This is my birthday month and I'm reminded now, more than ever, just how important alignment and congruence are in my midlife years; to how I show up and make a difference in the world.
It all started about a year ago. I was finally ready to pivot and reinvent. Something that was so huge for me at the time, I've come to see as one of the best things that could have happened to me. It changed everything, including the trajectory of my business.
As you may know, I'm the CEO and founder of 3E Marketing Solutions, which is a boutique marketing agency, located in the city of Wilmington, serving the needs of small businesses and nonprofits. We're still doing that, but there was a part of me that really needed to get to another place, a deeper place of greater alignment.
I wanted to shift from just strictly serving through marketing services to something deeper inside myself. Something that was in greater alignment, even soul alignment to serving others, especially midlife women entrepreneurs, who were really trying to do something a courageous and outstanding with their lives.
That meant letting go of so much of what I thought was what I should be accomplishing at this stage of my life. And really saying, okay, I'm almost 60. What do I want this to look like? Is it going to be that continual hustle and grind? Or, can I come into something that's got a greater grace and ease?
So this is where the alignment piece started to come about for me. I began to courageously ask myself, "What do I need to let go of so that I can embrace what is truly me." That began the quest toward the S.A.G.E Life which stands for sheer joy, audacious alignment, gracious living and everyday abundance. I thought if I'm almost 60 and those things aren't part of my life, then wow, I've got to rearrange and reshuffle some stuff.
We go through this climb and we want to get to the place where we just keep ascending to the next level in it. It felt like I ran to the top of the stairs and after all these years of climbing for something and then realized, wow, this still isn't it. So, even after attaining the big office suite, a full staff, and multiple 6 figures, a serious bump in the road made me really dig in and look inside myself and say, "Well, this is actually gift that showing up on your doorstep and you can rearrange the whole thing." We can make that choice. And I think especially at midlife we begin to think, " If I'm not going to do this now, when am I going to do it?"
What does that mean? It means saying 'YES' to the things that are congruent in me and 'NO' to the things that aren't. It means saying 'YES' to what lights me up and brings me joy and, and pushing away from me the things that tug me under and are like a weight on my head.
So my question for you is, what are you doing in your business right now? Is it lighting you up? Is there anything you're doing that is robbing you? Because if it's robbing you, and it's sucking your energy down, I'm going to encourage you to reevaluate that and think, where can you get help for that?
Now that might mean you have to outsource and I know that to scale a business you're going to need help. I have found that that even though I scaled back a big staff, I still have help around me. So what can you do to get those things off your plate that are robbing you from living in the greatest alignment and in the greatest joy? Are you working in your zone of genius or working in your zone of excellence? Be sure to read The Big Leap by Gay Hendricks, to take an indepth look at your zone of genius!
It's our time! Time to let go of excellence, grab hold of genius and stay true to those things that are for us. Audacious alignment is within your reach. A choice we can make each day to live in congruence with passion and purpose, vision and mission.
Join our complimentary Facebook group to take part in the conversation with other midlife women, entrepreneurial, movers and shakers, who have decided to live in audacious alignment.
Here's to the fields of possibility that lie ahead of you! Donna
PS Sunflowers are my favorite and they say August to me like none other!