This month at skoah we are focusing on detoxing, both on the outside and inside. There are 101 ways to detox your body & skin - drinking more water, changing your diet, some crazy juice cleanse - detoxing your mind can be harder. How do you let go of certain thoughts and move forward? How do you leave behind whatever is slowing you down? Andrea Scott, Co-Founder and CEO explores how she will let go this May.
Setting goals is woven into the culture of our company. We attract and create goal motivated individuals. Striving to achieve hope turned into an actionable goal changes the way one looks at life. We believe people who are inspired by their own goals are exceptionally wonderful to our customers and are great to work with. But I have recently started to look at the process of setting goals a little bit differently.
Many times, we feel overwhelmed when setting goals. When asked 'what are your goals?' many respond by saying they ‘still have to do that’. They feel unsure about where to start. How big should their goals be? What if they are too hard or what if they actually accomplish them? Then what? And what if they set a goal and can’t make it happen. Should there be a theme or a focus? Should there be a timeline? Without a goal, where do you begin? The fear around this resonated.
Recently, I struggled when trying to write down my goals. This has never happened to me before. I am usually hyper-aware of what I want in life and by when. In thinking about why I see that it has been a year full of heartbreak but also of tremendous joy and transformation. I grew friendships from darkness and likewise chose to give more in spirit, kindness, and generosity. I nurtured and reinforced friendships. I took action to resolve challenges, which I realize is only a step in a longer process. I struggled between the power of taking risks and the power of self-acceptance. I made mistakes, I got stuck in survive versus thrive mode, but moved past it. I saw skoah grow and develop and become a better company than it was a year, and 2, and many years before. I look ahead to the plans we have and feel more motivated than ever to realize skoah’s goals. I watched people on my team develop and impress and inspire me. It was an eventful year and whipsawed my emotions and sense of self time and time again. And this led me to thinking about how to start goal setting and release the overwhelm: I started by choosing to look instead at what I want to leave behind in order to move forward.
I realized that myself, and most people, are not aware of what is happening in our lives that don’t serve us well. In order to move forward, one must let go of the things they don’t want to or know they need not, carry forward. Some examples could be people or relationships that no longer add value to our lives. For some, this could be a negative friend who doesn’t ask often enough how you are. It could be a pattern of behavior you do by habit. It could be physical in nature, leaving behind possessions, or pounds or items you no longer feel fulfilled by. It could be fear, inhibition, blame, negative thoughts, or the habit of assuming or planning for or accepting the worst. It could be a job that no longer fulfills the goals you have set. It could be leaving behind a relationship that isn’t improving or working anymore. It could be learning something new without the expectation of being perfect. It could be leaving behind ‘perfectionism’, or self-doubt. Being clear on letting go of what doesn’t move you forward will clean the slate for your goals. In fact, the goals will likely flow from the pen and onto the paper and into your actions each day.
So what will I let go of this year? The first thing I will let go of is worrying about the things I cannot control or change. I will let go of rushing to the worst possible outcome. Bad things happened, but they have no more likelihood of happening again. I will let go of blaming myself and trust I made good decisions that just didn’t always go as expected. I will let go of my belief that a Mom has to be any one way. I will walk away from my own fear of having too much to manage. I will let go of wondering if I have all the skills I need to grow skoah, my family and myself. I don’t! I will leave behind concern over anyone’s opinion of me. I will let go of impulsivity but I won’t let my past mistakes take away my personal core value of ‘take risks’. Risks and mistakes led to learning and growing and personal evolution. It led to clarity about what to ‘let go’ of.
And so, what will you let go of?
-Andrea Mundie
Co-Founder & CEO
