the end, this is the stuff you’ll cherish. Time spent with your loved ones, the giving of your gifts.
You’ve already built an incredible life. So go ahead and live it.
