“If I’m not doing the work I want to do, why?”

Living the creative life of an entrepreneur, I’m figuring out a few things. One thing I’m learning is the need for self-reflection. Even if that provokes anxiety, it’s necessary to fly under the radar of your own defenses and reflect on your life.

We do a lot of worrying and not enough self-reflection. Here’s what you can do some self-reflection on:

• Your personality: Be honest about what you like about yourself and what you’d like to upgrade

• Your culture:  How it’s helped shape your biases, prejudices and preconceived notions

• Your relationships: Ask yourself if you feel your need to relate to other people is being filled. Having meaning in our lives is intertwined with our relationships

• Your creative work: Regardless of what creative work you choose to do, how important is the praise or condemnation of other people? Could you make a pact with yourself to act “as if” your efforts matter, at least to you, despite all other evidence?

What this means essentially is that you must face the fear and anxiety of knowing about yourself by continually asking “if I’m not doing the work I want to do, why?”

I’ve been doing some self-reflecting lately on Envy and how it impacts this question, and I know I’m not alone. If envy hits you in the gut, temporarily taking the wind out of you, I’d like to ask you a few questions. I’m currently designing a workshop called Upside Your Envy; the intention is to create something that will help you know yourself a little better, and use envy to fuel your work, not leave you breathless. I’d like to know what you think, so contact me and let’s set up a 20 minute chat, between now and June 20th.