Trust, Decisions, Survival
We live in a world where we're collectively deeply traumatized—where skepticism and scale is our baseline. We want to focus on our goal but we're also balancing that with our survival.
In business, we burn out mainly because we confuse our mission with our survival. Depending on our niche and industry, more often than not, we fail to recognize:
We don't need more, we need partnerships.
We don't need funding for projects, we need investors to trust our operation, our work, and our team.
We don't need to scale or have better resources, we need alignment.
The honest reality is not every industry needs more money, mass marketing, or more followers. Money doesn't mean success. Leads do not make clients. A sales call does not always book. Sometimes it's not because of your business position, branding, or network. In some industries, you simply can't force your audience to meet themselves at your level of depth and readiness if they aren't ready yet. A surgeon does not force surgery on someone without consent.
There's a line from the movie Grace Unplugged “You always wanted your life to be about God. And these days you're just all about you.” In everyday life and business, the line between our goal and our survival often blurs the path for us. We think we have a goal to reach, so we must work towards it. And while it's true that we are directing our attention towards it, we also fail to recognize that the very methods that can help us get there can end up sabotaging our foundation—or the goal itself.
At the end of the day, are you truly about your goal or about you? When you look back, have you been about your goal or about you?
If you are struggling in life, ask yourself:
What is my goal?
When I work towards my goal, am I choosing my strategies out of personal ego and survival or true alignment?
If you are struggling in business, ask yourself:
Is my niche and brand message truly unclear?
Am I truly not meeting my target audience?
Because of my niche and industry, what am I asking from my target audience? And, are they ready to meet me there?
We often fail to recognize that the “ask” goes both ways. When we have a goal, we know what our goal often asks of us but we fail to recognize that we also have an ask for our audience and that asking—on both ends—often demands everyone to sacrifice more than we may initially realize until much later.
Decisions are something we make everyday—big and small. While not every decision is major, every big one feels like a red flag every single time. Either way, we still do get to choose our “hard” or, in simplicity, our versions of “consequences”. So, what are you willing to face? Is the outcome worth it?
The truth is just because an emotion exists doesn't mean it's ready to be processed. Just because a dream exists doesn't mean it's supposed to manifest overnight. A want or a need doesn't mean readiness. A perspective doesn't mean acceptance. And, understanding doesn't mean support.
Whatever you do in life, it's going to always involve asking for trust from another individual. Instead of just asking yourself, “Can I trust them?” Truly, ask yourself too, “Can they trust me?” Because skepticism goes both ways and trust doesn't happen overnight.
Of course you trust yourself, you live with yourself your entire life but besides you, no one else knows you. Even if someone lives with you, that doesn't automatically mean they see you. In a room full of people you can still feel lonely. In a house full of people you can go unnoticed. True presence is what builds trust and for someone who is deeply traumatized, it's going to take more than five interactions to build that trust. So, are you just not patient enough or are you truly failing to show up?
Everyone operates on different timelines. Where is your limit? Where is their capacity? Where is the middle? Are you both ready to meet at that intersection?
