HOW TO PROTECT YOUR PEACE WHILE GROWING YOUR SOUL-ALIGNED BUSINESS
Welcome to the SOUL-LED & SUCCESSFUL SERIES.
This is letter six, so if you’d like to start from the beginning you can find letter one by clicking here.
LETTER SIX:
I remember sitting on my bed (aka my first office) on a Sunday morning just about to open a client call on zoom, but feeling absolutely heart-sick because my son was sitting outside the door crying. My husband was home so my son wasn't alone but he just hated being away from me. He would sit at my door for the full hour every Sunday morning while I worked with my client. As much as I loved supporting my clients and was excited to grow my business, the cost was too high.
So I stopped offering 1:1 services which meant my income dropped to zero because I didn't yet have any digital assets at the time. But my peace and my son's emotional wellbeing were so much more important than profit.
Now you would think that choosing peace over profit would be a lesson that sticks right? You make the choice once and you hold that priority long term. But what I've learned is that we can be faced with this decision over and over again, in different ways.
Maybe you created a membership so you could support more people without spending every waking hour on private coaching, but you find yourself feeling completely overwhelmed by the need to constantly create new content. It solved the first problem, but created a different, unforeseen problem.
Or maybe you scheduled podcast interviews for when your kids are at school thinking that would be the best time because you'll have peace and quiet. But then the kids get sick and you're suddenly trying to keep sick kids quiet while you record podcast interviews.
We can never predict the future, but we can commit to choosing our peace over and over again.
My example of ceasing private coaching until my son was more settled is an extreme example. I was in the very privileged position of not needing my income at that time. You may not be able to make a decision like this and that's ok. What you can do is be very, very intentional about every decision you make and also, give yourself permission to change your mind.
THERE ARE TWO MAIN WAYS THAT YOU CAN START PROTECTING YOUR PEACE IN YOUR BUSINESS:
1. Be aware of any tendency to get caught up in doing things because they seem to be working for other people. Be aware of where your excitement about trying new things is coming from. Are you implementing this new strategy or hiring this new coach, because it's absolutely the right choice for you right now, or because you have shiny object syndrome?
2. Allow yourself to make changes along the way even if something seemed like an incredible idea at the time. You are constantly evolving and growing and that means your experience of all the different parts of your business is evolving too. If something that once worked is now feeling heavy, give yourself permission to let it go. Don't hang onto old things out of habit and emotional attachment because of all the work you've previously put in.
There will be times where, like me, you may feel called to choose your peace over profit in a really drastic way and that's ok. But even if you need to always prioritise profit, there are ways to also prioritise your peace that don't involve burning it all down. Maybe there's a little tweak or refinement you can make that will relieve some of the pressure. It doesn't always have to be dramatic.
This is why my work is so heavily focused on understanding who you truly are before you make any big decisions in your business.
When you know yourself well you are so much more equipped to make choices that will support you in the way that you need them to, even if everyone else is doing things differently.
You are the only one who can decide what you're able to handle and what you're willing to handle. Your business needs to fit into that. If it doesn't, and you're feeling like your business is draining you instead of supporting you, feel free to check out You Are The Magic. It's totally free and is a good starting point for this work.
With love,
Michelle xxx
P.S. Click below for letter 7 :)