Lessons Learned in the Corporate World

I have learned many lessons in my professional career that haven gotten me to the place I am currently - a place I love tremendously - as a business owner with a ton of freedom, doing what I love and want to be doing. Through all of my experience, one of the most powerful and important lessons I learned is to decide what I want. Sounds simple, but it is really amazing how rarely people think about what they WANT to have happen. This applies to so many areas of business and life. How do you want this project to go? How do you want to experience your coworkers? What kind of work do you really WANT to do? How do I want to feel when I'm not working? How do I want to experience my family?

It feels as if, with most of these types of questions, "want" gets replaced with "have to". How does this project have to go? How do I have to experience my coworkers? What kind of work do I have to do? How do I have to feel when I'm not working (to offset my misery during the week)? How do I have to experience my family?

The lesson starts with - where did we learn this approach vs. a more positive one that's aligned with who we actually are - not with who someone else thinks we should be or aligned with extremely low expectations we picked up somewhere? We have it so backward. Why are we so hell bent on the idea that we can't have what we want or worse, we don't even think about it?

The next part of the lesson is, how can we have an outcome we are happy with if we don't start with what we want? How do we know what steps to take? How can we possibly enjoy the journey? We have to define what we want to have happen. And why not? What is the harm in taking time to determine what it is that we want?

The lesson continues with belief - we have to believe we can have what we want. The idea that we can never get what we want feels like the lowest level of energy - and a very difficult place from which to create. I mean, what is the point if we always expect to only get what we don't want? What if we believed we could have what we actually wanted? What an amazing place this world would be. Feeling fulfilled, satisfied, on the right track, excited - that's where the magic is. From this place, it is very hard to shame others, to fight, to viciously compete. And in this amazing place we live, there truly are so many possibilities...

Once we know what we want and have a belief that we can have it - we can set the intention that it is available for you and then act accordingly. If I want this project to include innovative ideas and solutions - I'm going to share that direction with my team. I will support their new ideas and work to get them the resources they need even if it feels crazy. What kind of work do I want to do on this project? I'd think about my skills and where I can best be of service and enjoy the work, I would look for ways to delegate things I'm weaker in or don't want to do and I'd decide if there were things I didn't want to do that could really be dropped. My work product and that of my team will reflect the stronger energy I brought to tasks. Every example can go through this same process.

I have used and continue to use this lesson in my corporate career and in my family with great success. It doesn't always work perfectly - but a majority of the time, it helps me, my teammates and clients have amazing experiences. I also know just what to do when things feel heavy with my family - I remember what I want and I act accordingly.

In more recent years, I started dreaming bigger - what if what I wanted sounded really outlandish? Something like - I want to have more time at home for my family and myself, I want to be of service and I want to be financially secure. That outline did not sound likely - I had never worked less than 50 hours a week and even then, my salary would not allow me to feel financially secure...But I decided that's what I wanted - I worked on believing thtat was possible and then I acted accordingly. I looked for opportunities - I listened for the ways I could be of service - I acted bravely.

I am happy to report, I am doing and being exactly what I want to do and be. I believe I am meant to live this way - and you are too. I believe that what we want is actually guidance to our best life, and that there are infinite ways to get what you want. I believe that what we want is why we are here and amazing things happen when we allow that to be possible.