Words for the Week No.29 // The next chapter

This awesome art poster is from The Watermelon Factory

As soon I saw this poster on Etsy, I knew I wanted to make it into this week's words. This is exactly what I've realized in the last couple of weeks, or even the last couple of years really. I've gone through so much change in recent times (marrying, moving to Germany, starting to build a business) and when we experience such immense change in every aspect of our life, it causes a lot of stress. Every big change starts a stress reaction in our bodies - that's just a fact. But, the other side of the story is that we get to choose the long-term effect it has on us.

If we believe that it's bad for us, that's exactly what's going to happen. But, if we believe that stress is just a way for our body to help us cope with the situation at hand, it will become an asset instead of a threat. (I love this TED talk on this matter)

It's all about the way I look at it.

I've found that one of the things stopping me from embracing change is the constant look in the rearview mirror. Thinking and re-thinking about things that have passed - the chapter that's ending. I think about all the things I miss. Or, about what I wish I'd done differently. And, while learning from mistakes is certainly important, I can get stuck in the has-been or would-have-been land. 

Sometimes we hold on to the "good old days" so hard that we miss out on all the better days ahead. We fail to see how this new chapter might help us get to where we really want to go.

Fear, anxiety and worry over what's to come are not foreign to me. I experience them all the time. But, what I've started to see is how they are just signs of growth rather than a threat to my being. Jumping into unknown waters is scary, and it should be! I mean, think of what would happen if we weren't afraid at all and were always ready to jump off cliffs. That would be a very dangerous gamble. 

Fear is here to protect us - like a guarding dog. It's our job to let it know that we're ok and ready to take on the risk of doing something new. Stress is here to help us. It's our job to use it to our advantage. 

But, there might be one more thing that keeps us re-reading that old chapter. It's the fear of failure. We might feel that letting go means we've failed. This is the exact reason why the decision to close my Etsy shop was so difficult to make. I had known it wasn't working for a long time. I knew that it wasn't my dream business, but I still kept on going, because I saw myself as a failure if I'd call it quits. The truth is though, that dragging my feet and not taking the necessary steps to move on was the real failure here.

I wasted to much time and energy to work on something that couldn't have succeeded. And that's just stupid!

Although I'm not completely sure what's next for me, I'm glad I'm finally able to end this chapter in my business. It's freed up so much mental space and got me excited to plan a new future. 

To end this little chapter here, I'd like to remind you that there's only 2 days left to buy something from my shop before the doors close for good. And, you can get 50% off everything with the coupon code ENDSALE. 

Have a wonderful start to an amazing week!

xo. Hanna