Anne Alexander
Since 2002, Anne Alexander has provided coaching and consulting services to small business owners with five to fifty employees to help them move forward with substantial, profitable business growth, personal satisfaction, and bottom-line control. She is their confidential, strategic partner in managing and growing their business.
John Lennon said “Life is what happens when you’re busy making plans.†Surely that’s what happened on my 50th birthday. My oldest friend took me and my partner out to breakfast at the Boulder Dushanbe Teahouse ( a fabulous place to check out if you’re ever in Boulder, Colorado).
Afterward we headed up to the National Center for Atmospheric Research to participate in their guided tour. It’s supposed to be a cool place about weather and other things scientific.
However, no sooner did we arrive in the lobby when my partner, Susan began to feel dizzy and nauseous. They called in their onsite medical team, and discovered that Susan’s blood pressure and heart rate were alarmingly high. So they called an ambulance and soon we were heading over to the local ER.
At the ER, blood work and chest X-rays also revealed everything to be normal. After about four hours, we went home and by morning her blood pressure and pulse had returned to normal. In situations like this, it’s easy to imagine the worst, like heart attack and even death. We both felt this fear acutely and it took a few days for us to really calm down.
So…this was obviously not the birthday I had anticipated! The gift was pretty quickly evident, however, because my beloved partner of eight years is alive and well.
Sometimes, just getting back to “regular†life is a huge blessing! A regular day coaching with my wonderful clients, seems doubly miraculous. Eating healthy, plentiful food becomes even more of a gift. Answering emails is almost a holy act. Discussing business strategies with Susan, I feel like the luckiest person alive.
Most entrepreneurs need to do more planning and not go after their business in a random manner. Yet, as in life, business is what happens when we’re busy making plans. If seen in a wider perspective, rebuilding a database after a computer crash makes you giddy with relief. If your business endures a fire or a flood and no one is hurt, just putting the pieces back together and running normally becomes the most amazing blessing.
Life/business happens, and rarely according to plan. Yet there are always silver linings, if we look for them. When you see your life as the precious thing it is, you empower yourself, your loved ones and your business.
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