You guys, I am getting such a late start on 2019! I took some much needed time off for the holiday season, and right when I was going to kick off, I was hit with an ailment that had me down a week. So, here I am on the first Monday of my new year. It’s funny because it’s as if I am even more excited to get a jump on the new year than I was before. Look at how the inability to do what you love can do for someone!

And, it’s a good thing for me. While I have been thriving in my efforts to grow my brands, I have been feeling stuck. Having slowed things down in Q4 and taking a little holiday hiatus, it allowed me to gain a lot of clarity on how I want my 2019 to look like, and how I want it to feel.

And honestly, it’s not far from what I said last year, except the moment of truth: While I accomplished a lot of other things, I didn’t accomplish one thing that I said was important to me in 2018. If it was so important, and still is, how did I allow that to happen? Having thought a lot about it over the past few weeks, I’ve concluded that:

I couldn’t get unstuck to make some moves.

I started looking at what other’s were doing and tried to figure out how it could work for me.

I was worried about how I would be perceived.

I surrounded myself professionally with people that didn’t “add” to me, but in turn, took.

I asked the universe to guide me, yet I was still trying to steer the ship.

And all of this while I did not have a plan in place to help me succeed in my efforts.

Why?

Because I’ve been terrified of every “what if” out there.

Fear has robbed me blind. BLIND.

Fear has blocked me from seeing some people for who they really are.

And to put it bluntly, fear has stopped me from embracing the life that I was meant to live.

Have you ever thought about how fear manifests in your life? I never really thought about what it meant to live in fear. I saw it as something drastic like the lady that has twelve locks on her door to using sanitizer on everything in public. I never thought that my desire for everything to go right, and trying to understand every simple detail of something meant that I was fearful of things going wrong, so much so, that it was leaving me extremely tired. Sure, we can all be scared of things, but this was a little bit different.

I’ve been lucky to have those who truly have my best interests at heart share their concerns and support me in my journey to make some serious changes. I’m not sure it would’ve clicked for me unless it happened the way that it did.

I have a question for you:

Are you holding yourself back because you can’t control the outcome? Or have you in the past?

What if the outcome was more than you had ever even thought possible?

What if it opened your world up and your passion ran wild?

Those questions have sparked my curiosity, and have pushed me toward change.

Here’s how I’m doing it:

• Making a big picture strategy for each of my businesses: they all have different end goals, so their paths should be treated with a different level of attention and timeliness. Having it all out there with actionable steps makes things seem like they’re do-able and the parts that aren’t, easier to outsource. I’ve found Trello to be a great resource for this and Abagail and Emylee of Think Creative Collective’s course is a GAME CHANGER! Every small business owner needs to take this course.
• Setting my weekly to-do list, calendar and cross-check email on Friday versus Monday morning. This way, if I need any resources to get my work done in the first half of the week, I can get that squared away over the weekend.
• Waking up earlier to transition into the day, including having my cup of coffee or tea. Taking time to appreciate the fact that I woke up.
• Holding more calls or video meetings. I don’t have to meet everyone in person. In fact, I noticed that my next couple of weeks had less than a handful of meetings, so I am going to keep those commitments but otherwise not have any meetings. I’m really looking forward to seeing how I feel afterward.
• When it comes to projects, asking myself “How does this impact my brand and the direction I am trying to go?” If it doesn’t line up with my business growth goals or any of my personal values, then I need to pass (respectfully, of course).
• When it comes to my well being, asking myself how I am feeling, listening to the answer, and supporting myself through growth spurts, even if that means leaning in.
• Nurturing relationships with those that I say mean a lot to me. I have had it flip-flopped the past year and I have some work to do.

I’m mostly making change by learning to trust more. Trusting others, trusting myself, and trusting the process. Fuck fear.

Nobody said it would be easy, but I’m determined to make 2019 a really amazing year. I look forward to taking you with me every step of the way. xo

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Photos by Mae Batista