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Get back on track and find your inner joy again.
By Danielle Sax — Written on Sep 21, 2017
These last weeks have been challenging for many of us in business. After a busy winter, summer gets here and suddenly things quiet down.
If you are a highly sensitive entrepreneur like me, you know that we can sense and interpret this kind of situation in two different ways.
One makes us feel positive and think that we can use this time to slow down and relax. The other one awakens the monster or demon within us that thinks that things are "too" quiet, that something is "wrong", that we are "not good enough" because there are not many new clients appearing.
That is what gave me food for thought about what exactly brings us, as successful entrepreneurs or leaders, out of balance. What exactly is at the core of our feelings of unhappiness and unfulfillment?
How do you learn how to be happy and successful when you're feeling this way all the time?
To me, there are 2 main reasons for that:
1. Self-doubt
To quote writer Christian Nestell Bovee, "Doubt whom you will, but never yourself."
I have been an entrepreneur my whole life and there is one thing many of us have in common when it comes down to being successful and feeling unfulfilled at the same time.
Self-doubt can be a demon or a monster that we need to face daily. It is ingrained by our education and society. There is a real fear of not being good enough that we all encounter.
We doubt our worthiness and our strengths. We are so sensitive to what other people say and think about us that we quickly assume we are not good enough.
If only we can see our inner power and strength and feel worthy of just being our true selves. If only we can start living from the inside outward. Only then can we step into our authenticity and share our unique voice with the world. That is when joy, confidence and freedom creep back into our lives.
2. Self-sacrifice
“Don't live your life to please other people," said Oprah Winfrey.
For years, I used to think that I needed to save, please, and help everybody around me and put others first before my own well-being.
Today, I know that self-sacrifice is not the way to real success. It is the way to burnout and disease. We can be highly successful as deeply caring leaders and professionals without sacrificing our own well-being in the process.
“Self-care and self-love are not selfish, they are our birth right.”
This quote of mine means that no self-sacrifice is asked from you to be highly successful. It is clear that you need to honor and care for yourself first or there will be nothing left to shine with in this world.
Serving out of self-sacrifice is not an example to give to others and certainly not a way to experience true freedom and personal power.
Deeply caring individuals need to take good care of themselves in order to protect their energy and shine from within.
Isn’t that what gets you back on track and gives you the most joy?
Self-doubt and self-sacrifice are dangerous and self-destructive. I see in my practice daily serious successful entrepreneurs on the outside who are suffering and feel something is missing on the inside. Their success is costing them dearly and it does not have to be that way.
What about you? Is your success costing you?
If you answer "yes", then I suggest you go and have a look within and see what the main reason is. Is it self-doubt or is it self-sacrifice? Or is it both?
You can let me know the answer, I do care.
Danielle Sax is a coach, mentor, speaker, and author. To discover more simple-but-powerful steps to activate more conscious self-care and stress-free living and set healthy boundaries for yourself, visit her website and download the "Free e-book and Checklist" or register for a "Free Breakthrough Session" where you receive instant, customized guidance, so we can see what your next step into a life of balance and inner strength can be.
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This article was originally published at Danielle Sax. Reprinted with permission from the author.