Ready for a Comeback

Have you ever started a project with so many great intentions and so much umph, then the motivation fizzled away? Have you started your book or blog, only to get hit with writer’s block? Did you start your podcast, then stop recruiting new guests? Did you open your online boutique, then didn’t refresh your inventory? 

These are all things that I have experienced, and situations for which my clients have come to me for support. Before you call me out… let me call myself out… How can I help people get back on task, when I struggle with getting and staying on task myself? Easy. It’s always easier to see what’s going on in someone else’s life. It’s not so easy taking a hard look in the mirror to see what’s going on in yours. 

The Phoenix has Fallen

So I’ve hit a cross road. I had this beautiful idea of uniting business owners together during the COVID crisis, through The Phoenix Project, by creating a platform for business owners to support each other during COVID. Things were going well, interviews were being recorded and engagement was starting to happen when I was overwhelmed with uncertainty, fear and sadness with the racial issues that gripped the nation. I got sucked into “The Matrix” and couldn’t find my way out. 

So for 2 months, as I’ve been… 

• grieving for my nation suffering through hate and uncertainty; 
• struggling as a parent of an extremely social child trying to survive isolation; 
• trying to manage my clients, while also managing my mental and physical health; and
• searching for the motivation and courage to put myself back out there…

I’ve learned some very important things about myself and even more about navigating through a crisis. Like I tell my clients, “nothing wasted…” I’m choosing to use this “failure” as a teachable moment.

Lessons Learned

Lesson Number 1: Forgive Yourself

If you’ve read this far, I’m assuming it’s because you can relate to having started something that you weren’t able to finish, for one reason or another.

Welcome.

You’re in good company.

It’s also important for you to forgive yourself right now for letting yourself (or your followers or your clients or whomever you’re carrying guilt for) down, and gently forgiving yourself. The quicker you are to forgive yourself and move past the disappointment, the quicker you’ll be able to recover. I know disappointment, guilt, fear, and other negative emotions can weigh us down. I also know it isn’t always easy to move past them. But you have to remember that on the other side of forgiveness, is your enlightenment and rebirth.

Lesson Number 2: Learn from yourself

Emotions are powerful. But too much of a good thing is just that, too much. By objectively taking the guilt and negative feelings away from the situation, you are able to receive the lessons, insights, and information that your previous attempts provide. That’s not something you can get from anywhere but good ole fashioned experience.

In my case, I literally did a deep dive into the evolution of a national crisis… only to get hit with the crisis at a personal level… and abandon my own recovery process. So as I revisited what I had learned from my past, my behavior through this recent crisis just proved that I knew what I was talking about in the first place. Cute, huh?

But let me get to this last point.

Lesson Number 3: Trust Divine Timing

Over the past couple of years, I have added things like meditation, setting intentions, and visualizations to my daily prayer and bible reading and spiritual practices. As a result, I have learned to trust things that I don’t understand at the moment or that work against my plans. Learning to trust my intuition and instinct has helped me know when to slow down and when to speed up. 

Some pauses or halts in plans are not full stops. I think about what would have happened if I would have just pushed through The Phoenix Project with my original plans and original timing without understanding the context of what was happening in our country and in my own backyard…how many people would not have seen the messages I was producing while in the midst of the news of murder, riots and protests in the streets. I also think about how I just knew this was all going to blow over by May or June, and we’d be back to business as usual, only to be confronted with our new reality.. This pause has given me an opportunity to listen and observe what is going on in the world around us, the possibility of real change; and this has enabled me to come to the table with more meaningful ways to provide support to my entrepreneurial and small business community.

At the time, I didn’t know there was going to be a better and more impactful way to present The Phoenix Project, as we push toward permanent solutions vs temporary fixes. Hindsight really is 20/20 and this year has given us some major lessons and insights into the world we thought we knew. Yes. “20/20 in 2020”… the perfect time for reflection, renewal, and rebirth, for The Phoenix Project.

For Real, Though

In conclusion, I had been feeling some kind of way about not staying consistent with The Phoenix Project. It felt like something that I had started that I couldn’t finish… again. But as I really thought about what I believed the community needed right now, I realized that this time has allowed me to mature and develop, to be refined and proved through a fire that was larger than just me, and it has prepared me to move forward with The Phoenix Project as it deserves to be shared–organically, realistically, and thoughtfully, with humility. 

Don’t let your perception of a failure keep you from getting back up and starting again stronger. It doesn’t matter what it is. It can be a dream, a career, a project, a relationship… There’s always time to re engage and come back stronger. It’s called resilience.

To learn more about The Phoenix Project, click here.