I was saying to someone just the other day that there is something different in the air already this year. For me it feels very similar to previous years that were full of uncertainty and yet ripe with possibility.
It’s reminding me of 2009. That was the year I launched the Certified OBM program.
We were fresh off the financial crisis of 2008 and in the middle of a recession. Logic would say, it was NOT a good time to launch something new.
And yet I did. I had 20 people go through the certification that first year and it was the start of what became a movement. Of changing the way folks worked with and supported online businesses. Of business owners finding the folks they needed to run a business with them and not just work “for” them.
What if I had listened to all the nay sayers out there at the time. All the folks who were extra cautious and in “wait and see” mode?
Chances are that the OBM world may not be what it is today. And I don’t say that lightly.
Do I have any proof that this is what 2026 is all about? Nope.
But I do have that *feeling* again… it’s in the air right now. I’m seeing other folks talk about it too.
If you have something you’ve been sitting on. Waiting for the ‘right time’ to bring it out… perhaps now is that time.
If something is calling your name and it just won’t leave you be… perhaps now is the time.
If you have a big vision that you want to see come to life, there is fertile ground all around us right now waiting to be planted.
2025 was a ‘wait and see’ year. We all felt it.
2026 is a ‘make it happen’ year. <– that’s the choice
Because let’s be real. The world isn’t going to settle down anytime soon. So if we continue to wait and see… well, we may be waiting a long time.
I’ve always been a personal growth junkie. I remember buying my first personal growth book in my early 20s and falling in love with the whole concept of how to better our lives.
Part of what I love most about being in business is that it is a personal growth journey. I’ve grown the most and learned more about myself through my business than I have in any other aspect of my life (with parenting being a close second).
AND there are aspects of personal growth – specifically mindset principles – that I once believed in and no longer do.
I have taken many personal growth programs over the years. Everything from week long, in-person camps (anyone else do all the Harv Eker courses back in the day?) through to year-long business building masterminds and more courses than I can count.
And in all of these scenarios there were success mindset principles – or beliefs – that I’ve been taught.
Things that I used to take in as gospel but now have come to realize aren’t always true or helpful. In some cases they can be downright harmful.
The first one is: “How you do anything is how you do everything”
Ooooo how I used to beat myself up over this one!
To me this meant that I needed to be perfect and show up at 100% of my effort all the time, or success wouldn’t come my way.
And I don’t know about you, but that is an exhausting and impossible effort. If I was having a rough day and wasn’t giving my all, I would find myself going down the well worn path of “I’m not good enough” (which is one of my core limiting beliefs).
Likewise, what about the things I’m simply not good at? If I suck at something, doesn’t that then mean that I suck at everything?
It’s a dangerous loop to find yourself in if you aren’t careful – putting the pressure of having to be ‘perfect’ and to give our best at all times in order to succeed.
When in fact, we can create plenty of success being our messy, not always perfect and not always showing up 100% selves.
I’m proof of this. There are many days where I’m not operating at my best. Days where I’m feeling unmotivated and its hard to even just do the basics (especially as a woman who has been navigating the journey of peri / menopause these past few years…)
And then there are days where I’m on fire and it’s like “watch out world, here I come!”
Success is an up and down journey. It doesn’t require us to be perfect and 100% on all the time. We can be messy and have rough days and still create something amazing for ourselves, our teams and our clients.
I’m curious… do you have a mindset principle that you used to believe in but no longer do?
Not to be morose about it – but it’s one of two things.
Either our business ends.
Or our role in our business ends.
It’s inevitable but not something we talk about a lot or plan for – especially in our online entrepreneurial space. And I think we should.
As a default, yes, most folks think, “I’ll sell my business down the road,” Which is a great goal to have AND something you need to plan for intentionally years in advance.
Or we can plan to purposely shut down a business – which often gets viewed negatively like it’s a failure. I think that’s BS. When done purposely, you can make sure that you are investing in your future during the lifetime of your business so that when you shut down, you and your family are taken care of.
And what happens if you die or become incapacitated? Again, not a fun topic to think about but I worked for a company where the owner died (at age 47 – so young!!) and he didn’t leave clear instructions as to what he wanted to happen if he were to pass. This was a large 7-figure company thrown into chaos and in-fighting with the leadership team that went on for years.
The worst-case scenario is not purposely planning ahead. And just humming along through life only to find ourselves in a situation where we “need to sell but can’t” or we are ready to close up shop but need the income to continue because we didn’t plan for retirement.
These are some of the things we are discussing at The Legacy Summit taking place January 27-31st. We have 16 speakers sharing their wisdom and insight about how to create, amplify, and protect your legacy.
I’m all for ensuring that the hard work you are doing now continues to support and pay you for years to come!!
I remember an exercise we did years ago when I took my coach training program. It was called 100 Tolerations.
The exercise was simple: List 100 things you are tolerating and then explore what it would take to eliminate those tolerations.
At first, I thought, “Wow, there is no way I can find 100 things I am tolerating! That’s a lot.” Boy, was I wrong.
We were encouraged to look at everything in our lives, including – and especially! – the seemingly small things: that broken handle on the cupboard, those cobwebs on the light fixture that need to be cleaned up, a perpetually late client, etc.
