Look At How Far You've Come - Some Reflections I Had Today

I tend to be the kind of person that is always Full Steam Ahead.

I "Know" that it is Extremely Beneficial to Stop and Reflect, but I can admit that I'm Human and don't do it as often as I should.

However, today was a day when my Journey was "Really" brought to my attention.

In a way, today really Forced me to Stop and Reflect on my Journey.

For those of you who are new to my work, I've been an Entrepreneur in the world of Leadership Coaching, Speaking, Teaching, and Digital Writing for a bit over 8 years now.

I've had parts of my Career where I ran a Podcast and TV Show as well, though I currently have not been doing those as I've Focused on Writing.

I started as most people do, clueless and running around trying to put the disparate pieces together, all while trying to work through the other everyday challenges Humans face.

The beginning of the journey was pretty slow for me - I was young and ambitious, but my youth was still pretty apparent to the people I wanted to be working with.

Over time, I've continued to grow, to seek, and to develop my craft.

It has really come together very nicely over time which has been an incredible blessing.

Last year I Won and was nominated for 20 Awards for my work.

This year I've Won and was nominated for over 30 Awards, and there's still plenty of time to go.

Something that has Defined my work since last year is Consistency and that has been shown best through my Articles.

I have over 575 Articles that I have written on Leadership Topics since January 1st of last year.

1 Article Per Day, Every Day.

Rain, Snow, or Shine.

In Sickness, and in Health.

On Holidays and Vacation as well.

Writing has been Monumental, not only for my work by allowing me to Improve it, but also for my Mental Health as I nearly always write in Flow States and it has become a form of Meditation.

However, I really didn't appreciate how much my Writing and Work has Improved until today when two things happened within a few hours.

The first was that I had a Dedicated Reader go "Way" back in my list of articles to something I wrote FIVE Years Ago!

It was during a time when I hadn't discovered my own Strengths quite yet, had recently Hosted my First Speaking Summit, and was trying to figure out how to get myself out in the Market.

The piece itself isn't bad, but after reading it now, I can see that it wasn't quite "me" yet, which was also why the "series" never really made it off the ground.

Then, I recently submitted an article to a publication, and the article was published today.

In all honesty, sometimes I forget what I write after I publish articles, so I sat down and re-read it.

In this article I originally published about a month ago, I talked about why the Goal of Mastery is Self-Defeating.

Comparing these two pieces was like comparing Night and Day.

They were both "my" work, but I could tell that my more recent article was in a completely different league of Writing.

When I was comparing them, it made me think about the 8 Stages to a Quality Career that I wrote about at the end of Last Year.

In the first article, I can see how I was in the "Proving" Stage of my Career.

Now, everyone must go through the Proving Stage at some point in their Careers, and I was no exception to that rule.

Quite literally, the article is me answering a question about an Important Leadership Lesson from my career, aka Proving I Knew Something about Leadership.

In the second article though, I am demonstrating the Create/Innovate stage of a Career.

I am taking something that is Relatively Unchallenged as a Rule - That we "Should" make our Goal Mastery - and I am Literally Challenging It, Questioning It, and Innovating around an Idea.

These articles Highlight two completely different eras of my work.

Eras that I can't say I fully Appreciated until the drastic difference was Highlighted right in front of me.

This is Why we should all see how far we have come.

Looking over your Life and seeing where you were can Highlight what you're doing with your Life.

Can you tell a Difference between Where You are Today, and Where You Were 5 Years Ago?

Many People Can't, and it is Alright if You find yourself there Today.

There is a LOT of Change you can make in a Relatively Short Time, but you have to Start Changing.

On the Other End of the Spectrum, if you Have Changed, you should Celebrate how far you've come!

So often, we beat ourselves up for where we are without even considering how far along the Path we have come.

Where do you find yourself today?

How Far Have You Come?