As the year started, I decided that it was imperative that I get a team together for Lovely Miss Jones. After going from blog to business, I knew it was necessary to get more people involved. For the past three years, I haven’t had a team in place, and all things LMJ have fallen solely on me. There have been a few people who will help out with anything I asked, but there was so much responsibility placed on me, which secretly left me feeling stressed or overwhelmed. Which causes me to fall back in areas where I need to step up. Therefore, I made up in my mind to reach out to people who I felt would make a great team.

After developing this team, and having a few meetings, in my mind things still weren’t moving the way I wanted them to. We came up with amazing ideas, collectively, and we were able to work out some details in the projects for the year. I know that this is just the way things go when running a business, but I’ve been so ready to move and make all of my ideas reality. During a meeting I was assured that I need to work project by project. When you don’t, you began to get disappointed because you’ll end up doing nothing trying to do everything all at once. Today, I reached out to my team members to schedule a meeting. In my message, I expressed that although it is expected, things aren’t moving the way that I would like. I received all positive feedback. All of which encouraged me. However, this message stuck out the most. “Let us not grow weary in well doing, for in due time we will reap a harvest, if we do not give up. Galatians 6:9 U got this! I’m always here for u!”

Not only is it important to accept the fact that our process doesn’t always go the way we anticipate, but it’s all necessary to the journey. We must also be sure that we have the right people around us. We have to be sure that we select a group of people that will impact our process positively, rather than negatively. These words meant so much to me because it was a reminder and a push to keep going. Not that I intended to give up, but sometimes we can get a little discouraged by the process. We begin to rethink certain things or projects because of the timing or because of how things are going. However, our circle can either help remind us of things or push us further into our thoughts. I remember a time where I mentioned a project to someone, and their immediate response was negativity. They began to tell me that I didn’t have enough time to pull this off and that I shouldn’t do it. Those words sort of didn’t sit well with me. Because of my determination, I went ahead and presented the idea and it became reality. And it was a huge success, to this day I am still receiving feedback on how people were blessed by this. Had I allowed this person to be a part of my team and listened to their words, I would have never produced what was meant to bless someone else. It is extremely important that we choose our circle and our team wisely. People who will speak positivity and speak life when the process doesn’t necessarily go in the direction you anticipated, or at the speed you would like to go. Your choice of surroundings can impact your process!

-xo Miss Jones