As an entrepreneur, I have to do a bit of planning heading into a new year but some years even that gets overlooked. An eight-page business plan? Who has time for that? This year I was able to attend an early business planning seminar for my business in 2019 which allowed for more time to plan and reflect on the upcoming year. Unbeknownst to me, it was a one page business plan and the two hours were spent chipping away at the mental clutter to get to your three core values you wanted to have in the next year. We were asked to embrace the uncomfortable in order to reset in anticipation for 2019.
Fast forward to a few weekends ago when I was able to attend TedX at the Convention Center. The topic for this TedX was reset and what a completely appropriate topic it was, as we approach a new year. The speakers included presentations about social and political causes with a bit of dancing, music and humor. Some topics were uncomfortable, meant to challenge the way that you think while the host kept reminding the audience to lean into the discomfort to challenge our current thoughts.
Reset (verb) to set again or differently. In order to reset must we take a mirror to ourselves to see the reflection back to us; our weaknesses, fear, addictions, self-doubts and idiosyncrasies. These are the items that we may want to challenge in order to reset a new perspective or approach. For myself, I don’t love public speaking but also am so intrigued with a good presenter. Public speaking is like an art. Recently I joined a local Toastmasters club. It meets every Thursday at 7AM and every Thursday at 6:30 AM I try to convince myself why I don’t need to go. “I am tired.” “I don’t need Toastmasters.” “What if I have to speak?” This is very unlike me as I typically have a high level of self-discipline but Thursday mornings present an inner battle as I drive the one mile to the meeting. For 90 minutes, I anxiously sit as I wait to be asked to talk. Then when I do talk, someone clicks a remote when I say filler words, such as, “um”, “ah” “so”. Talk about a mirror… Very slowly, the battle to go to the meeting gets quieter and my public speaking gets better.
Steven Pressfield, author of War of Art and Turning Pro, would call this inner battle, resistance. Resistance are the items or characteristics that take us further from our dreams or best life. For some people it is addictions, anxiety and/or sabotage. My resistance tends to be my phone (it provides a great distraction to doing the work or being present) and staying busy (no time to do the work!) To find out what your resistance is, you need to look inward and while you are there, take that mirror with you. 🙂
“You don’t need to take a course or buy a product. All you have to do is change your mind. When we turn pro, we give up a life that we may have become extremely comfortable with. We give up a self that we have come to identify with and to call our own. TURNING PRO IS FREE, BUT IT DEMANDS SACRIFICE. The passage from amateur to professional is often achieved via an interior odyssey whose trials are survived only at great cost, emotionally, psychologically and spiritually. We pass through a membrane when we turn pro. It’s messy and it’s scary. We tread in blood when we turn pro. WHAT WE GET WHEN WE TURN PRO. What we get when we turn pro is we find our power. We find our will and our voice and we find our self-respect. We become who we always were but had, until then, been afraid to embrace and live out.” – Steven Pressfield, Turning Pro.
What will you do to reset for a great start to 2019? Start by considering what you want to accomplish this year – public speaking, buying and/or selling a home, a new home, starting a family, retiring? What you want to do will be different than anyone else but whatever it is will require work and a new you. In order to get there, you will need to determine what you will need to challenge and reset.
Liz is broker and owner of Liz Daigle Realty.
