The 2018 Tell All: 3 Vulnerable Lessons from My Most Successful & Most Challenging Year, Ever

2019 is just a few days away and I don’t know about you but around this time, every year, I start to get reflective.

I think back on my year — what I did well, what I didn’t do so well and what I can improve for next year.

2018 was an epic year for Live Your Message — we had our most successful event ever, and our most successful launch ever and we grew our team — just so much good stuff!

But I faced pretty significant challenges in this growth and I want to share the 3 biggest ones (they hit me like a Mack truck!) because a lot of the time, you can learn more from a challenge than you can from success.

So here goes…

Challenge #1: Letting Go

The first challenge was about embracing one of our 6 core values at Live Your Message — it’s the hardest value for me to embrace.

It’s based on an African proverb…

If you want to go fast go alone but if you want to go far go together.

This was really difficult for me because I’ve always had other people rely on me for strength and support.

And for a long, long time, I equated “being helped” with “being helpless” when nothing could be further from the truth!

The deepest level of strength and power comes from allowing yourself to receive support and help from others.

So, for me a big lesson in 2018 was learning NOT to be the strength for everyone else because when I’m being so strong, I can unintentionally disempower others and I don’t want that to happen.

Live Your Message is at the point where I can’t do it all alone and I can’t be the center of everything so I had to let go of control and allow support at a greater level…

That’s one of the most challenging things I’ve ever had to do in my business!

Challenge #2: Growing the Tree & Planting the Roots

I feel fully alive and most excited about being in business when I’m at the edge of my comfort zone and capability.

It’s well known that people feel most alive when they’re taking risk and most comfortable when they’re playing it safe.

The good thing about being a risk-taker is that I’m always learning and growing and evolving, pushing the envelope and raising what we’re doing to the next level.

The not-so-good thing is that it’s hard for me to just relax and enjoy what I have and what I’ve accomplished. I feel like I’ve been in “push mode” since I started in 2011… that’s 7 years! That’s a long time to be pushing and growing on the edges of my comfort zone….

Sometimes it’s nice to just relax and enjoy so I can build the energy to stretch to my next level of growth :).

As my friend Brian Whetton says,

“There are some years that are all about growing the tree as high as it will possibly go and other years it’s all about planting the roots because the taller the tree, the deeper the roots need to be to support it.”

I feel like for the last 7 years I’ve been growing the tree and growing the tree and growing the tree and not doing enough rooting!

And it’s those roots that I really need right now to fuel me for years and years to come. I’ve got a lot more in me to give, so I’ve got to start planting more roots :).

I’d also like to express my drive for challenge not just through my business and through what I’m creating in my business but in my other interests, my hobbies and my creativity — whether it’s writing or travel or nature or just being in conversation with people.

Sometimes when one area gets too big other areas fall into the shadow and I want to grow in all the different areas of my life in 2019.

Challenge #3: Getting into Alignment

I’ve always heard that you can only take people as far as you’ve taken yourself… and I’ve taken myself really, really far in business!

I’ve blogged, I’ve done webinars, I’ve created funnels, I’ve hosted live events, I’ve marketed in every way you can imagine and I can take people where I’ve been…

But there are areas within myself that I haven’t been looking at… areas where I want to grow.

It’s not that I haven’t done the personal development work, because I have.

But I want my entire life to be in alignment… I want it all!

I believe that every problem in the world can be solved through human ingenuity.

When each of us steps forward to do the work we’re called to do as we live fully in alignment with who we really are, we will change the world and we will solve every problem known to man.

So, when I see an area within myself where I don’t feel fully expressed and where I feel held back or restrained or unhappy, I want to focus on that and bring that into alignment.

I know that this past year, I’ve been falling back into my comfort zone in my personal development.

I’m starting to see the unreconciled places that I haven’t been paying attention to because I was so focused on my business.

So that’s been my third challenge…

To look at those personal areas that I hadn’t been fully shining the light on and also find ways to be more compassionate and kind to myself…

To know that I’ve always done the best that I can with what I have.

Watch Out… Here We Come!

As we say goodbye to 2018, I invite you to reflect on your year…

What are you grateful for? What are some of the challenges that stretched you? Who are you becoming? What’s your vision for yourself, your business and for the world? What do you want to create?

Share in the comments 🙂

I want you to know that you can be, do and create anything that you want to in this world because when you have that clarity of vision, all you’ve got to do is take action and make it happen…

Make it real.

Let’s hit 2019 with the ferocious fervor that tells the world… watch out, here we come! Let’s create the most awesome, amazing, life-changing, world-changing breakthrough year imaginable.

I believe in you. I believe in us. It’s our time. Anything is possible.

Now go out there and Live Your Message!