Your Best Season

I am not a fan of the newborn stage. I prefer babies when they are six to twelve months. When babies are newborns, everything is uncertain, especially their sleep schedule.

When Tabitha was a newborn, I encouraged myself to be more present during this stage because I knew she was our last baby. To rock her more. To cuddle her more. To smell her more. With our three sons, anxiety would set in as the sun went down, uncertain of when and how they would fall asleep, worried that I would not get to sleep at a reasonable time and be tired the next day and have to do it all over again.

Starting a business is very similar. I find myself in a rush to figure out the uncertainties to create a system that runs smoothly. I am learning to enjoy the nuances of each stage rather than hoping and pining for the next stage, thinking that the next stage is better. But it’s not. It’s just different.

Some parents sleep train their newborn baby to ensure a reliable sleep schedule for themselves. Yet, when your child is a toddler and no longer lets you rock her in your arms, you miss those newborn days when all they wanted was to snuggle with you.

I hear new moms say all the time, “I can’t wait for her to start talking!” And then they do. Constant interruptions into your thought process become the norm rather than the quiet house you used to fill with music to dull the quiet.

My business, your business, is the same. Trust God’s timing. Appreciating and learning through a certain phase of your business does not mean you are stagnant or complacent.

When creating a new process, you can think through and anticipate the flow, but you won’t know if it’s effective until you actually walk a client through your process. Then you adjust and try again until you find the process that works.

Ultimately I’ve realized that my dislike for certain stages in motherhood and business is tied to my impatience for the easy and predictable. But isn’t that the joy and excitement in having a business and having children? The adventure of the unknown?

Here’s to your unknown. List all the things you can appreciate or that you have learned in this season rather than just focusing and waiting for the next. Because in hindsight, you realize the season that just passed was actually a pretty fantastic one.