Once I got into it, I realized that I was tolerating way more than I was conscious of, and I ended up with a list of 100 (it might have even been more!)
One of the insights I had at the horse retreat (which I shared about last week) was around tolerations. I have been tolerating a lot lately, both in life and in my business.
And I wasn’t consciously aware of most of what I’ve been tolerating <– THAT is the part that I found most fascinating.
What exactly does it mean to tolerate something? For fun I just looked it up in the dictionary:
“to allow the existence, occurrence, or practice of something that one does not necessarily like or agree with”
Put simply, to allow something that doesn’t work for us.
That was the main question that came up for me – why am I allowing certain things in my life that don’t work for me?
Because we always do something for a reason, even if the reason isn’t immediately obvious.
Now, it’s easy for me to look at the things I tolerate and say, “Oh, it isn’t that big of a deal”, but the truth is… I’ve been suffering with my tolerations. I’m the one who pays the price when I brush them under the rug as “not a big deal.”
When I dug a bit deeper, I found two main reasons why I continue to tolerate the things that don’t work for me:
My people-pleasing tendencies run deep! Taking a stand for what I want and what works for me might upset the other parties involved, and that is really uncomfortable for me.
Changing something that no longer works for me can also mean more work. And frankly, sometimes it feels easier to keep tolerating than it is to work through the necessary changes that will be required otherwise.
It boils down to a decision of this:
Am I willing to be uncomfortable for a short time, in order to fix these tolerations in the long run?
To have the tough conversations. To set – and enforce – the boundaries. To ask for what I want. To let go of what is no longer working.
These things aren’t easy, but like so many things in life… when we are willing to do the tough stuff there is so much more available to us on the other side.
This past weekend, I did a retreat at a horse ranch called Believe & See Ranch, owned by Nafissa Shireen. I’ve done ALOT of retreats and such over the years and this one was something else. Truly one of the best things I’ve done.
I’ve been connected with Nafissa for years and have watched her journey of buying this ranch and turning it into the magical place that it is. So when my friend Steph Tuss asked me if I wanted to do a retreat at the ranch I was an instant yes (my human design peeps will know – my sacral spoke loud and clear)
I’m not what I would call a horse person. I’ve ridden horses as a child (went to a Christian horseback riding summer camp), been thrown off a horse at 16 (at that same camp) and done the occasional trail ride now and again since… but I’ve never felt overly drawn to horses in the way I know some folks are. Nor do I have any fear of them.
I came into the retreat with no expectations and was open to the experience. What I learned is that horses reflect our energy, our truth, and the things that are going on beneath the surface that perhaps we aren’t even aware of consciously. Or, as I like to say, they are the ultimate BS detectors! I may be telling myself X, but if the truth of how I’m feeling is Y—well, they let you know that!
As Steph said, we were humbled by these amazing creatures in the most beautiful way. They have no agenda. They don’t care what is “going on in our lives.” They simply show up in truth and presence.
Even the best human coaches in our world bring some measure of bias or judgment—our humanity always colors our exchanges to some degree, even if it’s very faint. Having such a pure and clean reflection of my truth and energy is rare.
It’s not often that I can say a retreat has changed me in a deep and permanent way. Usually, the excitement and energy start to fade the day after, and by the time I’m home, they’re mostly gone, and I’m back to “normal.”
I’ve been home since Monday, and I can still feel the presence of what this experience opened up in me. It’s nothing earth-shattering—the skies didn’t part, and I wasn’t hit with some lightning bolt of insight. Rather, it’s a subtle and quiet undercurrent—I can feel it still bubbling beneath the surface in the best of ways.
It was also fascinating to see how each of us had such different experiences with the horses. Although the three of us who attended are very similar in so many ways, how the horses responded to each of us was so different! And yet it was exactly what each of us needed. So very cool.
It’s amazing how the very things we need can often be found in places we don’t expect: nature, animals, and getting out of our comfort zone.
Where might you find insight or an answer that you’ve been seeking?
I started another puzzle yesterday. It’s a 2000-piece puzzle called Afternoon in Paradise. Here’s a snapshot of my current progress.
I love doing puzzles.
I hate sorting the pieces. This is by far my least favorite part of doing puzzles, but I still do it every time.
Why do it if I don’t like it?
Because it makes the rest of the puzzling journey so much more enjoyable! Once everything is sorted I find it much easier and more fun to work on. I can see what needs to be done. I can choose which section I want to do next. I feel motivated to keep going because I took the time to get organized.
I suspect you can see where I’m going with this… ;-)
There is SO much about the business journey that isn’t enjoyable. Things that we may hate doing, but that once done make the next steps so much easier and effective!
And yet, it is tempting to skip these steps or to let ourselves get stuck in the “things we should be doing but don’t want to” stage.
I invite you today to consider:
What is something that you know you could/should do but have been resisting? (because you don’t like doing it)
What is on the other side of this thing you don’t want to do? (What is the goal or result that is waiting for you on the other side?)
How much time / effort will it really take to get this thing done? (chances are it’s less time than you think!)
And if you REALLY don’t want to do it or don’t have the time, who could help you do it instead? (sometimes getting help is the key to getting through it)
Success lies on the other side of doing the things we don’t always love doing. Of building the habit of doing the stuff we don’t always love doing.
