Rosettes

As a horse rider I'm always chasing the elusive 'Red Ribbon' at competitions. In the equine world red is usually the colour of the 1st place rosette and no matter what sport or spehere you're competing in, 1st place is where you want to come.....but why?

Why is 1st best? I guess on the global stage first is universally known as best, no one has beaten you and you've beaten everyone, what could be better? But I'd argue that 1st is not necessarily best for you.

Let me tell you why; you may feel that without the certificate, rosette or trophy marking your achievement at coming first that you've not achieved anything! But you have. Anything that you do in life is about a series of small steps, each marks a movement in the right direction towards your end goal or that coveted 1st place.

I often think that I've not achieved anything, that I'm still where I once was, but if I look back and see where I started my journey I see that I've come so far. Imagine climbing a mountain, you're standing at the bottom and looking up, thinking 'crikey thats a lot of steps' but you start, one foot in front of the other and off you go. After an hour you may stop and look back at the path to see how far you've come, it may still look a really long way to the top but you will get there and your closer than you were an hour ago.

Business is the same, I continually think that I've not gone anywhere with my little business and then I look back at my tax return from my first year trading, or see what clients I had then and the ones I have now. I have come so far! I have evolved and so has my business, skills and what I'm doing.

My goals for my business have actually changed over the years and that to is no bad thing. Life changes, priorities change but I keep putting one foot in front of the other. My 'goal' now for my business is not to make the most money I can, but to make enough money to support my family, working with clients I enjoy working with.

On the horse riding front, I am still chasing the 'red ribbon' 99.9% of the time! But my horse is going better than he ever has, he is better behaved at competitions and my scores are getting better, so I can see that I am making progress and to me that is winning, I don't need a red ribbon to prove it.