For weeks, I’ve pondered that question…

Why am I so tired?

Why is my business not taking off? 

What’s missing in this situation?

Why doesn’t the process FEEL right?

What’s the ONE thing that will change EVERYTHING?

I’m not referring to the gold pot at the end of the rainbow or the secret key that unlocks new worlds.  I’m talking about what Charles Duhigg, in “The Power of Habit” calls a keystone habit, the one game changing habit that, once you change it, changes everything else in your life for the better.

I’ve been searching for my keystone habit… the one thing that would shift my life in the direction I’ve been wanting to go for YEARS… and guess what?

I’ve been looking in all the wrong places, doing all the wrong things, and feeling SUPER exhausted in the process.

Because that’s what happens when you try to give insignificant things monumental meanings.  

You get frustrated, tired, overwhelmed and burnt out. 

And the reality was that I had the answer all along.

So often, the things we desire are things that we think can solve the deeper problems of our lives:

More money solves the happiness problem.

More time solves the I won’t live forever problem.

More love solves the loneliness issue.

But, if you’ve lived long enough, you know that none of that is true.  In fact:

More money brings more money management situations to deal with.

More time offers more opportunities to be who you really are with time (time waster, time zapper, time ninja?)

More love gives more ways to either accept that love or turn it away (if you’re comfort zone is lonely, no amount of love is going to take you from it)

So, at the end of the day, the REAL solution is SUPER simple:

GO BACK TO THE BASICS.

BASIC #1: Whatever the problem is, you already have the answer.

BASIC #2: The key to having the answer actually solve the problem is implementing the solution OVER AND OVER AND OVER AGAIN (i.e. repetition makes the master).

BASIC #3: Until you stop starting over, you’ll never know whether your answer is THE answer (and, way too often, we’re more in love with the idea of starting over than the concept of staying committed.)

BASIC #4: When in doubt, remind yourself about Basics 1, 2 and 3 INCESSANTLY.

So, what does all of this have to do with being a woman in business?

Whether you’re a solopreneur, a business partner, an online maven, or a combination of all of them, when your business isn’t where you want it to be, the answer isn’t found outside… it’s found within.

In doing my own self-reflection, what I’ve come to understand about my business endeavors is this:

1) If my body isn’t properly cared for, my mind won’t work at full throttle.

2) If my mind isn’t at full throttle, my creativity is in the toilet.

3) If my creativity is in the toilet, I lose my sense of desire, passion, and momentum.

4) If I lose my sense of desire, passion and momentum, I lose the commitment to stay the course and stay true to my mission of helping 100,000 women in their 20s, 30s, and 40s redesign their lives by running their shows- their WHOLE shows.

At the end of the day, it all comes back to the sooooooooo unsexy truth:

I’ve got to re-implement my rituals of self-care AND I have to KEEP them.

If my mind and body don’t get my love, my business never will…

Basic… SUPER basic… and, nonetheless, super powerful and super true!

What are you doing this week to incorporate daily rituals of self-care into how you run your show?