As you might remember from my last post, 2016 brought some challenging lessons into my life. You can read about them here. I have heard that 2016 has been a tough year for a lot of people. However, I’m grateful for all the lessons I’ve been taught and want to share them with you today. Although some of them were hard, they all were enlightening, and without them I wouldn’t be the person I am right now. Even more important: my business wouldn’t have changed the way it had.

Don’t give up

Believe me, I was close to it. I cried, I got emotional. I questioned my “Why” more than once. And yet, I couldn’t step away. Because this is what I love to do and what I’ve been destined to do. I have come so far, and I will come farther.

So if 2016 has been a sort of mess in your world, too, don’t give up. To quote one of my favorite songs: “You live for the fight when that’s all that you’ve got.”

Lesson learned: Keep pushing. Even if it feels like pulling teeth and getting a root canal done while you are on a triathlon (as participant, not as visitor. It’s worth it.)

Stand up for your boundaries & listen to your gut

A lot of trouble I had last year was self-inflicted. I’m a little ashamed to admit it – if I had listened to my gut better and stood up for myself when it was time, I could have probably ended a lot of what happened earlier AND save myself time, energy & sanity. However, I didn’t – I was afraid to loose business and clients. But in the end, I lost both anyways and so much more.

Lesson learned: Set clear boundaries & adhere to them, no matter what. You are worth it!

You never know who’s watching

In the last quarter of the year I finally came out of my shell again and got more visible. It’s not like I got a flow of clients instantly and made 50 k in 3 days (see what I did there) but I made beautiful and genuine connections with a lot of people. And as I decided to run my challenge, I had a lot of people coming in I never talked to before – but who told me that they have been following me for a while and that they love what I’m doing. These were people that never liked my posts or never commented. And yet, they found me inspirational.

Lesson learned: Dance like everyone is watching. Because you might inspire more people than you think.

Giving is awesome

This brings me directly to one of the most fun things I did in my business in 2016 – running my first challenge. Of course I wanted to provide my community with an awesome and useful freebie, but while I was running the challenge, I realized that this was a mutual thing. I got so much energy back from all the lovely people that accepted the challenge with me that it gave me motivation for weeks.

Lesson learned: Don’t be afraid to give. You may receive back way more than you have expected.

Detach from the outcome

This was maybe the hardest lesson I had to learn in 2016. Even if you show up, even if you put in a lot of work, instant gratification just might not happen. Now it’s easy to keep going when you have success right and left, but it is hard not to give up and lose all motivation when the cash hasn’t started rolling in. The more I focused on the outcome, the harder my business felt to me. Now I don’t want to tell you that you don’t need goals – but goals aren’t everything.

Lesson learned: Even the small wins count!

What lessons have you learned in 2016?

With love, sparkles & pixiedust