Getting back to loving what is

Over the last several months, there have been a number of important shifts happening in my business. Some are perfectly normal and comfortable and leave me wondering why I haven't always done things this way; others, quite frankly, scare the bejeebus out of me. Through all of it, I've found myself caught up in wishing - feeling like I need to overhaul my office, my internal processes, even the way I market the studio. This morning, what I realized I hadn't been doing at all was taking time to actually appreciate what I've spent the last five years building. And I wondered: hokey as the thought may seem, what would it look like if I spent less time constantly wishing things were different, and spent some time simply loving what is?

As independent professionals, we spend a lot of time learning. We read books, articles, blogs, all by people calling themselves experts, all proposing some new way that we need to do things in order to succeed. But how often do we really listen to ourselves? How often do we sit back, really look at where we are, and trust that we know what to do? And frankly, when everyone who owns an independent service business (and trust me, I count among that number) is writing all these articles trying to prove that they're an "expert" in something, how do we figure out who to listen to and who to ignore?

I'm beginning to think the answer lies in shutting down the noise - at least for a little while - and going back into ourselves. I think we need to start with what we do know, and then worry about what to add to that knowledge. I think that we need to trust that we're enough.