Week 36 - Doing More Vs Risking More

This week marked my 1 year anniversary of leaving corporate and starting my own company🎉. It’s beautiful how DRASTICALLY different your life can be in just 1 year when you commit to something fully. Not just dip the toe in but cannon ball right into the deep end.

That’s really what it was like a year ago. I had 2 clients and decided to quit my high-paying tech leadership role to take a risk and bet on myself instead.

Which leads me to this weeks topic: doing more vs taking risks.

One of my coaches brought up this concept this week and it reaaalllly resonates with me.

As a hyper-achiever, I am plagued by the “do more” bug all the time. Being productive means I’m worthy (ie the lie I've told myself). And I’ve done a lot of work to work on being a healthy hyper-achiever but it’s so deep rooted in my beliefs system that it can still get the best of me.

So when I saw ‘doing more’ juxtaposed against ‘risking more’ I stopped in my tracks.

I’ve been pretty good this past year with not over-working, especially when I’m in beautiful places like Hawaii and Costa Rica. But when I’m ‘home” in Toronto, and it’s cold and there’s nothing to do, the 'doing more' kicks in.

And when I’m in that mode, doing doing doing, well actually it’s quite fun because it’s MY business building MY dream. So it’s a very different feeling than when you’re doing more for someone else’s bottom line. BUT amidst that fun, there is a line that gets crossed where I start to stress myself out with how much I’m doing and committing to.

And when I had a think about it this week, what really became clear is that when I’m in 'doing more' mode, it’s always easy/busy work/tactical type of work. Sure it can sometimes move the needle a bit, but it sure as hell isn't expanding and scaling my business on a big scale. And that’s why “risking more” is such an important concept for hyper-achievers.

We have gotten sooooo cozy in how much we can do that it’s not even hard anymore. In fact, doing LESS is the hard thing! Like literally doing something just for the fun of it is harder than actually doing work. It’s kinda gross but it’s so real.

So doing more has become our sanctuary. And guess what isn’t in that sanctuary: risk. There is no risk in doing more. Doing more looks like “oh let me make a video that shows people how to create this quote”. Sure, some people might watch it, but that ain’t going to skyrocket your business to the next frontier.

And when we’re so accustomed to doing more, we also have zero room for thinking more strategically. Like about what is a more risky but more rewarding step I could take in my business/job/role right now?

Just like how it’s been a year of being a business owner and I’ve been so busy (with life stuff too) that I have not taken a minute to reflect on this past year - what went well, what was surprising, what was rewarding, what didn’t work for me, and most importantly - what’s a risky but rewarding step I want to take in my business THIS year?

So I’m off to Costa Rica again TODAY. I’m either on a plane or in Costa Rica by the time you read this. And for the next week I’m completely off grid at a women’s retreat where I will spend the next week doing some much needed reflection on this past year and visioning for the year to come.

I feel it in my bones that this is just the beginning for me and my business. I have SO many ideas on how to support people more and I’m gifting myself the space to really be thoughtful and intentional about what I choose to do next.

So I leave you to ponder for yourself:

1) How can I make space this week to just be and reflect and

2) What’s a risky but rewarding next step that YOU want to take?