Take Your Ground and Empower Yourself

By Nancy Zwiers

“Take your ground.”  This was a phrase I first heard during my entrepreneurial training when I started Funosophy Inc. in 2000.  I’ve since learned first-hand how empowering this concept is and I want to invite you to empower yourself as you head into a new year.

Taking your ground embodies the idea that when we acknowledge how far we’ve come, we get energized to travel even farther going forward.  How often do we focus on what we have failed to accomplish?  If you’re like me, you often dwell on the misses, which puts us in a fretful mode that disrupts our mojo.  Conversely, when we stop to list all the things that went right, all the things we accomplished in our work and in our larger lives, it provides fuel for the ongoing journey.

I had a coach--Michel-Joy Delre-- for most of my entrepreneurial journey and she insisted that I end each year by writing her a letter listing all that I had accomplished.  She instructed me to not put anything negative in the letter, no qualifiers, no “buts.”  She encouraged me to be expansive, to make the list as long as possible.  Accomplishments were not just relegated to work…for example, I considered every vacation I took as an accomplishment since traveling was/is a priority for me. 

My letter in 2009, for example, was five pages long.  It included business metrics like revenue, profit and success fees; the acquisition of new clients, as well as key accomplishments on behalf of our clients; initiatives like launching our collaborative invention business model and the creation of product concepts as well as advances secured; obtaining a patent; expanding Funosophy’s talent pool with new resources and capabilities; and developing new research “products.”  It also included five trips; a dozen experiences of entertaining in my home, the completion of a home redecorating project; church tithing; and securing an acupuncturist for my health and well-being.

Do you want to turbo charge your progress in 2022?  If so, will you commit to taking an hour or two to reflect on the past year and write a letter to yourself taking your ground?  The lull between Christmas and New Years is the perfect time for this exercise in self-empowerment.