My Business Island in the Stream

My earth-bound spirit guide, Ms. Glennon Doyle, now has a podcast, We Can Do Hard Things. Last week's episode was about creating and holding boundaries. Something I espouse & advocate for wholeheartedly and am utter crap at doing for myself.

She speaks of boundaries as building an island. And for her, as she was coming out, she only allowed people onto your island that come with wild acceptance and joy and celebration.

As a leader, it is my duty to build an island. An island where our vision of a more prosperous world is wildly accepted, unabashedly celebrated, and relentlessly worked towards. The ferocity with which I believe in our intention and our ability to change the world is at times so intense it scares me. I get scared that I'm not enough, I'm naive, I'm flawed, I'm too idealistic, and on and on and on.

When that happens, I let down the drawbridge less purposefully. I start letting people in from a place of fear and judgment. And so my fear starts to become a self-fulfilling prophecy. I start letting others in to share their worry with me, their shoulda and wouldas, their solutions, their fixes, their criticisms..... I let my island deteriorate. I start walking around my business island reacting instead of creating. I dread instead of celebrate. I shrink instead of shining. And so follows my team.

So I'm going to change this. I'm pulling up the drawbridge. I'm resetting my boundaries and sending those who don't belong on my island back to shore. Do I have any idea how to do this? Uh, maybe? What keeps coming to my mind is a Grey's Anatomy quote (it's my thing.... I've rewatched it like 6 times by now... let it go). In a scene with a car crash victim, Dr. Cristina Yang, ask the patient three questions:

1. Do you know who you are?

2. Do you know what has happened to you?

3. Do you want to live this way?

I think these are the critical questions to decide who comes onto your island, with a few minor tweaks.

1. Do you know who you are?

2. Do you know who we are?

3. Do you want to work this way?

This is the critical ask for me of my team, my vendors, my advisors, and my clients. Now, let me be clear, I'm not saying everyone needs to go along to get along or that my way is the highway, or that no one is allowed to have a contradictory idea. What I am saying is that there is no room on my/our island for haters or even meh-ers.

In the podcast, Glennon says, "the hard part of setting boundaries is withstanding what happens next." She speaks of being a strong little tree in a big, scary storm. To withstand the hardest part, you need roots. I am rooted in my purpose to love. I am driven to create a more just and equitable world through prosperity. I want more people to have bigger pieces of the pie.... actually more than that, I want to throw out the pie. I want everyone to experience abundance and the true freedom that comes from prosperity.

Whoa.... I guess I've got work to do.