Darlings!

Yesterday was my FOUR year anniversary of being self-employed. I can barely believe it!

I've been reflecting back on what these four years of independence and exploration and self-sufficiency has taught me, and I keep coming back to this one thing: You just don't stop. I said it best on my first anniversary.

But other than not-stopping, you also have to constantly change, shift and grow. Your business doesn't necessarily need to grow, but YOU do. You experience things, learn from them, and then (this is the step it's easiest to skip), you have to apply those lessons to the next things you do. 

And that – knowing that you're going to learn from everything, and then apply it to your next endeavor – that is what gives you the bravery to keep moving forward. So many of the creatives that write me are worried – worried they don't know enough, aren't good enough, are going to mess it all up. But, honey, of course you worry. Of course you don't know everything.

The trick to having a business (that pays your bills + supports your book habit) is to trust yourself.

Trust that you'll learn your lessons.

Trust that you'll do the next right thing, when the time comes. (It's ok if you don't know what that is ahead of time!)

Trust that, with regular review, your business will teach you absolutely everything you need to know.

I've been wondering how to celebrate this anniversary, and this morning (while I was crunching my quarterly numbers!) it hit me:

Help me celebrate by starting to trust yourself.

Take the first step to trusting yourself, by looking at what your business wants to teach you right now. In order to help you with that, I'm sharing one of the mini-books we use inside the Starship.

Today or tomorrow, hold a quarterly review, and listen in to your business. Notice what's working, what didn't, and what you want to change in the coming quarter. You can do this with the workbook, by downloading it here. (Totally free! That link opens up the PDF.)

And then, use what you learn to shape your upcoming path. Use it to move forward. Use it trust yourself. 

PS. When I quit, I shared the full story here. 2 years later, I shared the Declarations of Independence of some of my favorite people.

The Starship is now boarding! Come aboard for regular review (like this! But with support!), weekly live chats, solo-sessions with me, and utter hilarity. Boarding closes THIS FRIDAY, so beam aboard here.

Oh dear, have you noticed that it's the end of June?
And with the end of June, comes the end of the second quarter, and the end of the first half of 2013.
I like to take this opportunity (really the whole month, starting with my birthday) to look at the year so far and figure out what's going well, and what I want to bring into my life in the rest of the year.

I find this regular reviewing deeply satisfying. Not only does it give me a moment to stop and celebrate (always a good thing!), it helps me spot the connections between what felt like a seemingly random collection of events. Perhaps the conversation I had with one client sparked a class, and now the students in that class are needing something else. Or perhaps the sudden spike in signed book orders points me towards my next project (hint: it does!).

At the beginning of the year I wrote (to email subscribers):

“One thing I know for sure is that you have to make it easy to succeed. Easy to remember the lessons you've learned, easy to do your to-do list. You have to set up your days (and weeks and months and year) so that you just naturally do what you have to do. And that's what I'm adding into the Starship – a flexible frame that puts success in your way, so you can't miss it.”

In the next few months I brought more regular review of our intentions to the Starship and I was pretty delighted when the members loved it. Just  last week in the chat, Beverly said, “One of the aspects I love best about the Starship is the predictability of the weekly check-in questions, of the quarterly reflection prompts, of the map-making process. The rhythm of it all grounds me.”

In the always-changing, sometimes-bewildering world of your own business it's easy to just keep moving and miss what your people and your business is telling you. So how about taking a moment and reflecting and grounding yourself in where you are right now, with the lessons you've learned and the things you've accomplished?

You can start by writing a big list of what you've done, what you wanted to do, and what you were inspired by.

Or, you can answer some specific questions:

What have you learned in 2013?

What would you like to celebrate? 

What has truly helped your business grow? And what got in the way?

These lessons are the seeds of your next crop of decisions, your next harvest of business growth.

Are you making it easy to succeed by building in rituals and review?

If you need some help and would like the gentle structure of regular accountability, the Starship is now boarding new cadets. Come aboard here.

Instructions for when you don't know what to do next.

First, do something really fun. Whatever you deem to be FUN counts.

Then, sit down with your journal and take 3 deep breaths.

Ask yourself: If I really could do anything, what do I want to do?

Start writing.

Ask yourself: What's the bigger picture I'm working towards? (it might be: 8 hours of sleep, paying off debt, leaving the dayjob)

Ask yourself: What could I do today that would get me closer to that big picture?

And that's it.

There's nothing you can read or class you can take that will give you answer clearer than what you'll find out fromanswering those questions calmly (calm is vital! If you're freaking out, your answers will be doomdoomdoom.)

You see, I work with makers who insist that they do not know what to do next. They're not sure of the next step to take in their business or their life, and they write me to ask if working with me is going to help them figure that out.

I used to write back: No, only you can know where you want to go.

That's true, and in my work, I don't tell anyone what they should do. You gotta find that for yourself.

But after a recent solo-session with a Captain, I realize that's not quite right. Noone knows where they're going. What I do is ask the above questions (and many others), and listen. I spot those moments where you're enthusiastic and bold and I reflect them back to you.

And that's how you figure out the next step.

So now I tell those not-sure-what's-next makers, “Yes, together we'll find the next thing. I've got strategies and techniques to make the doing it more effective, but you have the compass. Together we'll use both to create a path.”

But the point is, everyone thinks they don't know what do next. Thus, it's totally ok that you don't know where you're going. It's ok to feel like this 10 times a week. When you do, instead of flopping around in confusion or frustration, stop + reorient yourself.

If, right now, you're thinking you really don't know what to do, and your compass is spinning wildly, take a break from the internet. Set aside a half hour, and ask yourself the questions above. Collect yourself, your thoughts and your enthusiasm and reset the compass.

You're allowed to do this as often as you need to. It's not a sign you're lost. It's not a sign you can't do this.

It's a sign of life.

PS. I've been shy about offering my solo-sessions before (although some curious souls manage to find it every month) because, you can orient yourself and make a map on your own. You can ask yourself questions, listen to your inner voice, and spot your own enthusiasm.

But man, that's hard. And you don't have the experience of having worked with hundreds of small businesses. And the fact is, answering my questions and talking to me for an hour is a lot faster and effective than arguing with yourself. So if you'd like to combine my experience + strategies with your own compass, check this out.