Being a Mumpreneur, client referrals and my first year in business
I’m writing today, from a very, VERY hot Cypriot Summer, while my kids play in the living room of our apartment and our cat (Kitty) sleeps on the sofa by my side.
Today is the 10th anniversary of the day my husband and I started dating, back in Abidjan. In just 2 days it will be Luka and Zoe’s 7th birthday (7!!!!) and my mom arrived to Nicosia yesterday to stay with us for 50 days (insert big happy smile here). This is a month full of happy memories and celebrations, when the abundance that we are graced with becomes even more apparent. A month of true joy.
And a great deal of this joy is due to being able to work from home (being a “mumpreneur”) and having let go of the expectations of what my work, success, and our lives, needed to look like. I used to think that I needed to be busy busy busy all the time, or I was not doing enough. I used to beat myself hard whenever I was so tired that I ended up procrastinating on the things I had to do (or thought I had to do), because I simply couldn’t focus. I used to feel that I was never far along enough on the path to my dreams…until I realized that my dreams and goals were acting both as a surrogate to my self-esteem, and as an excuse to beat myself up.
Why am I telling you this?
Because Summers can be wonderful, but they can also be hard for working moms. I know this because, while I’ve always loved being with my kids, I also used to feel constantly guilty. Guilty for not being far ahead enough with my business goals, and guilty for wanting to do something other than just being with my children all day long. When night fell and kids went to sleep, I would rush to the computer to finish the work I had planned in my (always miles long) to do list and I would stay until the wee hours of the night trying to cross things off from it.
It was not sustainable, but I didn’t see it.
And then, with its peculiar sense of humor, the Universe removed all my free day time. The year when Luka and Zoe were home-schooled I learnt the true meaning of “I don’t have time”, and yet, and yet…it was my most productive year.
How is it possible?
This is something I talked about with lovely Laureen Oliphant in THIS INTERVIEW.
We discussed how I had no choice but to go within and set priorities. How I was forced to chop down all goals that didn’t fit into those priorities ( I said sayonara to a gazillion goals, trust me). How I had to make place in my work for my children, and a place in my home school routines for my work (and how I actually achieved this). And how, in order to implement anything at all, I had to put systems in place, so as to minimize the amount of decisions I needed to make daily.
If this sounds easy, let me tell you right now: it wasn’t. I rebelled against it at first, because I’m smart like that (Ha! NOT!. I can be stubborn). But when I surrendered to my new reality, things started to flow and I found more ease in my business and in my life.