Last week I went on an amazing business retreat to Park City, UT.
I’d never been to this magical state but let me just say, it will definitely not be my last trip there.
Utah is magnetic, full of God’s creations. I’m not one to get spiritual on here but it’s pretty undeniable when you’re walking about, completely encapsulated by big, blue mountains and snow up to your naval.
My intention of the trip was to learn and grow, as a person and as a business woman.
But what I got was so much more.
This is what Utah taught me.
The trip consisted of 5 days with 5 creative entrepreneurs, primarily photographers from Utah. I wasn’t sure how I’d mix in with the group but knew I’d leave with 5 new friends regardless. That’s just how I roll.
Hosted by my pseudo business coach Kinzie Madsen (I’ve talked about her on JAMES SAID a ton and was featured on her podcast KINZCOWORLD earlier in 2019. Listen to that episode here) and hosted in an amazing airbnb cabin, I was already excited about no matter the outcome. There were big windows all around so you could see the snow for miles and the warm sunshine pouring in. It was the perfect place to get down to business.
We had journaling exercises each morning and a LOT of sharing. Which was scary. But the whole purpose of this business retreat was to get us talking, thinking and moving WAY beyond our comfort zones. I knew going into the retreat I wanted to get everything nailed down for my first course CREATIVE MONEY because it was new to me and Kinz is basically a course guru. And that totally happened. But something bigger happened that was so beyond a course or swapping tips with these other amazing women…
I became free.
As creatives, we put this insane amount of pressure on ourselves. I think some people call it discipline. I have buckets of it and enough to even share. But after a few days of meditating, journaling and asking myself the tough questions, I finally realized that I’m already enough. And just to CHILL.
“EVERYTHING YOU NEED IS ALREADY INSIDE OF YOU.”
It just hit me like a ton of bricks. I always keep asking for more from myself. Which is good in a sense… applying pressure makes you do things you never knew you were capable of. It helps you jump outside of your comfort zone and grow as a person and business. But really, all of the things you’re striving for are already inside of you.
You just have to tap into it.
I know this is probably blowing some of your minds. But once I had this realization, I almost started crying in front of the entire group. I’m already an emotional person and wouldn’t have cared if it came to this. But it almost felt like this massive weight was lifted off of my shoulders that I could physically feel and see. (Don’t worry, I’m not insane. I couldn’t feel it or see it. But the release was REAL.)
As a chronic people pleaser and perfectionist, realizing that the gusto I’ve been striving for this entire time was already inside of me was huge. Especially with this shift in my business and wondering where I needed to take it, realizing that I already had all of the answers was so freeing. All of the guidance, clarity, vision… it’s inside of you. You just have to strip away the mental blocks and start listening to what you actually want.
Breaking the chain of comparison, self-doubt, imposter syndrome, ego, etc. etc… it’s not easy. But it is the true path to freedom. Imagine if you were on a deserted island and never had to worry about what anyone thought about you, or anything failing, ever. Money wasn’t a factor. You decisions would be clear. You would follow your intuition, always. And still feel the immense peace of the waves washing in, never really feeling alone.
Plus there’s a food reserve there so you’d never be hungry either.
Girl’s gotta eat.
We touched on human design which I highly recommend you looking into. It will explain so much about why you are the way you are and how to work WITH yourself rather than against it.
We set monetary goals for our businesses. We had 1:1 meetings with Kinz.
We laughed. We ate. We learned. We grew.
I was hoping I would be able to go into more detail on this trip. But now I’m realizing it’s one of those ‘woulda had to been there’ kind of things. It was just magic. All of it. So much of it was personal growth, insane breakthroughs in the moment and days full of reflection.
I think it’s so, SO important for us to take time to take stock of what we have and what we want. And more importantly, how to get there. As creatives, we often just go with the flow because we need to pay the bills. Whatever works for now, great. And we get in this vicious cycle of not doing what we REALLY want because it feels scary and impossible. We’re too deep in. We get in the rhythm of doing what feels ‘ok’ because it’s safe and easy. Or adversely, we are really doing what we love but not making money from it because we aren’t taking the time to figure out how. And we keep repeating the same cycle over and over, wondering why it’s not working.
Regardless of what you got from this post, I want you to take time to ask yourself what you want.
And figure out how to do it.
Life is short and there is only one YOU. So why waste anymore time playing small?
What’s the worst that could happen? If anything, you’ll end right back up where you are now.
Remember, everything you need is already inside of you.
Take what Utah taught me and know you can do anything. Yes you can.
Xx, Allison