We Change

Yesterday was another no-clients day at the gym. I got a lot of reading done but, of course, I would rather have been doing massage.

When I began my career in massage therapy in 2000, I was all about building my own practice! I wanted it to be all mine all the time. I wanted to work for myself, by golly!

13 years down the road and I have the experience of building a practice, of being fully my own boss. My energies seem to be shifting now. I'm not as interested in running the whole show. My "build it yourself!" energies are more engaged in my continuing education partnership with Kitty Southworth.

My roommate and I talked about the pros and cons of working for yourself last night. We both ponder whether we wouldn't just rather go work for another organization and let them deal with the nuts and bolts, leaving us free energetically to pursue our other passions.

I may be headed that way. 10 years ago I would have felt like I was giving up or betraying myself. I would have been silently frowning at myself for not "making a go" of it. I don't know that I need that satisfaction -- the "and I did it myself!" feeling -- as much as I did 10 or 12 years ago, at least not in my massage practice.

I've changed. That's not an "issue", it's a common and simple fact of life. I doubt any of us are the same person we were in 2000, even apart from the world events that have transpired in the intervening years. We mature, we experience, we change.

That's one of the reasons I take a yearly business retreat and update my business plan. While my mission and vision statements do not change often, they do need to change sometimes. I may have actually, by golly, achieved my earlier goals and need to set some new ones!

Don't let youself get trapped into one version of yourself forever and for all time. If you needed one thing 10 years ago, make sure you aren't still chasing a goal that doesn't motivate you any more. You, too, are allowed to change. You should expect it.

Check in with yourself and make sure you know who you still are.