The New Wilderness

Deciding to start a business is like deciding to take a walk through a forest you have never been in before. You're not even sure if you packed the right tools, if you're strong enough, brave enough or even if you want to - sometimes. And the map, well, it's not even complete. This is the new wilderness.

You are stepping out into the unknown. Stepping out into a new wilderness that you have never been in before - especially if this is your first foray into business (any stage can feel like a new wilderness with new challenges).

We can feel unbound, untethered and too free. It can feel too much, too scary, too overwhelming. And there can be so much doubt. Like, "what am I doing here?". 

You will also get everyone else's wilderness experiences and stories - but there is nothing that beats learning and doing for yourself. 

We often place pressure on ourselves to know the route intimately before we begin but even if we have a map there will be obstacles, rocks, boulders, streams that come out of no where. There is no way to know the way forward. Only by taking the first step will we start to unfold the answers.

And often the answers are inside of us rather than outside of us. The wilderness is the personal journey that we are on by being in business. It's like having children - it can bring up so much of us we didn't even know existed (traumas, baggage, grief, mindset - all the things!).

So how do we navigate this new wilderness?

By doing what women have done for centuries. Bare down. Find your sisterhood/support circle. Be okay with going out into the dark wilderness of ourselves, facing the shadows and providing our own light. Listen, observe and wait. Flow with the energies of the cycle and seasons. We are the wilderness but we have forgotten. Go slowly. And repeat. Bare down again. Find support again.  Repeat. Repeat. 

Tap into the feminine qualities of both strength and gentleness (especially with ourselves), being the hunters (we were, you know) and hearth tenderers. Athena (battle strategy and wisdom), Artemis (goddess of the hunt) and Hestia (goddess of the hearth) in one.

And start cultivating your own tools. Like creating a garden shed for the wildnerness. It takes time to know what works and what doesn't. How you best work and don't. Which tools help and which hinder. 

Especially trust. Which many of us (women esp) have been taught not to do. To not trust ourselves. To not trust our decisions. To not trust our own desires and deep inner knowing. This cultivation is a must for us to succeed in our own businesses. Because without the trust of our deep motivation and dream we won't have the ability to stay committed to the path when it gets hard.

And the wilderness will be different for every one. One woman's wilderness is another woman's comfy space. 

The move to creating businesses that do not align with the masculine focused and productivity driven hustle culture is one that is needed for our future. And women are at the forefront of this paradigm shift. Deciding they don't want to work like that. Deciding that it NEEDS to be in collaboration with other parts of their lives. Deciding that they do not want that anymore. It's hard though. Hard to step away and forge your own path through the wilderness.

Yes, we will need the business basics but everything else is up to us. 

What does your new wilderness look like, feel like? What do you think you need today to start on the path?

As Brène Brown says - 
"Strong back, soft front, wild heart"

It is time for us to step into our new wilderness.