By LIZ MARCHI
Entrepreneurs are different. They are almost never satisfied with the way things are. They are always looking for ways to make things better, faster, more efficient, and/or smarter. They see the world differently. My life elevator pitch has always been, “In the difference in what is and what can be, there in lies the challenge.”
As I age, I am working on rewiring that notion. It’s not easy. I am being very deliberate about not taking on more and letting go. One of my biggest frustrations is people who have positions or gifts that enable them to make a difference and they don’t. They use position or talents in self-serving ways. I need to let that go. I need to let go of a lot of judgmental thinking. My success and well-being has nothing much to do with someone else.
Projects and organization: I have always been a very good housekeeper, very organized and neat. My husband, while organized, has a very different aesthetic. Nothing makes him happier than being in a room full of paper and boxes. Our barn is filled with dusty papers and boxes from his life. I have stresses over his lack of concern about their organization or frankly, survival in a rodent world. After therapy, I am letting that go too. “Someone” will figure it out and it doesn’t have to be me. These aren’t my archives.
Liz Marchi in the captain’s chair on a September day on Flathead Lake–not another boat in site. Magnificent!
Every morning I wake up I deliberately lie in bed for several minutes and relish the fact that I am not bounding out of bed at 4am to rush to the office. Letting myself work differently is still challenging. My internal wiring says, get dressed, get to the office and do more than anyone else. I can’t imagine not working but I need to rewire how I look at work. One of my greatest blessings in life has been the opportunity to do work that, for me, was meaningful and enjoyable. Why would I want to stop doing things that I enjoy and are meaningful? I won’t but what I can and must do is begin discriminating between what really matters and what doesn’t.
Self-care health, family, friends and cultivating a sense of well being are my priorities. A significant shift from a few years ago but don’t expect less passion. I
am all in for living, learning, new experiences and new friends as time move on.
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Liz Marchi lives on a ranch in Polson, Montana with her husband Jon. She is the Fund Coordinator for the Frontier Angel Fund and spends a lot of time thinking and learning about entrepreneurs, the economy and Montana’s unique place in the world. She has three daughters and a stepson and daughter and a grandchild. She graduated from Hollins College and is entering the final quarter of life…unless we go into overtime.