Are you spending every day actively working toward what you MOST want out of life?

Probably not.

Most people aren't...

That's usually due to lack of confidence, nagging doubts, fear of failure, or any number of other subconscious irrationalities.

Or simple complacency. But if you're an entrepreneur, or driven at all, you're anything but simple. ;-)

If you think you don't have what it takes to SUCCEED like other people do, that you just don't have their motivation or skills or "special sauce" or whatever, I hope you'll read this.

My grandmother was in business for 66 years, and wildly successful.

I remember her as being busy, smart, a hard worker, happy, confident, rich, humble - and good to people.

That was my perception of her as a child, growing up around her - usually in the kitchen or in her shop, where she spent most of her time.



She pushed us too - and had high expectations. If there was a class, she signed me up for it: piano lessons, jazz lessons, art lessons, a memory workshop for business owners (I was only 14!!! lol).

You would think that made me the more cultured person she wanted me to be, but unfortunately I had a head trauma at the age of 20 that wiped my memory. It was many years later that I would start to get back bits of my memory in faded pieces.

The truth about people who are more successful than you...

I said she was in business 66 years. I was referring to her primary business. It was so successful that she started many other business ventures over the years, investing her profit with smart timing and smart strategy.

I always looked up to her, of course.

I saw her as a special kind of person.

She never cried. She never seemed sad even. She never asked why. She never appeared to have a doubt or second guess anything. She just did stuff...

I found an old ledger in my grandmother's things about 10 years after she passed away. I knew it was a personal journal as soon as I opened it. I recognized my grandmother's barely legible handwriting, which I'd only ever seen growing up when she was maybe signing checks.

I discovered she was a beautiful writer. And also that she had a deep and vulnerable side to her. Neither of which I would have ever guessed, even after knowing her my whole life.

This particular journal was for the year 1937, the year she left her job at the 'dirty old mill' to open her first business - at just 25 years old.

She had no formal education, very poor reading & writing skills even, but a STRONG desire to open her own business.

She worked in that business, loving it every single day, until she was 91 years old. She retired in 2003, which is when I moved here to stay with her for her last two years of life.

I was born in 1973, and my grandmother was already an incredibly successful woman by then.

All I'd ever known of her was her strong work ethic, her business success, her awards and honorable mentions...

But this private journal told another story.

She poured her heart out on those pages. She shared her doubts and her fears, her STRONG desire to find or create something more out of her life.

(I had always looked up to my grandmother. It never occurred to me just how human she was.)

Reading her entry the night before she opened her business, full of dreams and fears and doubts, I found a great source of personal inspiration.

It was moving, it was shocking, and it was a highly emotional experience.

All too often we look up to the people who have succeeded, or gone before us, and think it must have been handed to them on a silver platter.

We imagine that they must be greater than we are in some way, that they're special, or that we are missing something they obviously possess.

As I closed the ledger and carefully tucked in all of the loose pages, I realized there is no pedestal. Only our doubts playing tricks on us, encouraging us to see others as more special or more talented. As larger than life, or at least larger than us.

I would guess that most people have that internal desire to make more of life. More than just waking up, working and sleeping - day after day, year after year.

And if so, what separates those that do create an exceptional life... and those that do not?

After reading Grandmother's story, it was clear to me that she made her own path. There was no divine intervention. There was nothing handed to her...

She had an idea, and she shared that idea under a full moon with a dear friend, sitting at the farm's gate. That friend told her to do it, to make it happen. And so she did.

She later gave credit to that moment for her success, and shared how it stayed with her throughout her first year.

That conversation was the reason she quit her job and went for it.

It was obvious that friend's confidence in her was greater than her own in herself.

She shared the details of that conversation in her journal, how it was "just a dream" until this man replied, "Elizabeth, you can do anything you set your mind to. I have no doubt."

She thought back on his words often, and used it as a focal point on the days that were hard - the days she wanted to give up.

Maybe it's as simple as having someone or something that inspires or encourages you beyond your own fear and doubt.

Perhaps success is not a mystical elusive thing - but freely available to anyone willing to step out and take action.

If all it took for her was a strong desire, plus a single conversation of encouragement (and doing the work) then maybe success really is that simple.

Fully sure that may very well be the case... I wanted to pass this bit of personal inspiration on to you as well.

One small-town farm girl turned successful entrepreneur. I honestly had no idea the depth of fear and doubt she felt going in, how many times she second guessed herself that first year in business, or how HARD she pushed herself through those thoughts and feelings to make it work.

She shared all of those tough days, fears and concerns on that paper. She journaled her way through that entire first year in business - with such depth it had me in tears in some places.

Her sharing of those thoughts and feelings was a beautiful gift to find.
 

On the night before my grandmother opened her business, she defined her objective.

In that journal entry she never mentioned fame or wealth, but instead defined it like this:

"I want to make people happy, and I want them to make me happy too - through my work."

She was describing personal fulfillment.

How beautiful is that?
 

As I read that entry, I thought back to her last days. One of the last things my grandmother said to me before she passed, was: "I did everything I ever wanted to do. I had a great and rewarding life." She died peacefully in her sleep not long after that.

I don't know many people that could say that, facing death.

Her words have stuck with me for more than 14 years now, encouraging me to make the absolute MOST out of life, and NOT take time and opportunities for granted, and hope to one day be able to say the same.


How you spend your morning, your day, your week, your year - matters.

Are you spending your time doing... what you most want to do with your life?

If not, NOW is a great time to start. :)

♥️

Best,
Lynn Terry
ClickNewz.com


p.s. Between The Great Depression and World War II, and growing up on a farm in a small town, she had a lot of things working both for and against her.

Yet she went for it, and never gave up.

I wonder... how much easier we have it now, how much MORE opportunity there is today, and why anyone would NOT take full advantage of that.

In loving memory. ❤️