People launch businesses for wildly different reasons…

They’re chasing something that they believe that business, as a vehicle, can give them.

But once you're in the midst of creating the business or doing the new type of work, you realize it might not always give you what you are looking for.

For one thing, you don’t achieve freedom once and check it off the list. Purpose isn’t something you discover and then never have to think about again. 

Money comes and goes (often). 

Running a business isn’t a static experience—it’s a constantly shifting process. And the sooner we recognize that, the sooner we can start to see our business for what it actually is: something that evolves alongside of us, and even changes depending on the day, depending on how we feel, or how we’re choosing to show up.

I remember learning a tough lesson about freedom and business.

I remember walking down the street on a beautiful sunny Tuesday, heading to get some work done (this was 2018), and then realizing I was feeling completely anxious about the day ahead. 

On paper, I was free. I didn’t have a boss, a fixed schedule, and no one telling me what to do. But internally, I wasn’t free. I was carrying stress, worry, and pressure with me everywhere I went. I couldn’t enjoy the sunshine, and I was feeling a bit terrible walking into the coffee shop to check my email. 

I learned that external freedom—no boss, no set hours—doesn’t mean much if you’re not also free inside. I hadn’t considered that I would need to learn internal freedom as much as I would learn about creating external freedom.

That’s a tough lesson to learn, and it made me question what I was really after at work in the first place. I had forgotten where I started, or maybe I had evolved and found myself seeking something different. 

At different phases, our work can provide us with different things. 

I often find that businesses give you exactly what you need when you need it. 

Sometimes, I see business owners who really need stability in their business because their home life is having a huge crisis, and it somehow supports them through. Othertimes, a business owner is undecided, and the business forces them one way or another. 

What we want and need evolves, and maybe now for you, it’s more about your creativity, your relationships or finding financial security for the first time.

The best thing you can do is check back in with your current set of needs. 

If you look for it, you’ll find it.

It exists there, however small, and if you recognize where it exists, you can put effort into expanding that part of your work and life to have more of it.

Right now, I’m really focused on my own creativity and experiencing my own creativity. My work is giving me these beautiful moments of feeling fully creative and fully alive through my work and writing and video creation. I’m seeking this out, I’m recognizing when it’s there and when it’s not. I’m allowing myself to give myself more of what I want. 

You’d be surprised at how much of success (in any area) is about allowing and embracing it instead of pushing it away. 

Can you allow yourself to have the freedom, purpose, or income from your business that you’ve been seeking?

What if you already have the freedom or meaning you’re after? Look for it in the small ways, or recognize what your work is telling you about what you’re truly after – like a reflection in the mirror….

Your business isn’t going to give you freedom or purpose—you get to discover it for yourself through your business as the vehicle for your growth and exploration.

I wish I had been more grateful to have noticed my insecurity and stress in the moment, seeing how my work was telling me what I needed to hear and showing me what I needed to see. It sent me on a path of finding internal freedom after I found it externally. 

I’m on another type of pathway now – one related to creativity, and I believe that I’m more aware of its gift to me now.