Trust is overrated. Try Testing Instead.

I'm back from 10 weeks in Europe. I hadn't spent that much time overseas...ever.

As a child, when we traveled to Portugal for the summer, we went for 7 or 8 weeks. This year, as a mom of 3 kids and an entrepreneur running a business, I went for 10!

The younger version of me would have worried whether this was the right thing to do for my business? For my kids? For my marriage? All valid considerations. 

I would have wanted to TRUST that everything would be ok. 

I would have been stuck for weeks, thinking about all the possible things that could go wrong. What will people think? Will my clients be upset? How will this impact my business? What if something goes wrong, and I'm not around?

Ultimately, I would have deciding to go for 2 weeks to mitigate the risks and keep everyone happy and comfortable. 

Instead, I decided to get into ACTION and TEST whether this vision was a possibility. 

I started with my husband. I have three kids, (7, 11, 14 in age) so a decision to go overseas required us to work together to ensure there was someone around for our kids. We worked through a high level plan and decided a trip to Portugal for the family would be a great idea and reduce the amount of time away from mamma. 

Next, I focused on the business. I consciously decided what I wanted to continue to engage in while away, and what I would put on pause. I decided I would coach in July and that I would take 6 weeks off to clear my head and have fun.  With this clarity, I shared my plans with my clients and they agreed to either work remotely or pause our work until the fall. 

Lastly, I secured some extra help in other areas of our life and business to ensure things continued to run smoothly. 

With all that figured out, I turned my attention to what I wanted to create in my 10-week adventure. What I created was, one-on-one time with my parents, exploring Alentejo with my husband and kids, spending a fun weekend in Lisbon with UK friends, a week with a good friend exploring Portugal by bike, boat and automobile and a trip to Barcelona to meet with friends that I hadn't seen in 3 years. 

Why am I sharing this with you?

Well, because I had an amazing summer of love, service and connection! 

And the truth is, it likely would not have happened if the old version of me was running the ship. I would have been stuck trying to TRUST it would be ok, when all I really needed to do was TEST whether it was possible. 

Trusting a decision, is simply a delay tactic.

Instead, when I see that I'm spending a lot of energy strategizing, planning and trying to convince myself of something, I get into action and start testing! 

So, I ask you...where are you stuck trying to trust your next move? Where could you be testing instead?

Until next time ...be kind to yourself, slow down, have fun, tune in and spread the love.