When things get hard, what actually helps you get through?
As a small business owner, there are words that cut you (the bank loan rejection letter), there are words that delight you (the perfect candidate accepting your job offer) and then there are words that stay with you, giving you a little inspiration when you need it or reminding you that you’re not alone in your struggles or your unwavering belief in your dreams.
This last week has been a rough one for small business owners in my home state of Melbourne, Victoria. Forced into a snap 5-day lockdown, I heard from so many small biz owners who were getting swept up in negative thoughts and consumed by anxious exhaustion. Thankfully, unlike so many people around the world, we were able to come out of lockdown this past Thursday.
Before the lockdown lifted I found myself sending quotes and phrases to people — clients, friends, strangers — to help them as they battled with moments of uncertainty, stress and challenge. I thought I'd share five of the most impactful in today's blog.
Whether you're loving life right now or needing all the hugs / elbow bumps you can get, I hope they inspire and move you. I have found myself calling on them many, many times in my own business and life.
In no particular order...
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1. What comes out of your mouth, comes into your life. — Jen Sincero
I heard this quote recently while listening to an audiobook. It literally stopped me in my tracks. Life may be uncertain but we can choose how much fuel we add to the fire by reflecting on our own language and words, especially that which we say to ourselves. How much are you dwelling in negative thoughts? How much are you challenging what comes out of your mouth?
2. You can't write a script in your mind and then force yourself to follow it. You have to let yourself be.— Chimamanda Ngozi Adichie
The Thing Around Your Neck was the first book I read by this incredible author, back in 2009, and I have been reading everything she has written ever since. These words, from Half of a Yellow Sun, are a reminder that expectations, as Brene Brown once said, are simply "resentments waiting to happen". 2020 certainly didn't go as many of us had hoped. 2021 may not either. Life is all about adapting, changing, tweaking and being OK to ride the wave sometimes without knowing exactly where it will take us.
3. Until one is committed, there is hesitancy, the chance to draw back, always ineffectiveness. Concerning all acts of initiative (and creation), there is one elementary truth the ignorance of which kills countless ideas and splendid plans: that the moment one definitely commits oneself, then providence moves too. A whole stream of events issues from the decision, raising in one's favour all manner of unforeseen incident, meetings and material assistance, which no man could have dreamt would have come his way...Whatever you can do or dream you can, begin it. Boldness has genius, power and magic in it! Begin it now! — W.H. Murray
I heard these words first when Sir Bob Geldof shared them live on stage, at a talk I attended in 2015. I was 24 hours off resigning from a well-paid exec role to start my current business. I was racked with doubt and yet, once I heard these (and heard Geldof's own doubts planning Live Aid) I knew I had to commit, take the leap and put my faith in "the unknown" working out. I've come back to these words countless times in my business, especially when doing something scary or new.
4. When you come to the end of all the light you know, and it's time to step into the darkness of the unknown, faith is knowing that one of two things shall happen: Either you will be given something solid to stand on or you will be taught to fly. — Edward Teller
I have shared these words with everyone from a new client going through a custody battle, through to a friend who had attempted suicide and in both cases, they led to conversations that perhaps may not have been as open and honest without them. So much of life is unknown and it is in our ability to embrace that, that we really uncover our strength.
5. Life is amazing. And then it's awful. And then it's amazing again. And in between the amazing and awful, it's ordinary and mundane and routine. Breathe in the amazing, hold on through the awful and relax and exhale during the ordinary. That's just living heartbreaking, soul-healing, amazing, ordinary life. And it's breathtakingly beautiful. — L.R. Knost
I read these words, for the first time, just a few days ago while starting Kate James' book, Create Calm. They perfectly sum up what life is all about.
I believe that words have power, they hold meaning and, like music, they can flip the script in our minds in seconds. I hope the words above give you food for thought and a little inspiration, for business or life or both, as you commence this next week.