This last couple of years have challenged almost everyone I know. Doesn’t matter if they are a business owner, manager, worker, social service provider, sport fanatic, performer.
It could be that the challenge is how to keep up. More likely it is how to keep from reaching bottom. There hasn’t been much of the middle ground.
When we are caught in the moment we can forget about all of the blessings that have come to our life for many years. Psychologists have theorized that it is easier for us to remember disasters than of good times. So, because of that we should actively count our blessings.
In my youth, I could have gone down a dark path due to my brother and I having a single working mom who died of alcoholism at the age of 38. But, at the same time, I was taught, at a very young age, the value of work and always striving to improve oneself. That alone lifted me up any number of times in my life.
I could complain about some of the dead end jobs I had. But that wouldn’t have pushed me to go to college at the age of 28 and graduate 8 years later Cum Laude.
I could also complain about my one employer that was using client funds to pay for business expenses instead of client bills. But that wouldn’t have pushed me to understand the importance of ethical business practices that go well beyond the bare minimum.
Moving to another state was also a challenge. It was for a better job but the move was anything but smooth. Commuting for 9 months, living in my in-laws house with 3 children under 4, then in a hotel for a week, before moving into the house the month that the longest heat wave ever recorded occurred. But it has been a great house for all these years, with lots of great memories. The move was also the hardest struggle that our marriage ever encountered making anything that followed, chicken feed.
Having 2 children with disabilities, one pretty significant, taught us a lot about ourselves and how to move past the statements, “we can’t do that”, or “it hasn’t been done before”.
And while I opened a new business at the beginning of the pandemic that has experienced its own challenges, I have made so many connections with great people who have great hearts that they help me to look forward to the coming year.
The questions to you are these-
-What are you thankful for right now?
-What was the greatest achievement for yourself or your business in the last year?
-What did you do to celebrate it?
-What has energized you about the coming year?
-What can you do to keep that energy going?
The answers to these questions will help ground you on what is important for you and your business.
I wish you all the best in overcoming anything that comes your way in the coming year.
Originally published on Medium - December 20, 2012