Today, my foot is up and iced due to an injury yesterday, brought on by multi-tasking on my way out the door to an appointment.
Chick-Fil-A lemonade, phone, laptop, and purse in hand, I left my home while participating in a conference call. My ankle twisted and I fell, spilling my lemonade. My phone flew from my hand and landed in the bushes while I screamed in pain.
Good news: I can walk.
Bad news: I never got to finish that delicious lemonade.
This on the heels of a weekend spent moving my office furniture across the hallway into a (much) bigger space in our home.
To me, moving to a bigger office space is a physical outworking of a bigger reality: my company is growing. I am growing.
But it’s not always without pain.
Some pain is physical, like the throbbing of my right foot.
Other pain is emotional; as I work with new clients, I am stretched to interact in new ways, to communicate with increasing effectiveness, and to manage multiple projects, subcontractors, and priorities. I have crises of confidence. I have to remind myself I am not a failure. I have to remind myself that quitting is not an option.
Sometimes, I feel vulnerable and want to back away when conversations are difficult. Sometimes, I feel overwhelmed.
Mostly, I am grateful for the opportunities I’ve been given, for the ability to make a difference, and for the energy and drive to do great work.
I’m grateful for the mentors in my life who give helpful advice and gifts of empathy, understanding, and acceptance.
Those gifts are a salve to my growing (and other) pains.
Tell me something! How do you deal with growing pains?
photo credit j. reed
I am the founder/CEO of the Weaving Influence team, the author of Reach: Creating the Biggest Possible Audience for Your Message, Book, or Cause, and the host of the Book Marketing Action Podcast. I’m a wife and mom of three kids, and I enjoy running, reading, writing, coffee, and dark chocolate.
I can relate! Hope you are healing. God bless your business!
Thanks, Linda! I can get around much more easily today than yesterday so I am certainly on the mend.
It’s always encouraging to hear from people who I respect and/or have more experience than me about life’s less-than-perfect days. I’m at the stage of life where it’s incredibly tempting to crumble under the pressure of feeling like the whole world is waiting and watching for me to mess up. It is affirming to hear that even wonderfully talented, experienced people still feel the same “crises of confidence” and have to adopt a mantra of “I am not a failure” like I do.
Thanks Becky for your honesty and wise words! It is inspiring to see you face the growing pains of life!
Grace,
Thank you for your kind words. I am always glad to share what I know to make a difference. The more real I am, the bigger difference I can make.
You are not a failure. You are a miracle!
Becky
I face them with determination, even “fury” sometimes. No pain no gain, reads the saying; so it’s just a matter of beating challenges one at a time.
It makes me feel alive. 🙂
Thank you, Tedel. I love that idea of facing challenges with fury.
Becky, your post is so relatable…at 62, I’m on my third career, and have experienced those thoughts and feelings in all of them. Particularly now when a crisis of confidence occurs, that’s my sign that I’m growing and maturing personally. Because I have a passion and a calling, quitting isn’t an option. As I feel the growing pains, I have to take time to breathe, to get up from my desk, to seek out God’s word and His confirmation that He wants me to keep plugging along. And yes, sometimes dark chocolate helps, too. 😉
Relatable — what a great compliment. Glad you can relate and that my words resonated.
It’s a journey and I hope you’ll find joy in yours today.
Becky
Hi Becky ~ sorry to hear about the mishap and glad to read that you are on the mend! Thought it was wonderful how you linked the physical pain incident to a reflection on the emotional growing pains of a business developing and the impact this has on you as its founder and owner!
I am delighted that you are growing and I am sure you are more than resilient enough to accommodate those growing pains! I’d use them as a springboard to let me know that I am alive and making a real difference! Thank you for sharing!
Kind regards John
Thank you, John, I appreciate your kindness and our ongoing connection.
Telling myself: I am resilient enough. I am enough.
You are enough!
Ouch! I hope your ankle is doing much better or is doing better soon! I can so relate to what you wrote in your post. How do I deal with growing pains? I try to push threw knowing that “this too shall pass” and that the feeling I am facing is only temporary as I remind myself what I have accomplished in the past. I do have a story related to this that I have to share with you and will email you about as soon as I get the chance.