All Good Things Must Come to an End

We are told from the time we were young that all good things must end. Yet there is such negativity around most things that end in life. Death, quitting, termination, break ups, etc. I believe that how we deal with those things can be true test of our character. In business firing people, quitting, termination, business closures are all discussed in a negative standpoint.

What if Closure is Good?

Endings often bring feelings of frustration, anger, confusion, and lack of closure. But if we consider these things as positives and focus on the aspects that we learned from, the people that we met, the experiences that we can now use to bring value to our current companies or lives, negative feelings will be diffused, providing us with positive energy to move forward in a way that ends up increasing our likelihood for success.

 

Been There

I myself have had to terminate relationships within my business and within my professional life. Its often disruptive to momentum in business when I stop to consider the “what ifs” and impacts that this could have on everything. I have wondered how it is going to impact my reputation, how it's will impact my company, and what I'm going to tell everybody about this terminated relationship. In all actuality, if I stop worrying about all of the unknowns and strictly focus on the things that that relationship positively brought to my business and myself and plow forward, I would have ended up losing a lot less money time and energy.

Overall it would have been a better business move for my company and my personal growth. I choose to look at these closures with gratitude and a commitment to find the positivity and move forward. This has allowed me to be gracious and often times the other party, whether it be a business or personal relationship, is thankful for that time.  The end result is a more positive experience for everyone involved.

 

Practice Gratitude

Now it is your turn.  Pick one closure in your life within the past 6 months.  Whether you've been fired, quit a job, had to leave a business relationship, or had a personal relationship that ended, I would invite you to take a moment and journal on the aspects of this relationship and closure that brought you positivity to your life.

If you quit a job did it then bring with it an opportunity for you to open your own business or possibly find a position that was better suited to your values and your mission in life?

 

If you were fired did it then push you over that cliff of safety which motivated you to kill it at your side hustle? 

 

Or start your own company knowing that you could deliver a higher quality of services exactly the way that you wanted it without a boss and spend the time that you want with your family, take those vacations you wanted but never had enough PTO?

 

What have you learned from the experience?

 

How has this ending brought with it a opportunity for new beginnings, focus, and motivation to do better, to be better.

 

We often do not change until it is so uncomfortable that we have no other choice. What if this closure is what we needed to stop putting in 40 plus hours a week seeking approval from somebody else in order to feel successful? ​ The next time you find your crawling into the hole of negativity around a closure, practice gratitude. Choose positive closure. It will change that ending into a beginning. ​