Can You Be “You” In Your Business?

Apr 25, 2013, Written by Sue Miley


Can you imagine being married to someone you can’t be yourself around? Think about it. You live with this person. You spend more time in the same space with the one who said “to death do us part”.

It would be impossible for me to live with someone I wasn’t just me with. First of all it is hard to be something we are not for any length of time. No I am not in a good mood 24/7. Yes I will try to pick up my coffee cup when I am done and shut all of the cabinets when I get what I need….but, I just don’t think about it. If I live with you I can’t promise to think about it every time.

It is the same thing in business.

Can you be yourself at work? We spend almost as much time at work as we do at home. In waking hours, maybe more at times.

Your Vision Is Uniquely Yours – A Gift From God

You started your own business for a reason. You had a vision. At the beginning, you stretched and use every bit of energy to maximize all of your skills, habits, and discipline to get everything covered. It all has to be done and you are the one who is ultimately responsible. But we can’t sustain it. We need help and eventually, to keep growing ,we need other people. We need a team.

When you built your culture and your team, did you create the perfect family? Perfectly dysfunctional is fine in my book. The key to perfect for me is being able to be “you” in your business.

A strong team is like the body of Christ, a wonderful eclectic mixture of gifts, talents, personalities, and quirks. That is right, quirks; we all have them. The variety is needed to compliment each other and to create a whole. You know the saying together we can do more.

But are you able to just be you.

God Helps You To Be Your Best You

We have to strive to grow and be more like Christ everyday, but we all know it is really God working through us that even helps us strive.

We need to be a good spouse and try to live in harmony with the person we have promised our life too.

We need to be a good team member to work well with each person on our team in all circumstance.

Trying is part of life.

But God created me just the way I am. I need to accept myself enough to be me wherever I am. The trying me. Hopefully, the best part of me.

Over time when we try to be someone we are not, the best parts of us fade. We are exhausted with the effort of living in someone else’s skin. Then, the not so good part of our natural self surfaces.

We are exhausted and the people around us are confused. Nothing good results.

Getting Back to the You God Created

If your chest tightened like a vice grip on your heart reading this, then maybe you identify with the contradiction of the you inside and the you presented to much of your world.

I have been there before. I know from personal experience it isn’t too late. I worked in an environment where I was trying to be everything that everyone wanted me to be. It was more than exhausting. I eventually burned out and was forced to reconsider who I wanted to be at work.

God pulled me back to Him and brought me back to basics. He is the one who created me and He wanted to use the “me” He created, not the “me” that I let the world mold.

It took time to find me.

  • I dove into the bible to learn from God who I am in Christ.
  • I explored me outside of work by turning to hobbies and serving for the first time.
  • I changed careers to one that better matched who I was and who I wanted to be.
  • I found people to work with who I could just be me with. One of those wonderful people is Murphy Toerner. I started my counseling career under her. She is a wonderful counselor and life coach. She cherishes people exactly as they are. I know God put her in my life at the perfect time to help me get back to “me”.

The Benefits of Being Yourself In Your Business

I eventually started my own business. This time I learned that when I am me, my client relationships and work are a symbiotic fit, my job feels like a calling, I enjoy work and I am a better me.

And thankfully, my husband still loves me even though there are frequently coffee cups scattered on various end tables as he makes his way to the kitchen full of open cabinets.

God created you just the way you are and He doesn’t make mistakes! Are you the person God created in your work life? What can you do to be that person today.

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Sue Miley

Sue Miley MBA, MA, LPC helps small business owners build successful businesses on a foundation of Christian values. After 20 years in business, and 10 years as a Christian counselor, Sue uses a combination of faith, business and psychology to help clients in business and in life.

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