I remember when I first joined the ranks of the business owners with revenue over $1M, I was surprised by my mixed emotions. On the one hand, I felt elated – the business was doing great, I was traveling internationally for conferences, the demand for my company’s services was high. 

On the other…I was starting to panic.

The business was doing well but the rest of my life was crumbling around me.  I told myself I didn’t have time to go to the gym, and I gained weight.  I was overeating and overdrinking, and I had trouble sleeping.  I looked terrible, felt terrible, and my marriage was ending.

I didn’t realize it at the time, but the feelings fueling my actions were no longer excitement and eager anticipation.  Instead, my feelings were fear and dread. I was focusing all my energy on the things that could go wrong.  I had shifted from looking for opportunities to looking for problems.

There must be something wrong with me.

The only explanation I could see was there was something wrong with me. I wasn’t like other people. I tried everything and nothing worked. I measured my self-worth by my success in business. This meant everything had to be perfect, and for everything to be perfect I had to be in control of it all.  When things were going well, I felt relieved instead of happy and when they didn’t go well, it proved that there was something wrong with me.

She said, “Love your business.”

Your business is not the measure of your worth.

If this story sounds familiar to you, it may be because you’re looking for your business to validate your worth. When your business is your identity and your self-esteem is tied to its success, every time something goes wrong, you think it’s a reflection of your value as a person. But it’s never true that the success of our business is the measure of our worth.  If you don’t feel good about your business (or your worth) it’s because of the way you are thinking – it’s your thoughts about your business that cause you to feel the way you do, which leads to the actions you take and the results you get.

If you’re tired of the results you’re getting, its time to change your thoughts, feeling, and actions. Head here to get my guide, How to Grow Your Business Without Losing Your Mind. I promise you, if I could do it, you can.  Every step I took to save my sanity and my business is in this guide.