An Exercise to Remain

It's been a wild year of growth. I streamlined my service suite and tightened up my client experience and this past year everything clicked. My business flourished and grew.

My sister and I merged our businesses and formed a brand agency, Animella that was successful from the day we launched.

So, naturally, I've thought about "What's next?". In business you're always thinking about the future and next steps to scale and grow. With my personality, I live for this phase. The dreaming and planning and conceptualizing. For someone like me, this is what makes me tick.

Then this summer came and I made an uncomfortable decision.

I decided I didn't need to be chasing growth right now.

Something in me gently invited me to remain content with where things were at-professionally and financially. I didn't feel I needed to take on extra jobs, earn more money or think about the next thing. Almost unconsciously, I made the decision to remain.

Here's what happened- I have had more quality time with my three daughters. I sleep in later than I normally would. Since I can sleep in later I can stay up later so I decided my girls and I needed to watch all the Marvel movies because I've never seen them. I meet my girlfriends for dates at the pool and while the kids play we drink sparkling rose. I meet my husband for midday lunch dates. I savor the days.

Here's another thing that happened- I woke up in the night a couple times panicked. I started feeling a tug to do more and make more money for future stability. I questioned my decision to turn down more jobs. I wondered if not thinking about my next advancement would stagnate my growth.

I realized that my success had become a thing of beauty and blessing. But, I had also given it too much weight.

Because when I define true success, it's in a life of quality and presence with the people around me that I love- the ones I work so hard for. It's not in my professional gains and growth.

So I'm going to remain in this uncomfortable spot of contentment a while longer and see what else it has to teach me.

And I'm going to finish the Marvel movie series with my girls and enjoy some more mid-day rose with my girlfriends at the pool and lunch dates with my love.