Why are you working so hard?

This is a letter to my fellow women and mom entrepreneurs…

Have you ever had a stunning revelation about yourself? I mean, a really deep realization about why you are who you are and why you do what you do?

If you are a woman or mom entrepreneur then this letter is for you.

I work a lot. It’s almost like I can’t help myself. I find myself turning on the comptuer and reading about business and marketing even on the weekends. I am writing this post on a Saturday morning while Shrek blairs in the background. I push and push and push and push.

I never stop.

Until this past Thursday morning when I stopped and finally asked myself, “Why am I pushing myself so hard?”

It wasn’t a sudden lightening flash – I was on an intro call with a business coach who asked me some startlingly simple questions about my goals and what reaching them would mean to me.

But after the call was over – and since Thursday, I haven’t been able to think of much else.

Why am I doing this?

Stressing out. Pushing. Always seeking. Always reaching. Always striving for more.

Money? Riches? Did I want to be a millionaire? Where was I going with all this – PUSHING? And was it even worth it? Did I even know where I was headed?

So, I got quiet. Turned off the computer. And listened.

Here’s what I discovered:

I’ve been pushing and striving and doing for as long as I can remember. Even as I child I remember feeling that I needed to work as hard as possible to have a better life – to get out of that small town.

But here’s where it gets good…

What does a better life mean to you?

The truth…I haven’t really thought about that answer. As much as I know what projects I’m working on and the how I’ll get them done, I haven’t really gone deeper to find out why I’m really doing all this work in the first place!

But before I could dwell on that reality, it came to me.

The reason I’m doing everything I do is to build a beautiful, stable, and nurturing home for my family.

And not only that but to help other moms and women see that’s it’s possible to build a life of their own design. Possibility in the face of more work, more roles to play and fighting the overwhelm that is a regular occurence for most of us moms.

So now… I ask you to sit back where you are right now and do this simple exercise.

Start thinking and feeling your why again.

Take a deep breath.
Just think about everything that is important to you.

Likely your reason why is lurking just below the surface – right under your grocery list, your pile of laundry, the mess of paperwork on your desk, behind all those ½ started blog posts and just beyond the business you’ve been daydreaming about starting.

Dare to go there.

Keep in mind that you may not find a complex why – I didn’t. Don’t push a simple why away.

Sit with it.

Get to know it.

Remember it.

Now it’s your turn.

Put your why in writing today by sharing in the comments section below.

~image credit by Gediminas Kasputis