Milestone Moments!

Recipes From A Life: Essential Ingredients for your Business Success went ‘live’ today. Live as in it is finished, for sale and ready to work for business owners everywhere. I am in shock. I can’t feel anything. Is this the feeling that comes with reaching a massive milestone in the middle of a life changing journey? My hands are shaky, my mouth is dry and my stomach is jumping.

I think back to milestone moments from when I was in business for myself. I remember the day the sign hangers came to hang my last building sign. It was a beautiful sign, full of colors and of life and oh, so BIG. I remember standing in the middle of the parking lot with tears streaming down my face from pride. I had already been in business for 15 years or so, but I felt as new and fresh with that sign as I did with my first signage-cheap white frosted four inch lettering on my front door glass.

I remember hiring my first employee. I remember the first night my babies spent the night on my office floor and we had sugared donuts in the morning to celebrate before they went off to pre-school. I remember when I accepted shipment of my first shiny new special ordered convection oven. I had to drive around the block a dozen times while they unloaded it because I was too jumpy from nervousness to watch.

What milestones do you remember? What experiences have shaped you as a business owner? What memories warm your heart and give you the lift you may need to go on when you are exhausted? What goals have you reached that leave you reenergized and invigorated?

I challenge you to work on some new plans. Reach out for milestones. Fuel yourself with memories. Make great out of not-so-great. Drag up that feeling you felt when you were still in love with your business and the ideas that energized you in the beginning. STOP and allow yourself to remember your first sale, generous customer or big shipment… Challenge yourself to feel the feeling you had when you opened your original bank accounts and the paint on the walls was still fresh and tacky to the touch.

My stomach is calming down and my hands aren’t quite so shaky. Next challenge-celebrate!

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