Imagine going for a drive. It’s a sunny Sunday and the road is clear. Your car smells nice, the radio is playing your favorite music, you’ve got your favorite snack. You’re in no rush, going nowhere, just driving around.
It’s nice isn’t it? Just driving around? Enjoying your Sunday.
Then it starts to rain. It gets dark. You run out of snacks, the radio is all ads, and your kids start asking how much further. And yes, you really have to pee.
Suddenly, just driving around doesn’t seem so fun. Now you really just want to get there.
But wait. Where is there? How much longer do you have to go? And where even are you going?
Sometimes running a business – or your life – is like driving that car.
When everything goes well, you don’t mind going with the flow. You don’t mind taking a detour. You don’t mind trying out all the things, paying for all the services, and working all the hours.
But then burnout starts to creep in. Maybe an algorithm changes. Maybe you lose half of your income overnight. Suddenly, doing all the things isn’t so fun anymore. You kinda want to do something else now. And you start to wonder when you’re allowed to stop.
The problem with being an entrepreneur is, no one can tell you. No one can decide this for you. You’re the only one who can say when enough is enough, when you have arrived, and what that looks like.
But first you need to know where you’re even going.
I had no idea where I was going
For a long, long time, I had no idea where I was going.
I thought I did.
If you asked me 15 years ago, I would have said that yes, I did have a vision for my life. Easy! I wanted to be rich. Not just normal people rich, but rich-rich. And I wanted a fancy job. Something impressive.
For a while I built my life according to that vision. I went to a good college, I got good grades, I did extracurriculars, I had internships, I got a fancy job as a management consultant and worked long, long hours. I made more money straight out of college than most people do after 30 years. All in the pursuit of getting rich.
And I found myself getting increasingly depressed. I didn’t like my job. I didn’t like my life. I’d done the corporate thing for just a few years and I could not imagine doing it for five more, let alone 40! The only thing I enjoyed was drinking, partying and working out until exhasted – anything to make me forget about my life.
Something had to change. As it turns out – a lot of things did. But it all started with realizing what was even important to me.
I was headed in the exact wrong direction
After a bout of serious burnout, a change of jobs, and a lot of yoga, meditation and soul searching, one day – mid meditation – I realized one thing for sure: I did not care if I had a fancy job.
This was a revelation to me.
I had been so caught up in it all that I had never even paused to consider if having a fancy job was going to have any impact whatsoever on my happiness. It was not, I realized.
Yes, my ego thought it was important. My ego wanted me to have the fanciest job of everyone I went to school with. But my ego was not in charge of my happiness.
A while later, I had another revelation: I wanted freedom. I did want money, yes, but for the sake of freedom. Not if it required me to work 60 hour weeks in an office doing something I didn’t care about. Then I’d rather make less and have more free time.
So while I really wanted freedom, I was driving toward the opposite type of life. No wonder I was depressed!
At 10, I knew more than at 30
Around this time I started to reconnect with the 10-year-old version of myself. I realized that for all the savvy of 20 and 30 year old me, she was much more clear on what she wanted.
That girl wanted money, sure. Serious money! But not for money’s sake. She wanted money because she knew money was the reason she didn’t have her own pony. Money was the reason she couldn’t do all the things she wanted to. Money was the reason mom & dad fought a lot.
She wanted money so she could live on a farm. So she could have all the horses and spend all day riding them. She wanted money so she could go to competitions and win ribbons. She wanted money so she wouldn’t have to worry about bills the way mom & dad did.
I aligned with my 10-year-old self
Fast forward 10 years from burnout, and I am well on my way to living my 10-year-old’s dream life. And mine! Because, honestly, it hasn’t changed all that much.
I run my own business and have all the freedom I could ever ask for. I make enough money to do what I want. I live in the countryside and spend all my time with my dog, my friends and my horse. I even live and keep my horse in a place that looks exactly like what I would imagine as a kid…
Call it manifestation or call it pursuing a vision (I call it both), but it works, and I am living proof.
I’m so grateful I figured out where I was going
I don’t know where I’d have been now if I hadn’t stopped the car and figured out where I was actually going. Not somewhere as good as this, of that I’m sure. Maybe I’d have had more money. But I’d probably have been an alcoholic and on antidepressants as well.
Instead, I plan to finish writing this and then go ride my horse outside in the sunny weather. And I am so, so grateful.
Long story short, come join me!
Wherever you want to go in life, whatever your goals are, it all starts with one thing: you need to know where you are going. If not, how will you know which turns to take, and when you have arrived?
If you want to figure out where you’re going and how to get there – without burning out – join me here at The Work Less Project. Here I share everything I’ve learned about vision, purpose, goal setting and productivity – all topics I’m seriously passionate about.
Get ready for hard questions, easy fixes, and lots of recommended reading.
