REDEFINE WHAT SUCCESS MEANS DURING COVID-19
None of us were prepared for the NOW … the now of:
kids being home from school every day
large numbers of people dying around the world
events and weddings being canceled
being forced to stay home 24/7
learning how to homeschool your kids
being socially distanced from everyone
etc, etc, etc
And I think heavier than all of that???
THE UNKNOWN OF THE NOW
I hate not knowing the answers to any of the following questions:
How long will this last?
When will life return to something similar to the before?
What will happen to my business during all this?
What will happen to my family financially during this?
Will I get COVID-19?
Do I have underlying health issues I just don’t know about?
Worse: do my kids?
When you get it are you then immune?
Is this going to lead to a Great Depression in our world?
etc, etc, etc …
The now is scary, and it’s making me realize that I have to:
REDEFINE WHAT SUCCESS MEANS TO ME
Success for my business (The Editor’s Touch) used to come from hours of alone time … time to creatively binge on a project without being interrupted … Time to schedule phone calls with clients or potential clients and know I could give them my full attention.
I REALLY LOVE MY ALONE TIME.
As a creative, getting into the flow of something and having the vision in your mind unfold in front of you for a client is exhilarating … it’s what feeds my soul when it comes to my job … and I’ve had to redefine what that time looks like now. It now includes MANY interruptions from two kids … it includes a background noise of my kids arguing with each other or playing Fortnite or listening to YouTubeKids videos … it includes a lot of: I’m Hungry-ies … A LOT of those … and:
IT’S FRUSTRATING.
Maybe you have a job where working from home feels impossible … maybe you don’t have kids but there is something else going on that is holding you back from reaching what success meant BEFORE this current state of the world.
I do know one thing during the NOW … and that is: ADAPTING IS CRUCIAL. The ‘before’ doesn’t matter right NOW … it doesn’t care, it’s not happening, it’s not important. Do we miss it??? YEP!!! Do we want it back??? OH YEAH!!! But the sooner we learn to adapt to our current state of life for our business, for our parenting, for our lives … the better we’ll feel in general.
Get out a piece of paper or open up a new blog post and decide what success looks like today. I know for me, I’ve made a lot of adjustments in my mind for what a ‘good parent’ is. I’ve had to give myself a break and remind myself that if I’m not entertaining my kids all day long, they will be OK … that I can’t be expected to drop my job and ‘mom’ full time because I can’t let my business drown in this sh*t. It’s helped me in a huge way … I’ve had to sit and rethink my business model and figure out what I can do now to create more success for myself after this fog lifts … one of those things was rebranding myself and redesigning my own website … so make a list! And then attack it! If anything, it will lead to the success of feeling like you still have a purpose as a small business owner … that you are still valid and important … and that can be a life boat during a time like now.
XO~ Heather
