How many different hats do you wear?

As an entrepreneur you probably wear many hats. This piece is inspired by a post I just read on the OwningPink blog about living an authentic life. Lissa Rankin described the many different hats she wears and the importance of wearing the hats authentically.

The part where Lissa described wearing the mommy hat cracked me up. I guess I could totally relate to what she was saying.

"When wearing my Mommy hat, I’m supposed to instantly know how to relate to kids, carry organic snacks everywhere, show up at preschool gatherings looking rested, athletic, and unfazed by the fact that my kid puked all over me the previous night – not to mention bring unfettered volunteer efforts to every kiddie project."

Are you being authentic to yourself? Do you love the business you started? Do you get excited about the work you have to do? Sometimes we get so caught up in what we should be doing we forget to think about what we could be doing.

We think as a Virtual Assistant we should offer these services, but what if we hate these services whatever these services are. Say you hate doing bookkeeping but you thought you should offer it as a service because you are a Virtual Assistant and that is what Virtual Assistants do. Try replacing the word should with could and see how your perspective changes. I could offer bookkeeping as a service. Now check in with yourself and see how that feels. Does that feel right for you or does the idea of offering bookkeeping feel awful? If it feels awful then don't offer bookkeeping as a service. This can work the other way too.

Say you want to offer a service that is not traditionally considered a Virtual Assistant service. Other VAs might tell you that you should not do that but you know what? You can do it if you want because this is your business and you can do whatever you want! If you want to offer online classes in basket weaving as a service of your VA business then go ahead and do it. Be yourself, be authentic and next time you hear yourself saying, I should... try replacing it with I could and you just might be surprised at all the possibilities that pop in to your head. I first heard the idea of replacing should with could by Louise Hay in the book You Can Heal Your Life and it really resonated with me.