I didn’t get a chance to blog all last week, and it drove me insane. Every day I thought about all the things I wasn’t accomplishing instead of seeing exactly what I was, and that’s never a positive place to be, mindfully speaking. If I’m going to be able to make both careers work, I may have to work through it all right here, as I have worked through all other aspects of my life for the last ten years right here, with you.
We opened Dogwood Tavern about two weeks ago now and it has been insane (for us as owners)… Crazy-busy-fun but also insanely-exhausting. I’m there about 8-10 hours each day and with only Mondays off (sometimes Sunday), it’s hard to think creatively about anything else at the moment. My focus is almost entirely on the business, and in the few waking hours that I have where I’m not physically there, my body needs to heal and my mind needs a quiet rest, and I know it’s all still new, but it’s important to me to somehow find a balance where I can still have time for this career (right here) which is so much a part of me that I almost feel like I’m losing a part of myself when I don’t have time for it… and I am not willing to give it up.
My brain and body are still slightly in shock I think, and the whole thing hasn’t really set in. We are open! We are in business! We are finally at the destination we’d been working towards for nearly a year and a half, and it all happened so quickly, that it’s like we almost missed it. We haven’t celebrated the success of finishing the remodel and renovation of the building and we haven’t even really given ourselves credit for achieving the goal we set out to accomplish because the major goal was/is happening now and is an everyday grind.
Until we have a really good feel for what we need based on how busy we’ll be on a daily basis, all three of us are there every day working. And while we absolutely love it, it’s also completely tiring and draining physically and mentally. Although it’s funny that no matter how tired I am during the day, once I get there, I have this fantastic consistent energy that keeps going until I get back home.
There is a really great vibe in our place, the energy is exactly what we wanted, and people are happy when they are there, and that makes me happy and fills me up with all the feels and keeps me going. I love being there every day but eventually we’ll each need a few days off or we’ll end up killing ourselves and burning out big time.
Alternatively speaking, we’re there in the moment working so hard that it’s difficult to see the bigger picture, and that’s the point we need to get to in business. If we run ourselves into the ground, we won’t be able to really have the presence of mind to see the bigger picture, and that could eventually kill our business if we don’t get to that point.
You know I’m a DIYer at heart, so it’s difficult for me to step back and not be completely hands-on, and I think my business partners are the same way. Sure, we’ve only been open for a few weeks now, and time will surely allow us to see exactly how the business needs to be run as well as hire staff appropriately, but I’m already thinking about what’s next and how to turn it into something greater.
While it would be so great to be able to sit back and enjoy our accomplishment of reaching one of our goals, a whole new life has begun for us that will either kill us or take us to the next level and celebrating now seems almost counter productive at the moment. As long as we play the game right, stay on the same page as partners, and work together positively, knowing that it’s more than just the three of us, it’s bigger than just a bar, it’s beyond the petty daily routines, there’s potential for it to become something even greater than we can even imagine.
As much as they say to stay in the moment, if we were to remain in the small mindedness of the moment, we will never grow. There is only potential and growth possibility in thinking beyond right now, visualizing a bigger picture, knowing that it’s more than the trivial details we’re focused on right now, and having the capacity to be able to see what it’s going to take to turn it into something even greater. That’s where our win will be. That’s when the celebration of goals accomplished will really feel special. That’s when we’ll know that we’ve really created something beyond belief. That’s when it will be real.
I realize now that one of the reasons that I haven’t really been able to blog lately is that I’ve even been thinking about this space in the wrong way. I’ve been thinking about how to make time to post and not finding the creativity with it instead of using it as I always have to share what’s happening in my life and hope that you gain a little perspective or are helped in some way by me sharing my story. It’s just that my story has suddenly changed from full time blogger to full time blogger who also now owns a bar and all the trials and tribulations that come with owning a brick and mortar business and an online business may actually be beneficial to you… or in the least, slightly entertaining. I suppose I didn’t want to talk solely about it, because it’s only one new aspect of my life, but right now, it’s where my focus has to be so I think the only way to be able to merge the two for now anyway, is to write about what is actually happening in my life rather than fighting it.
It’s a tight rope walk, a balancing act of embracing the reality of what is but also being able to step back so I can creatively think about the bigger picture of what is going on.
You can’t grow when you’re stuck and the only way to get unstuck is to embrace what is and then think bigger… way bigger.
Happy Monday Lovecats!
* Find all my Monday Motivation posts here.
