Ready. Set. Go. Reset.

Being an entrepreneur is hard. It is personal, intimate work.

And when things don’t go as planned, either in your business or in your personal life —

📰you send out a newsletter, and a reader tries to shame you for homeschooling your children,

👩🏻‍💻a contractor flakes,

📊a sales cycle slips,

🏥your parents end up in the hospital

— you can quickly spiral into a cycle of shame, worry, and self-blame.

Or you can choose another way, a middle way.

You can choose to treat yourself with compassion and love. You can give yourself grace.

That is precisely what I chose to do this week. It’s been a week of one thing after another — the list above contains a few (not all) actual events from my week.

In the past, this week would have sent me spiraling for days or even weeks. Not this time. This time, I gave myself an afternoon of feeling the feelings and ranting about all the things. And then I knew it was time to pivot, time to shift my mindset out of shame and back into compassion.

I couldn't just leap from this sucks 🌪 to rainbows 🌈

That doesn't just happen with the click of my ruby slippers 👠

I needed a reset.

For me, that means a change of scenery and some sun, if possible.

Yesterday, the sun ☀️was shining, but it was cold 🥶here in central PA. So, we decided on a day trip south - even just a few hours south, it was much warmer.

I did a little shopping for upcoming business trips (Palm Springs and Philadelphia). Dreaming of those trips helped! I love to travel, and I love connecting in real life with clients and colleagues.

As we headed back to the car, I received a notification that one of my cards had been used for a purchase in Alabama, we didn't go that far south! I could have chosen to allow this to mar my beautiful day out and about. Instead, I called the card company, handled the issue, and didn't create any added drama.

We went on to the delicious and cozy Rotunda Brew Pub. We talked about the week, solved the problems of the world, and laughed.

It was a good day. It wasn't all rainbows and unicorns, but it was just what I needed.

I woke up this morning feeling just like this fox, ready to spring into what comes next.

Sometimes what we need is not to hustle but to give ourselves the grace of a reset.