Prettyish... 

Sis, when is the last time you loved on yourself? I mean REALLY loved on yourself? I don't mean this in the erotic sense. I'm talking about looking inward to consider your spiritual, physical, mental, and emotional needs, then caring for yourself accordingly. When is the last time you took the necessary steps to show yourself some love in this way? Don't feel bad if it's been a long time for you. It happens to the best of us, love.

See as entrepreneurs, we often place ourselves on the bottom of our to-do lists. We may have full-time jobs, are enrolled in school full-time, and/or have families as well as other obligations and responsibilities. This means we are sacrificing to pour every minute of our spare time into starting our businesses and building our brands. We stay up late burning the midnight oil, breathing life into visions many around us may not yet understand. So not only are we overworked, overwhelmed, and in dire need of a good night's rest, we often feel like we're all alone out here, without a help or support in sight. And while we like to think that the strength of our vision or dream may sustain us, it won't. Because if this strong vision isn’t coupled with a strong sense of self-love, any distraction or negative experience could end up damaging our entrepreneurial efforts.

We all know what it means to settle for less in life. We’ve opted for the easy job that didn’t require 100% of our talents or work ethic a time or two. We’ve found ourselves in unfulfilling relationships wanting more from others than they ever intended to give us. And maybe we’ve even gone against producing our best work as creative entrepreneurs by taking the “easy way out” several times over. Please tell me I’m not the only one guilty of doing these things.  

What causes us to “settle,” accepting much less than what we know to be the best for us? Perhaps we fear that we aren’t good enough to receive the best. Maybe we don’t believe we are worthy of more than we’ve accepted over time for whatever reason. In the past, I was the type of person who loved to play the background when it came to sharing my work. I settled by dimming my own light because I feared that others wouldn’t be impressed by what I had to offer. And this underdog, defeatist behavior robbed me of doing my creative best.