Hi Reader,
I took Trudy's crate down this weekend. If you don't know, Trudy is my 3-year-old pup and light of my life. Yes, I'm one of those dog moms. (Picture below!)
When she was a puppy, we crated her at night, because having a puppy run free, chewing up who knows what in the wee hours, is not my idea of a fun way to start a morning.
For the past several months, though, she's been sleeping outside of her crate. It started when I was in Arizona last year to help work the Witches' Bazaar. Mike just...left her out at night. And everything was fine!
So, when I got back, I continued doing it. Now that she's a little older, she spends pretty much the entire night right outside our door in the coolest little cubby hole. (Cool because like three AC vents point right into it.)
It just made sense, then, to collapse her giant crate and put it in the garage to free up some space.
Reader she was beside herself. Not because it was the place she's slept for years (it's been a solid 9 months since then) but because it was her comfort place when she first arrived at our home.
It was her safe little den before she realized that same amount of safety can be found on our bed during the day, up in my office with me, or in her little cozy micro-hallway right outside our door.
She didn't need it any more. But she also felt more comfortable knowing it was there.
It got me thinking about the patterns we keep ourselves in. How much of what we surround ourselves with in our business is there, not because we need it, but because we like knowing it's there? We've gotten comfortable with it?
Comfort is so appealing these days...and also so detrimental to our work. The dystopian current events make us seek out more comfort and more security. However, comfort and entrepreneurship don't always go hand-in-hand. It's why we talk about risk vs. reward and "return on investment" when making big financial decisions.
I'd bet there's something in your business that's still there just because it's comfortable. What would happen if you let it go, to create more space, and even free up some of your energy to focus on a new offering or service that brings in fresh clients?
Because it's natural to want security and safety and comfort. It's our job to be super-natural (see what I did there?) and step outside our comfort zone when it's time. And my friend, it's time.
xoxo,
Megan