Growth

By: Clarissa Constantine Friday January 6, 2023 comments Tags: #philosophy #growth

Today’s topic is… GROWTH!

One of my regular activities is networking with other professionals, many of whom are solo-preneurs or small business owners. Regardless of what product or service we offer to our clients, we agree on at least one concept: entrepreneurs are grown, not born.

It is REALLY FREAKING HARD to put yourself out in public and say ‘Hey, look at what I can offer you, it’s good enough that you should give me money for it.’

Don’t believe me? Ask an entrepreneur.

I filed business paperwork for The ParenTween Connection FOUR. YEARS. AGO. I had almost NO clue what I was doing, where I was going, or what the vision of the entity would become.

And I didn’t talk to many folks about it. Not because I was shy…anyone who’s met me in person knows that’s not a word you’d use to describe me. But I didn’t talk about it because I thought I had to have it all locked down and perfect before I could talk about.

That’s pretty typical of a recovering perfectionist. As a kid, I was one of those straight-A, school came pretty easily, kinda kids. The problem with that experience, though, is that it doesn’t allow for experimentation and failure.

And thus, as an entrepreneur, I felt like everything had to be perfect before I could talk about it.

But the reality is, things are always evolving….always GROWING… You can THINK they’re ‘perfect,’ but nothing in life stays that way: not humans, not flowers, not animals. Nothing. So why do we expect that of ourselves?

I’m gonna screw up. You’re gonna screw up. We’re gonna make mistakes. We’re gonna say things that we wish we could take back. We’re gonna do things we’ll wish we hadn’t. But making mistakes is NOT failing. ‘Mistakes’ are opportunities to learn and do differently next time. This is true in business, in relationships, in weight loss.

How did I shift my perspective, from feeling like things had to be perfect before I could talk about them to acknowledging that I don’t 100% know where we’re going?

Coaches. Mentors. Reading. Journaling. Meditating. Listening to my inner wisdom, looking for outer wisdom.

Just today, I heard this from a colleague: if you’re not growing, you’re dying.

How are you going to grow today?

About the Author: Clarissa Constantine