Breaking Up is Hard to Do. Or Is It?

Recently, I was faced with the challenge of making a very difficult business decision, one that I agonized over for weeks before finally coming to a definitive conclusion. I needed to make a critical choice: do I continue with a program that I had been offering my clients for four years which was a personally rewarding yet incredibly time and energy consuming effort OR do I press the pause button and pivot in order to regain that coveted time and energy to devote to burgeoning efforts to further propel my business?

The age-old trick of making a “pro/con” list was somewhat helpful. But I was still stuck. What was nagging at me? Why was this data not pushing me in the direction that was so clearly obvious and apparent on paper? What was stopping me from cutting ties with this initiative and why was it so damn difficult to “just do it?” The answer didn’t become clear to me until AFTER I actually made the decision and publically announced it to my clients. The reason it was so challenging for me to come to this conclusion was BECAUSE I WAS AFRAID OF HOW IT WOULD IMPACT OTHERS. I was putting other people’s feelings, reactions, and needs before my own.

As an entrepreneur, here’s one thing I know for sure: there will always be a steady stream of responsibilities vying for our attention. Some responsibilities are justified and some are simply distractions. And yet, if we become immersed in all of them, we run the risk of losing our sanity. Sometimes, we need to put ourselves first, even before our clients. Because like every flight attendant has ever warned, “You need to put your oxygen mask on first before helping others.” Otherwise, we end up helping no one.

-PRIORITIZE, PEOPLE. Look, we are each just one person and there are only so many hours in the day. The sooner we stop fighting this, the better off we’ll be. We can’t change the time continuum so let’s stop trying. We MUST take a good look at our days, weeks, years and say to ourselves, “What do I NEED to accomplish? What do I WANT to accomplish? What am I CAPABLE of accomplishing?” Make that list and check it twice. Prioritize the heck out of it and MOVE ON!

-NOT ALL BUSINESS IS GOOD BUSINESS. Sometimes things that serve us early on in our business cease to do so as we mature, both as individuals and entities. It’s critical to be able to gracefully pivot from adventure to adventure. Recognizing what is no longer working for us from a business perspective is equally as important in acknowledging what does serve us. That’s not called failure, my friends. That’s called GROWTH.

-LISTEN TO YOUR GUT. SHE’S SCREAMING AT YOU. How many times have you trusted your gut? There’s a very good reason for that: she’s rarely wrong. So often we get that nagging little feeling that tells us, “You know what you need to do.” And yet, we continue to try and silence it with excuses and justification. I have news for you ladies, we need to stop apologizing and justifying our own decisions. They are ours. We have good reasons for them. That needs to be enough. Embrace your decisions and feel good about them! It can be incredibly freeing.

It’s true. At first, I thought this most recent break up with my own business offering was tough. But upon further reflection, I realize it was the best decision I could have possibly made for the future of my business…and my sanity. Breaking up might seem hard to do. But falling back in love with everything I’ve regained has been easy.

©Copyright 2019 Kim Miles, Founder and CEO, Miles in Heels Productions, LLC