How old is too old?
I prefer to shower after my workout and dress for work, even if work is in a home office and a business I created and I run. I love to wear make-up, enjoy [real] clothes, and even like high heel shoes, which I wear for myself from time to time, at home, in my home office. I feel better when I dress up, and sometimes that’s not how it goes. Today is one of those days.
Starting Inspirit Garden is a dream that took a long time to become something tangible. Over the years, I would beat myself up and judge myself that I couldn’t apply all the techniques that personal development books listed, you know, get up earlier, dedicate X amount of hours to your dream/business, sacrifice, etc.
The advice can be contradictory “if it were easy, everyone would do it” to “turn your side gig into a multi-million dollar empire, it just takes ____.”
I admire those women who seemingly do it all. As a “stay home mom” of three active kids and a self-employed husband and not an extended family support structure, we strived just to survive
For a long time, I was tired, too tired. I didn’t have anything left to sacrifice or to give.
Over the past five years, I started making personal changes, reclaiming my mind, body, and spirit. I now have the time and energy to dedicate myself fully to turning my side gig into something more.
Currently, Inspirit Garden is a small business with a small budget. A friend of mine was excited to send me a link for a cosmetic company that was gifting 30 small business grants to women; she said, “you’d be perfect for this.”
I filled out the questions, which had me reflect on ‘why now?’
.
I came to the end of the questionnaire for the grant and needed to initial legal boxes and agreements when I came across the one that disqualified me, ”You must be between the ages of 17-47 to qualify.” I needed to pause, and I re-read it over a dozen times in disbelief. I am going to turn 53 soon; I don’t qualify.
Here is a link to an article by INC. of 14 famous people who didn’t achieve success until later in life
Today, as I usually do, I got up at 4:30 am, did my morning mediation, switched the laundry, and played wordle before going to the gym. For an hour, M-F, I do a hard cross-training workout. I was home just after 7. I scheduled a walk with a friend. Trying to figure out the timing of fitting that in, something had to give; this time, it was a morning shower.
I have committed to a physical challenge for April; the goal is to get in a total of 100 run/walk miles, and it feels like the perfect thing to celebrate my 5th anniversary of the ‘SorryNOTsorry’ journey. Today’s walk gave me a gauge of how long it will take to achieve a certain distance so that I can plan and prepare for the challenge.
My physical fitness journey has been an essential part of my whole journey, which has taught me so much and allowed me to dare greatly.
Today, with make-up still on from yesterday, sweat from this morning, a big water bottle with a worn sticker that says “Nevertheless SHE persisted,” I persist. I know not everything will be easy; I also know not everything will be hard, and to that cosmetic company, at what age are you supposed to forget about your dreams? Ummm, ya, NEVER.
