I recently met up with a friend for a fika [feeka] – a hot chocolate on the pier – and a walk. It was a windy and ice cold day, but utterly gorgeous. Hat, gloves, and a thick coat and the wind still found its way through every layer. Even with gloves on, my fingers soon became ice-popsicle-like.
While enjoying our hot drink on the pier we had to maintain a strong stance as the wind pushed and pulled on its way to the shore. We talked about being self-employed and running our own businesses. My friend is in the events industry. Needless to say he’s had a lot of time on his hands over the past year and a bit as most, if not all, events have been cancelled or postponed.
Although the current situation with COVID has forced the world to stop in its tracks, we both acknowledged that the silver-lining in all of this is the discovery that what we thought of as normal pre-COVID wasn’t necessarily very normal at all.
And somewhere half-way through our hot chocolates he said, “You have to own it, or it will own you”.
Although said in the context of running a business, it applies perfectly to all things, doesn’t it?
It’s about taking ownership. Whether it is taking ownership of our business so that it doesn’t run us, or taking ownership of the discomfort of not knowing what the world is going to look like in the months or years ahead, or taking ownership of making decisions that are aligned with what is important to us.
This present moment is defining who we are becoming. Owning that we want something different is a vision that excites me, and I look forward to bringing it to life.
How about you?
