A few months ago I started working with an amazing nutritionist. As a result, I’ve adopted an entirely new way of eating (I refuse to use the word diet) where I’ve given up processed foods and refined sugars. No cheese, no milk, no white flour, no white sugar.
When people learn about my new eating habits, one of the first questions they ask is if I miss those foods. They want to know if I feel deprived.
But the main emotion I’ve been experiencing over the last few months hasn’t been deprivation – it’s been gratitude.
Every time I look at a bowl of fresh, whole, nourishing food, I feel incredibly grateful. And I can honestly say I never felt that way staring down at a piece of pizza.
I was feeling a whole lot of gratitude last night as I was leaving New York City after Danielle LaPorte and Marie Forleo’s amazing event, Selling Your Soul.
I’ll admit that when I bought the ticket, I did so because I imagined it would be the ultimate networking event – a chance to mix it up with some seriously influential women. What I got instead was a serious dose of soul-searching and clarity from Danielle and Marie. And the networking? Who needs networking when you’re experiencing something even more amazing – the love and support of a group of like-minded women (and two men).
One of the key points Danielle and Marie talked about was your stop doing list. (Or as Marie would say, “a first class ticket on the no train.”) What is it in your business that you need to stop doing? What do you need to say NO to in order to focus on the work that you really need to be doing? What is holding you back from doing the real work that gets you hot and makes you money?
I think we all hesitate to say no to things in our business because we are worried about missing something. We’re worried about depriving ourselves – of money, of opportunity, of having people like us. And as a result we fill our businesses and our time with a lot of junk that not only doesn’t move the business forward, it can literally suck the creativity and the life right out of your business. (And you.)
But what if, instead of worrying about what we were missing, we just stopped doing the things that weren’t important. By getting rid of the junk, we open up space in our business to focus on what is right. And that space and that rightness are what allow you to feel gratitude.
Gratitude is an overlooked but essential part of running your own businesses. Every day, you should feel grateful and blessed about the opportunity you have to run your own business and do what you’re passionate about. If you aren’t feeling the gratitude, it’s time to cut the junk from your business so you can.
PS. Some of you are probably expecting Part 2 of how to edit your videos. I wanted to get out my initial thoughts from yesterday while they were fresh, but I will be sharing the video post later today after I’ve given myself some time to digest more of the amazingness from Selling Your Soul.
Hi Megan! 🙂
I’m going to be working on my stop-doing list over the next week for sure! That was one part of the #SYSoul day that really stood out to me, as well. 🙂
I am sooo ready to creat some space for something new, that next level in my business and life, and I realized that there is a fair bit that I need to put on that “NO” list! 😉
I really loved what Danielle said about things that make you feel weakened, too. Talk about a clear sign that it’s something to STOP doing! 🙂
Thanks for sharing this bit for those of us who couldn’t make the trip.
I’m going to let this question stay with me for a while until it’s fully answered.
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Amen to that! I sometimes forget how much fun I’m having doing everything I love FOR A LIVING, for real, because I workworkwork and it IS fun and feels important but I don’t stop to think…….
We do something simliar called best and worst’ and we will go around the table and share the best part of our day and the worst part of our day. And you’re right They DO start storing their experiences to share and sometimes they can’t wait until dinner to share, like the other morning when our 5yo added bubbles to his morning bath without our knowledge and turned on the jets and the bubbles grew over 5 tall! The kids were building tunnels in them and laughing and enjoying, with such pride from their accomplishment. Even though it was only 7am in the morning, our son declared this is definitely my best’ today! . Great tradition. So glad you shared.VA:F [1.9.21_1169]please wait…
Thanks so much for the encouragement to think about a “stop doing” list.
I agree with what you said, made my list and decided to implement step-by-step my “stop doing” list. First off, and highest priority is to stop selling made-to-order beads.
They suck all creativity out of me, and instead of enjoying myself and having a great time at the torch, I’m feeling forced, fret and are frustrated. And quite frankly – they’re not that profitable at all. I have to write more emails, do additional pics for approval, have to make many extra beads to just get the look of the original picture, and sometimes the customer still doesn’t appreciate that it’s handmade and might look slightly different than on my website (I do have a disclaimer about the made-to-order process and that the end result might be a tiny bit different).
So today is the day. I’ll remove all made-to-order-beads from my webpage. And I feel great about it.
Thank you Megan!