If you run your own business, you might not be known as a rule follower.

I hate being confined to rules set by others and being told what to do. Do you?

Even so, I was always afraid of doing something wrong when I was growing up.

So even though I resented the rules, I still stuck to them out of fear. Fear is the most powerful force for control.

Now being an adult, I get to make my own rules, and there’s only two key rules I live by:

1. Be kind
2. If I want something, I go for it

Now assuming we are all kind people here and do not wilfully harm others, I want to focus this post on Rule number two – going for what you want in life.

Getting what you want in life doesn’t mean it’s easy or fast.

People often give up quickly because they’re looking at others who already have what they want and they’re comparing the other person’s chapter 10 to their chapter one. It’s doesn’t happen overnight, and it’s not supposed to.

Maybe you’ve newly discovered someone on your newsfeed and in the shiny manufactured gallery of instagrammable #goals they seem to have it all.

But the nature of social media is to show the highlight reel, and what you don’t see are the hard times, sacrifice, self doubt and work that the person has really put in to get there.

My life is pretty damn great right now. But I can assure you there were plenty of obstacles, struggles and even trauma on my way to get here and having success and nice things now doesn’t mean that all my personal struggles just go away.

What is really inspiring about someone’s success is not what they have and where they’ve got in life, but that they’ve got there despite the challenges they have faced.

We all have challenges and fears. It’s continuing to persevere despite this that will pay off for you.

Playing small means letting the fear win and keep you under control.

Playing big doesn’t mean that the fear isn’t there, it means doing it in spite of that fear.

What if what you want seems so out of reach, so unobtainable because of your current circumstances?

Remember it is possible to change your circumstances if you can push through the fears.

It might take time or difficulty to do that but that doesn’t mean it’s impossible.

When I decided to make a more flexible living selling online courses, the appeal was in the dream – the freedom it provides. Sales coming in while I slept or played on the beach. But I didn’t just get those things because I decided I wanted it.

I decided I wanted it, then I learned about it, then I tried it, then I failed, then I repeated that process many times over a few years, then I finally got it right and now I continue to work on refining and improving it.

But I wanted it badly enough to see it through.

You have every right to go out there and get yours!

The thing about setting your own rules? It’s up to you and you alone to make it happen.

If selling online courses is also something you’d like to do and you’re the type that takes action until you succeed, feel free to reach out to find out more about The Online Course Journey program and how it can help you not only create your course, but sell it to more people, and add an amazing asset to your business.

Tenille x