TRIGGER WARNING! If you’ve ever had to say goodbye to a beloved pet, this will hit home. As they say, there are many seasons in this life. This was one of the hardest for me. — here’s what I learned.

We don’t just wake up one morning and decide we’re going to be a solopreneur. This journey is one of self-discovery and understanding of who you really are and what you want from this life. It was through trial, understanding, self-reflection and course-correction that I discovered my true career calling. I moonlighted as an entrepreneur for years before I realised the solopreneurial path was more my vibe.

Wisdom is a wonderful thing. You can’t buy it. You can’t fast-track it. This is what I would say to the Me who was just starting out in her solopreneurial career, some 20 years ago.

When we start a business, or change career, or do anything that goes against the norm of your social standing, people will push back - hard. Your job is to hold firm in your decision. You know it’s right but they don’t. Not everyone will understand the journey you’re on - and that’s okay. The only person who needs to get it, is you.

Whenever we are being called upon to make a change, our bodies go into fight or flight and this can show up as feelings of anxiety. What lies ahead? The unknown is a scary place because there is nothing to benchmark against. But maybe it’s not anxiety after all? Maybe it’s your mind’s way of catching up to where your body is already taking you. Are you going to resist the calling, or run with it?

When we make the decision to do the work and deep dive into who we truly are at our very core, the Real Tribe will start to show up. This is where the reason / season / lifetime concept will become clearer and you will start to see past friends and even family members unknowingly slot themselves into one of these categories. Not everyone is here for the long haul and it took me years to accept this. I wanted my tribe so badly. But when I found them, the wait was worth it.

We all want to be liked but one should never dim the light on who is really inside for the sake of pleasing others. The same applies for when we are in business. I have struggled over the years to be myself because morphing into a version of what I think the clients want to see has been my default setting. But letting go of the fear they won’t like me has been a liberating experience.

You’re feeling uneasy because you’re torn between the Old You and the New You. There is safety in the familiar but it is when we can openly embrace the challenge of the unknown that life takes on a whole new meaning. A new chapter eagerly awaits. Do you have the courage to close the door and peer through the open window?

I had everything I wanted when I was 25. The business, the convertible, the fiancée, the two dogs with the white picket fence. And then I realised that everything I thought I had wanted came at a price called unhappiness. My soul recognised this and so began the painful transformation.

When life throws you something out of left field, what do you do? You don’t get to choose the curveball, but you do get to choose how you respond. Learning to recognise this process and step through it with poise and dignity takes courage and inner strength.