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To Be Able to Grow, Know Your Limitations

Rachel Wayne
4 min readJan 17, 2020

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Ten years ago, I made a five-year plan. I envisioned a life in which I ran my own business, was married with a kid on the way, and enjoyed financial stability. I imagined that I’d be surrounded by supportive friends, living in a house I owned, and well on my way to entrepreneurial success. I had no sense of what was reasonable within the timeframe I’d chosen.

I figured if I put it in writing, I would succeed.

Now, I’m almost at the place I envisioned. It took ten years, not five.

The problem was that I didn’t take my limitations into consideration. I planned for a world in which I simply arrived at my goals, rather than working for them. I overestimated the amount of time I’d need.

How many of us are in this boat? How many of us figure that one year, five years, ten years is enough time, without figuring the real human costs of our lives into the equation?

I Needed to Take Time to Reflect

I worked hard to grow my business, a theatre production company. I can barely describe the amount of work it took. I remember feverish late nights building webpages, caffeine-fueled prop-building sessions, early-morning dashes to the print shop. I remember having jealous people mock my efforts, as I was slowly dying from the full-time…

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Rachel Wayne
Rachel Wayne

Written by Rachel Wayne

Artist/anthropologist/activist writing about art, media, culture, health, science, enterprise, and where they all meet. Join my list: http://eepurl.com/gD53QP

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