Brave Enough to Be a Solopreneur (Pt 2): A Horizon Big Enough to Pull You
There's something you want.
You don't say it out loud. Saying it makes it real, and then you'd have to either go after it or explain why you didn't.
So you keep it small. Reasonable. A goal you could reach without anyone being disappointed, least of all you.
A few more clients. A slightly better year than this one. Something sensible.
And then you wonder why it doesn't light anything up inside you.
Let's pause here and breathe.
You're not lacking ambition. You're protecting your heart.
The voice that says want less
If we haven't met yet, I call my fear Fred. He's a small, worried little dragon who has walked beside me my whole life. He keeps a careful file of every time I hoped for something, and it didn't come.
Fred isn't trying to hurt me. He's trying to keep me from feeling that particular ache again.
So when I start to picture something big, he clears his throat.
Don't want too much. Keep it small and you won't be disappointed.
It sounds like wisdom. It even sounds kind.
And honestly? For years, I listened.
When I couldn't see anything at all
After my divorce, I couldn't see where my life was going. Not the next year. Not the next month. I was living one day at a time.
But I knew one thing.
I had felt alone for so long inside my marriage that I wanted to know what real love felt like before I died. I wanted to feel safe with someone. To have a companion I could laugh with.
To feel cherished.
That was bigger than anything in front of me. It was bigger than the woman I was then.
I asked God for it. I pictured it. I let myself dream it, even while Fred read from his file.
And as I held on to that picture, something shifted. I started making choices like the woman who could live inside that love. I stopped shrinking. I learned to let myself be seen.
By the time I met Rod, I was already becoming her.
The horizon didn't wait for me to be ready. It made me ready.
Too small to pull you
Get your heart involved. Let yourself feel some excitement. A small horizon feels safe, but it can't pull you.
A foggy one can't either. "I'd like things to be better" gives your heart nothing to hold.
This August, I was sitting with a group of women working on the horizons they're walking toward, and it hit me again. The horizon has to be way bigger than the woman, or it doesn't inspire.
Then I looked at my own and realized I'd been thinking too small myself.
So I rewrote it. By the end of 2028, I will have reached 10,000 women with the message of moving from Not Enough to Brave Enough, one Tiny Brave Step at a time.
Fred had plenty to say. You've been here before. Dreaming.
He's not wrong. I don't have all the how. But I'm not going to let that stop me from taking steps toward it every day, because I can already feel it changing who I'm becoming.
Bigger than you are right now
I often talk about the chasm, the distance between who you are now and who you're meant to become. We cross it one plank at a time, one small step at a time. On the far side is your horizon.
You don't have to be the woman who stands there yet.
You're allowed to want a horizon that's bigger than you are right now. That's the whole point. You become her on the way.
Write it bigger than feels safe
Next time Fred whispers, "Don't want too much," stop for about 90 seconds. Let the feeling rise. Let it settle. You don't have to argue with him.
Then thank him, and ask yourself: What do I really want?
Not the safe answer. The one that makes your heart beat a little faster.
Take out your Horizon Page from last week, the one with “Who I Serve” at the top. Remember we’re creating a one-page visual over these five weeks. Here’s the link to last week’s if you can’t remember.
Underneath “Who I Serve”, write My Horizon.
Now write where you are at the end of 2027, in present tense, as if you're already standing there.
I am...
I serve...
I have...
Write the version you're a little afraid to say out loud. If it feels comfortable, it's probably too small. Make it bigger.
Then, if you're willing, say that sentence out loud to one person this week. Yes, your Fear-Fred will tell you not to. That's how you know it counts.
The woman on the far side
I still don't know exactly how I'll reach my horizon. What I know is who I want to be while I walk toward it.
What I've watched, in my own life and in the women I walk beside, is this: when the horizon is big enough, the next step starts to show itself.
Write yours big. Say it once. Let it start pulling.
Come build your Horizon Page with us
Bring your horizon sentence and look at it just before you work on the project or task you bring to Creative Spaces, the workspace where you actually take a Tiny Brave Step. A task. A project. Something that moves you forward.
It’s what reminds you of why you’re doing this - the pull toward what you really want.
P.S. Want a little help seeing it more clearly?
Copy this into your favourite AI: I'm a solopreneur, and I've been keeping my vision for my business small, so I won't be disappointed. Ask me five questions, one at a time, to help me picture where I want to be at the end of 2027. Push me past the safe answer. Then help me write my horizon in one or two present-tense sentences, the version I'm a little afraid to say out loud.
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