Late last year I was starting to think really seriously about where Flights of Fancy was headed. I’d been working so hard, juggling my business, my part time job and the rest of my life, that I was no longer getting the enjoyment out of it that I did in the beginning. It had become a situation of trying to keep my head above water and not having any time to devote to the things I really loved about owning a business such as blogging, spending time getting to really know my clients on a deeper level and developing and planning. I wasn’t getting much time to enjoy my life apart from my business either which was leading to me feeling burnt out and a bit disillusioned, wondering if it was all worth it.
Then, as if someone had heard those thoughts swirling around in my head every night as I lay in bed, something popped up in my Instagram feed one day about The Editor’s Course. I see business courses advertised all the time, but there was something about this particular course that really spoke to me, and the timing could not have been more perfect. As I investigated further I found that all the speakers involved in this course were women in creative businesses who were the sorts of women I admire and aspire to be like – intelligent, passionate, successful, down-to-earth and completely prepared to share their knowledge and experience to try and help others achieve their goals.
So I signed up for two reasons – firstly because I thought that this would be the push I needed to work out where exactly Flights of Fancy was going and to take it to the next level; and secondly because I thought that signing up to an intensive 12 week course would force me to do something I’d been wanting to do for some time, which was to cut back my hours at my part time job.
Now, six weeks into the course, I have cut back my hours (although only by half a day a week – baby steps!) and I can honestly say that this course has changed the way I see my business but also the way I see my life. I’ve started to think more deeply about why I started this business in the first place and with that has come a realisation that in order to successfully grow it and love it and to serve my clients as best as I can, I need to focus on my “why”. In a world where it’s impossible to avoid comparing yourself to others, I’ve realised that focusing on why I am doing this is the thing that is going to keep me on track and maintain the balance between my work and the rest of my life.
I hope to start blogging more this year and not only sharing my work but also sharing more about my “why”, my mission, my core values and my desired legacy – all things that we’ve been exploring in this course. I hope that it might inspire others to think about their own reasons for doing what they do, not just in relation to business but also life in general. I will certainly be encouraging my clients to think about how all these things impact upon their vision for their wedding day as I feel that sometimes this gets forgotten when it should really be a major focus for both us and them.
I’d love to challenge anyone reading this to think about their own “why” – what is it that drives what you do? What comes before everything else? What is the legacy that you want to leave behind when you’re gone?
Image by Jonathan Wherrett
Flights of Fancy by Kristy 