I’m finding that re-visiting the foundation of your business at the start of the year (instead of charging at some new goals) can be a nourishing business-self-care practice.

My typical clients are women or more feminine-energy embodying peeps who carved out an online business for themselves at least partly so that they can…

…do things their own way

…work on their own schedule

…spend time on the thing that lights them up

…have more time to spend on not work things that light them up

…create more financial flow in their lives

These tend to be more “being” goals than “doing” goals. It’s not so much achievement oriented as it is state of being oriented.

That’s how I like to move in the world and within my business too.

But, (and maybe you’ve done a bit of this yourself too), as I’ve gone about GROWING my business, it’s taken on a bit more of a goal-oriented energy.

Now, I’m not a hustler. Been there, got burnt the F out. I have pretty solid boundaries. I will not work late or on days that I don’t want to. I did make a solid income increase in 2022 working LESS. And still, lots of “have to’s” crept into my business…

…have to launch this

…have to post new YouTube video weekly

…have to post consistently to social

…have to work on this client project that day so I have time for this other thing too

It doesn’t feel light or supported, which happen to be two of my ‘core desired feelings’ (as Danielle LaPorte would say) for 2023.

Now, don’t get me wrong, consistency and reliability are important to my business. But it’s the energy behind how I show up that makes the difference. So I’m going to do 2023 differently.

And if you feel like you’ve gotten a little spread thin or out of alignment or stuck chasing things you’re not sure that you want, then I invite you to do the same!

If any of this is resonating with you, Danielle LaPorte’s The Desire Map can be a great resource. She has a framework for identifying core desired feelings, setting goals that generate those core desired feelings, and going about achieving those goals in ways that also generate those core desired feelings.

Here’s a passage (one of my favorites) that I re-read this morning:

I met SARK at a cocktail party. SARK is also known as Susan Ariel Rainbow Kennedy, and her posters and books, like Succulent Wild Woman, Living Juicy, and dozens of others, have been read by millions. She dazzles in person. I wanted to sit at her feet and hear any wisdom she wanted to give. We connected immediately. “Tell me anything!” I said. “Like, what’s your thing these days? Anything.” She didn’t skip a beat. She looked me straight in the eye and, all sparkly but deadly serious, she said, “No striving.”

I whispered it back to her, nodding my head up and down like I’d just heard the secret password of all time. “No striving.” And then I upped the volume to eureka-level. “No striving! Oh my God, you have no idea how much I needed to hear this right now,” I told her. We chanted it together (chant it with me now): “No striving.” And we giggled like pretty witches.