Have you ever felt like something was just not quite right in your life? Maybe you knew exactly what it was, or maybe you didn’t and had a hard time putting your finger on it?

If you have, welcome to the club ! And congrats, you are a totally normal functioning adult!

I have felt this way recently . I’ve been feeling very “off” and unlike myself. Something hasn’t been right and I couldn’t quite figure it out..

So, I went back and revisited my Core Values. My 5-6 “must haves” in life that are most important for me and guide all my decisions. I re-did an exercise that I do with all of my clients to figure out why I was feeling this kind of dissonance in my life. I took my 5-6 values and rated each one on a scale from 1-10 of well I am currently living them as of today.

Turns out, one of my core values is Connection. Connection of the human kind, and my score was pretty low.  As much as I love my alone time and entrepreneur life, I’m currently not getting enough in person connection which is leaving me with that “off” feeling . There is nothing that makes me feel more alive and less lonely than conversing with others feeling like I’m on a team. Laughing, talking, and connecting in person. Working remotely has many, many pros but what I am figuring out is that it’s leaving one of my “cups” unfilled and that I need to create some kind of action plan around it.

Puzzle solved.

Transitioning into entrepreneur life has been, well, a transition. In my former job, I led a team of people everyday as a manger.  Social interaction was built into my day and I happened to work with lots of  people that I absolutely adored.

The company I worked for IS community. It was the sorority I never knew I wanted to be in . I instantly had 10 best friends. Athletic, smart, fun and driven, best girlfriends. Working, working out, eating and socializing with this group of coworkers was my life. They were my team.

(I’ll give you a hint: This company is  famous for making black stretchy pants that can make anyone’s butt look fantastic and it rhymes with Rururemon. If you haven’t figured it out yet …ummm, I don’t know what to tell you…)

It was a very, very fun time, and I knew it wasn’t going to be my forever . I knew that even though one of my major core values ( connection and community) was being satisfied, that the other ones weren’t. Especially another very important one for me, freedom.

The kind of freedom you can only have by running your own business .

So while my value of freedom is being highly honored right now by running my own business, it’s definitely at the expense of a couple of my other values.

There is nothing wrong with this. It doesn’t mean what I’m doing is “wrong” or “bad” for me.

It comes down to creating an awareness around what we want and need at every stage of our lives and making shifts when necessary.

I have a client who is a new mom, one who just went through a devastating breakup and another who just moved to a big new city. All of these are at least somewhat stressful transitions, right? Well, even in these transitional times, it IS possible for you to get connected back to your values and make little mini shifts so you feel more fulfilled in the midst of tough transitions.

In my very first conversation with a new client, we talk about and clarify what your core values are.  It’s the absolute foundation of my work with someone. I need to know what is important to you, how well you are living your values as of today and where you want to be so I can hold you accountable to it. It’s such an important conversation because most people have no idea what their values are which makes it hard to navigate the tough choices life can give you.

When we honor our values, we feel a certain wholeness and rightness . A wholeness and rightness that looks completely different for each of us.

Every choice you make either honors your values or takes you further away from them.

Because I think this is SUCH an important conversation, I’ve opened up some space on my calendar to talk about it, on me. I want to know about you, I want to know what you want in life and why you don’t have it. From today until Saturday evening I have set aside some time to chat . To get on my calendar, drop me a line hello@jessicahetherington.com.

 

Boldly and Bravely yours,

Jessica