lacking confidence...

So...it has been a rough couple of days for me...which is frustrating me a bit right now. God has blessed me so much: amazing husband, beautiful baby, great immediate family and in-laws, fantastic church family, just to name a few. But in the midst of it all is one of my personal battles: my business.  And I am going to share it with you, my dear readers.  So if you would rather not hear my whining (some of it is a little whiny, I'm sorry), please navigate away from this page at this time.  (I don't do this often but I felt like I needed to get it out of my head. Thank you for your patience.  We will return to this blog's regularly scheduled program shortly.)  =)

I LOVE making jewelry.  I have always loved fashion and accessorizing and making women beautiful (in my small sphere of influence anyway).  But when I decided to take the plunge and try selling my designs, things didn't go as smoothly as they were supposed to.  I am all too aware that some of the problem is my lack of focus on business matters on a regular basis (another one of my "battles").  But an even bigger problem is my lack of confidence in myself.  As much of a "trend-setter" as I have been in different situations in my life, I still tend to be a huge people pleaser.  I want everyone to like my designs as much as I love them.  As I strive for that external goal of making everyone else happy though, I find myself designing for someone else and then I struggle even more because it is no longer my jewelry!  ::sigh::  Why do I do this to myself?

So I guess this post was just going to be a small opportunity for me to be honest with myself and admit two things.  First, that I try to please other people when it comes to my business (other than when I am making custom orders which is what I'm supposed to be doing in that situation).  When I stop designing things that I think are beautiful or things that I think are fashionable, I start stumbling and lose my focus and drive.  And secondly, that I see things as failures that are not necessarily failures.  Just because I haven't reached a goal when I thought I was going to, does not make it an immediate failure.  It just means that my path has taken a different turn than I had planned on.

Alright.  I feel better.  And hopefully I can walk away from this post and try again.  Try to design jewelry that is expressive of me and myself and strive for reasonable goals for my business and be patient until I reach them.

city lights bracelets

Have any of you struggled with a similar dilemma in your life?  Whether you have a business or not, I'd love to hear from you!