“I Was NOT Ready for That!”

There was a gasp in the room.

I was standing in front of 35 entrepreneurs facilitating inner personal work. I had just shared a lighthearted story that had people smiling and laughing and then I introduced our third prompt, “What have you been carrying that you want to set down?” Immediately I felt the air being sucked out of the space we were meeting in, which was followed by a noticeable gasp from a corner of the room. This prompt had struck a chord with a group of high-performing people.

I walked toward the gasp and one individual exclaimed, “Whoa, whoa, whoa! I was NOT ready for that!”

I know that feeling all too well.

I was not ready for life-saving surgery.
I was not ready for a cross-country move.
I was not ready to walk away from my career.
I was not ready, but I did it anyway.

This past year has been a journey of setting a lot of things down, many of which I was not ready to part with. Several professional and personal relationships have changed or ended and while that is never easy, and it is often painful, I have learned to trust my inner voice and find solace in the fact that I have been here before. I have stood at the intersection of I’m Not Ready and What’s Next enough times to know that this is a part of our growth as humans. To lead my life means to believe that in setting one thing down I am making space for something new to grow.

But this requires me to deal with the grief of endings. Each time I set something down I have to remind myself that endings and beginnings go together, they hold hands. It’s like two pieces of a puzzle, or Saturday and Sunday, or Tennessee and sweet tea. One without the other doesn’t make sense.

I am learning to set things down.
I am learning to sit with deeper questions.
I am learning to be at peace with endings.
I am learning and relearning to do the things I don’t feel ready to do.
The leadership of our lives, our work, and our people, often requires us to act before we feel ready.

And in it all, I am aware that how one thing ends is how the next thing begins. I am trying to set things down with compassion. Just because something no longer serves me doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be handled with care.

In the coming months, I’ll be sharing some exciting projects and partnerships that are happening in my business. The truth is, I do not feel ready for most of it, but I am doing it anyway.

I hope that you too will lead your life in a way that gives you permission to set things down while embracing the things that you do not yet feel ready to do.

Do it anyway. We got this.

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