What growth really looks like

Happy Sunday!

As you’re reading this, I’ll be packing up and on my way home from my second of three ski trips this year.

Hopefully my muscles are a little less sore compared to last week and maybe I’ve even skied my first black diamond run? You’ll have to tune in next week to hear how it all went!

This week I wanted to share a few thoughts I’ve been having around setting reasonable expectations for growth.

Personally I’ve found, especially in the world of the internet, that it can be incredibly easy to compare our growth trajectory to others. To feel like we’re always behind, moving slower than everyone else, and will never get it together.

Growth is really weird and non-linear.

I’ve found in my own business that I have random peaks of success and then I’ll fall back into a valley. When this happens, it can feel disheartening and frustrating. I was finally making progress and then everything started to fall apart.

But when I zoom out I can see that, while my day-to-day or even month-to-month progress is inconsistent, the long-term trajectory is usually moving in the right direction. I experience peaks and valleys but they both happen at a larger scale.

This week I made my 100th sale on Spoonflower (yay!) which was a milestone I wasn’t sure I would ever hit. I keep a record of my sales data and I charted out the sales I’ve made per month. Take a look—

I’m sure it’s easy to imagine how I felt in January, May, August, and December of last year.

Yes! It’s finally working!

But then January and February turn into March, May brings me to June, and August leads to September, and I’m thinking—

What is going on? I thought I had this all figured out, but now I’m getting worse!

And it’s in those moments that I remember what growth really feels like.

Every once in a while, there’s a random high. But otherwise, I feel stagnant. I feel like nothing is happening. I feel like I’m going nowhere.

But then I zoom out and I can see the long-term trend. Up and up. Slowly, but moving in the right direction.

So if you’re feeling stuck, have you zoomed out and really appreciated how far you’ve come?

Try to focus less on how far away you are from the final destination and instead on how much progress you’ve made. Then, just keep going!

Until next week,

~Rachel

P.S., if you enjoyed this email and know a friend who might be inspired by it too, please forward it along! And if you ARE that friend, subscribe here.​