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What happens when you realise your path is entrepreneurship rather than employment? Lindsay takes up the challenge and shares an account of her journey as it unfolds…

Despite the last blog on feeling renewed, I have to admit a tad of insecurity that happened just before it, and how I got over it.

Here’s the scenario. You’re running a business. It’s in start-up mode. Currently, the vision is still imagined fiction. Suddenly, the ground starts crumbling from under your feet, then starts to collapse into an endless abyss. With your stomach in freefall and your eyes and mouth wide open in a silent scream, you’re scrambling with the rocks and the dirt, plunging downwards in fear and dread.

Unless you get out of that, it’s the end. In fact, I would guess that many small businesses fail because this is the unbearable part that defies any reason to continue. Sometimes this fear and dread only lasts for 5 minutes, sometimes it lasts for days – but this is where owners bail out.

While falling, they find a small tree sticking out of the precipice called ‘job application’ and desperately cling on to it – anything to escape the start-up-horror-fear.

The worst thing of course, is knowing that the branch you grabbed, the one poking out of that precipice, becomes your new reality. You get the job and you’re in it now based on a motivational backdrop of fear and failure, constantly hanging in that, but not falling.

Or you can change your reality:

• You can choose to believe that the job was the best option (maybe it is) and see it in a whole new context. Maybe it’s a cute little tree that bears sweet fruit every now and again. It’s nestling in a fluffy warm green glade and you’re happy you’re there. It could grow into a big, more interesting tree. Maybe it will give you the time you need to climb back into a new start up. It’s okay – whatever you choose is the right choice at the time.
• Or maybe you didn’t grab on to the branch and you were never falling at all. The ground didn’t crumble beneath your feet – it was all just a situation you created in your head. You know you love being self-employed. You just need to enjoy it and give up the panic! Maybe it will be great, maybe you’ll adjust things and it will be something else, whatever – it’ll be fine. Lighten up for Christs sake!

Easy to say, right? Just ‘see it in a new context?’

Well that’s what I did, and here’s how.

I called up my friend Mindy and said “Help! What am I doing? Who do I think I am? Maybe I don’t have the skills to run this business – I am falling!!”

Like the good friend she is, she said “Who says you don’t have the skills, I think you do, and anyway, whatever you project outwards will come back to you so stop panicking.”

“What do you mean?”, I said.

She continued, “Whatever you send out to the universe will be what you get back – so if you’re happy and friendly, you’ll meet happy and friendly people. If you’re concerned and preoccupied, you’ll find things to concern and preoccupy you.”

Of course! What sense! I knew this! Manifestation starts from inside. Why did I need reminding?

Call it projecting to the universe, the law of attraction, what you give is what you get: the meaning is the same. I know that I enjoy the Mirror Mirror journey. I love being creative, choosing what to work on and when, connecting with people, and I believe in the concept. It’s rock on! What’s the point of panicking?

(Maybe that’s it – the time to bail out is when you stop believing.)

If someone had told me I’d be doing this 3 years ago I’d have been delighted! Who knows where it will go – Mindy is right – project what you want to receive.

And I also knew myself. I can be a little intense, a little pushy, and a little direct. Slow down, lighten up, go with the flow – it will work better – for me, for the business, and for everyone around it.

Stuck to the front of my laptop is now a Post-It Note saying: “Relax. Enjoy. Balance. Value.” That’s what I want. That’s what I need to be.

Of course you can’t just change who you are but with awareness you can choose behavioural habits. You can! Think about what you want and whether that’s connected with the signals you send out.

So, that was it. That was the missing step before I wrote the previous blog. I just thought I should share it with you.

Now at Schiphol airport on my way to meet Zackes and Weibke, a couple of practitioners in Berlin who are keen to learn about Mirror Mirror and get a test client there. I’ve been in contact with them for weeks and prepped the materials. Exciting! (In a relaxed, balanced way, of course! 🙂

Tell you about how it went next time.

Mirror Mirror allows teams to develop a shared picture of ‘where they are now’ so they have the clarity, alignment, and momentum needed to progress to ‘where they want to go next’. www.mirrormirrorhub.com

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