Any day is a good day to create an extra moment of stillness to reflect on the way life has felt recently. But the full moon brings an extra special energy. It reminds me to appreciate the past and simultaneously prepare to release the things that will not be coming with me.
The full moon helps me enter the next season of life a little lighter than before. Here’s what I mean.
When you live a busy, on-the-computer lifestyle as an entrepreneur, it can be easy to take on extra stress without realizing it.
Well, I’ll speak for myself.
As I’m serving small businesses by writing lots of content and copy, I find myself criticizing my work on the daily. This criticism is necessary. Otherwise, these small businesses wouldn’t remain competitive within their industries.
But at the same time, if I’m not careful, I can get carried away by overly critical thoughts. Thoughts that lead to questioning my qualifications as a writer and marketer. And knowing myself, this could spiral into all the memories of failing in school and at work and blah, blah, blah…
When I designate at least one day each month (i.e. the full moon) to reflect on how I feel about my professional work, then it becomes easier to work out the tension that results from self-criticism. But if I weren’t intentional about creating these reflective moments each month, it would be quite easy for my body and mind to grow more tense with each new client project.
Of course, I don’t expect my work to reach an unrealistic level of bliss over time. The reality is entrepreneurship is way more exciting when challenges are placed in front of us.
What I’m saying is: I don’t expect an absence of challenges, but I do want to help my body and mind move through the challenges as gracefully as possible. That is why I write in my journal and share full moon reflections with you.
Now that we’ve talked about self-criticism, let’s look at criticism that comes from outside of ourselves.
Be cautious about receiving business advice as 100% truth when it comes from people who have not grown their own businesses. These folks will naturally address your questions or challenges from their biased perspectives.
At the same time, I recommend leaving some room for hearing those people out, since you might learn a valuable lesson from their experience in the corporate world – or whatever line of work they’re in.
Now, this is assuming that people are trying to give you constructive criticism.
But if you jump to the other end of this spectrum…some people might make it their hobby to be hyper-critical of your business decisions. This is when you take a deep breath and embrace the fact that your priorities and values will not align with everyone else’s. The world is too big for you to please everyone at once.
So send those folks a blessing, and be on your merry way, as you grow your business, serve your people, and make the beautiful impact you desire to make in today’s world.
Further Reading from KatQuintana.com: Did you enjoy this personal reflection? Check out more posts about entrepreneurship here.
