As a ReZoomer, it can sometimes be very frightening to move forward. Moving forward means making choices and decisions on our own, decisions that will propel the progression of our businesses.

It has been a long time since we called all the shots in our lives.

Questions arise. You are responsible for this new [ad] venture. How do you know which opportunities are right for you and your business?  Will these opportunities be something you like doing or do you have to do them to move forward?

These are the hardest questions for me to answer.

My personality lends itself to trying to do everything.  I throw myself completely into topical courses, which continue my learning curve in mediation, collaborative, or animal law.  However, over the past year, I realize I’ve taken a few too many.

I need to start picking and choosing the classes I attend.  My time is scarce. I need to stay put to service my current clients.  Yet, I am always afraid I will miss something.  Consequently, I choose to do everything. I convince myself it will help.  Fortunately, the programs I attended did just that, helped me move forward.

My personal nemesis is doing what I like to do and not doing what I need to do.  For me, what I like doing and what needs doing are two totally different things.  Recognizing what you need to do, and liking it, is very difficult.

You realize doing it will reap benefits in the long run.  However, genuinely liking to do something you need to do makes it much easier. As Mark Twain so succinctly said,” Work consists of whatever a body is obliged to do. Play consists of whatever a body is not obliged to do.” - The Adventures of Tom Sawyer

An example of this quandary came earlier this year when I signed up for a mastermind course. The colleagues in this mastermind were not a good fit for me.  At first I felt I needed to stick it out, too bad that the chemistry of the group wasn’t working for me.  Then I realized it wasn’t that I didn’t like the course, rather, I needed a more optimistic group for such a program to meet my needs.

For once in my life I walked away from something that was not a good fit. I knew I needed this process at this time in my business life, yet I also knew I didn’t have to tough it out and learn from it, or make it work.  It was an incredibly uplifting feeling.  I didn’t think I was a quitter either, rather I felt as if I was putting me first. I left the group and waited for something else to come along.  I needed this process and knew it would be much more effective if I liked the colleagues.

This month I started a new mastermind class. It has been outstanding.  My colleagues are enthusiastic and forward thinking.  We all are moving at the same speed, doing what we need to do and liking it.  We are all working with each other.  We are all in the same boat and need the same insights and discussion we all bring to the table.

I knew I need a focused group to help me look at my company with fresh eyes and help me strengthen its appeal to my target audience.   Liking it was a whole other matter and a huge benefit from the mastermind group.

I hope what you take away from this blog post is that it is hard to make your own decisions and do the things you need to do.  They are scary and sometimes hard to face.  Doing what we like to do is so much kinder to us on this journey.  You may be surprised to find a ‘need to do’ populated by people in your same position.  There is no better way to like a ‘need to do’ than to have comrades in arms to slog through the trenches with you and emerge victorious on the other side.

Remember; don’t stay if it is dragging you down.  You need to enjoy the process in order to immerse yourself in the ‘need to do’ project and get the most out of it.

Go do something you need to do…you may be caught by surprise and like it.