For years, I had this goal of earning $100,000 a year in my web design business.

And in 2022, I finally achieved it! But here's the thing.

It was a big milestone for me. But by the time I reached that goal, I was working evenings, weekends, and hardly took a holiday. I was spending most of my days sitting at my desk, and I had very little time or energy left for the other things I enjoyed.

And somewhere along the way, I started questioning something.

Why $100,000?

Why had I decided that earning six figures was the measure of a successful life?

Nobody had told me I needed to earn that much. Nobody was standing over my shoulder insisting that I reach this particular number.

It was a goal I had set for myself. But was it really my goal?

Or had I simply absorbed the idea that a six-figure business was what a successful entrepreneur was supposed to build?

Now, don't get me wrong. I'm grateful for everything that business gave me. I learned so much, earned a good living, met so many wonderful clients, and achieved a level of financial independence that was very important to me.

But I also began to realize that I had built a business around a definition of success I hadn't really stopped to question.

And the funny thing is, I had become self-employed precisely because I wanted the freedom to live and work on my own terms.

Yet here I was, working harder than ever!

Over the past few years, I've been rethinking what success means to me.

How much money do I actually need? How do I want to spend my days? What kind of work would I enjoy doing even if nobody was paying me to do it?

I'm beginning to realize how many of our goals, habits, and everyday decisions are shaped by ideas we've absorbed without consciously choosing them.

And sometimes, we can spend years pursuing something before we stop to ask why we wanted it in the first place.

It makes me wonder:

How many of the goals we're working so hard toward are truly our own?

Fly Free | Slow Down + Listen Within