How easy is it for you to find time and space in your calendar to work on the really important things to you?

You know, the things that will advance your business or improve how you work?

Here’s a thought.

What if the act of creating space for meaningful work is just as powerful as the space itself?

If creating space in your business feels like a big lift, I want to invite you to think about how the practice of creating time and space for important initiatives is a fundamental skill a founder and owner can cultivate.

We can all relate to the owner that wears all the hats. Bookkeeping, Sales, Customer Service, Leader, HR, Manager, etc. You may be at this stage right now.

Even when you have team members occupying these roles, the work of an owner and founder is rarely a calendar of open space.

However, the owner and founder that is able to create some white space is the one that goes farther. Their companies seem to advance, evolve and grow further…

How often do you celebrate your progress and accomplishments?

I know you have all of them - I see you doing all the things in your business and in leadership.

From getting that new role, hiring a new manager, adding a new admin person, capturing a process you’ve been meaning to, taking more personal time, booking that vacation…..

From small to large these are no easy feats and I invite you to celebrate them.

Ah the zen vacation, the year long sabbatical, the parental leave, the short mini-break where you immersed yourself in 4 days at the beach or hiking in the back woods somewhere.

And, now it’s time to head back to work.

Heading back to work can sometimes feel like a mixed bag of emotions no matter if you run your own business or are an employee.

There have been years where I’ve reluctantly gone back (almost in tears), some years when I’ve been indifferent and years where I genuinely looked forward to starting back on Monday morning. Luckily, the latter has been much more often.

Where ever you are…the feelings you have when you’re ’heading back in’ can be telling. We often want to push them aside and get on with it, but did you know that those emotions and feelings hold incredible amounts of information for you?

If you’re feeling reluctant, anxious, dread, uncertainty, sadness, joy, or excitement, there’s information in here not to be shoved aside, but to be experienced and listened to. And then, what to do about that information?

How do we turn disappointments in your business and leadership into a profound path forward that will lead us to future wins?

We’ve all felt it. The time when our customer didn’t come on board.

That moment where our idea fell flat in the boardroom and ultimately was glossed over.

That moment when our proposal wasn’t accepted.

That time when our manager didn’t seek our input on an important direction, when you felt you had been integral up to that point.

Instead of going to down the path, which so often might occur, of spinning out in a spiral of feeling put down, de-motivated, which then can lead into, ‘am I cut out for this?’ or ‘why does this always happen to me’ I’d like to make another suggestion.

Connecting to your work is easy for some and can be difficult for others. There are many factors that can impact how much you connect with the work you do, such as your career stage, proper job fit, etc. etc., but regardless of where you are, there are things that you can do to enhance your enjoyment of your work.

It’s something you may…or may not have heard before.

When it comes to looking for new opportunities within your company or organization, it really comes down to two things - who knows you and who knows what you are capable of. In other words, it comes down to exposure.

Often I hear from clients that come to see me is that they feel 'stuck'. They feel stuck in their job or career and they have no idea what to do about it.

In my years of working as a sales professional and teaching sales at a Fortune 500 company, I've seen people held back by their own self-diagnosed assessments that they 'can't sell' or don't know 'how to sell'. 

I now coach people who are promoting their small businesses or in career transition and I've seen trends that can make a big impact to your personal sales process (whether selling your skills, product or service).

There’s an event that takes place around this time of year that can fill us with a mixture of both positive anticipation and dread.