I was visited by my own personal angel or spirit guide, who came into my life out of nowhere, and left just as suddenly.
That was my cat, Troy.
When I adopted him, he was very skittish and so nervous about how I would treat him. He spent the first two weeks under the bed, full-time. Then he came out but needed to maintain a safe distance of about 10 feet away from me at all times.
Fast forward to when he was cuddled beside me on the sofa for hours, alternating between encouraging me to pet him and dozing. He had come a long, long way!
One night at 10:45pm, he became sick very suddenly. I rushed him to the emergency vet, through the beginning of a blizzard. He had a blood clot that paralyzed his rear legs and was causing him tremendous pain. He was also in congestive heart failure.
Three hours later, I came back home without him. The vet couldn't save him and he was in so much pain that the humane choice was to euthanize him.
I missed him a lot! For weeks afterward, every time I opened the front door, I expected to see his little face. Every stray bit of cat hair floating around reminded me of him.
I'm still coping with the sadness his absence brings.
What comforts me is the belief that he was here to teach me a lesson. Once I learned that lesson, his work here was over, and he was gone.
It's no coincidence his last week on Earth was an amazing week for me, with a huge mindset shift on Thursday, in which I stepped forward into playing a bigger game in my business and really becoming my authentic self.
Thirty hours later, he was gone.
From the beginning of my time with him, I was convinced he was in my life for a specific reason. Along the way, I thought it was to teach me how to live in the now (all animals excel at that!) and how to ask for what I want.
In retrospect, I see that the even bigger reason was to open up my heart more and more. My cat-owner friends reassure me that losses like this just make your heart bigger and stronger.
I had a lesson (or maybe, several) to learn from him and he had something to learn from me. He learned to trust me: that I'd take care of him, love him, and he'd always be safe with me. I learned patience and how to love him. He was a steady role model for me of how to live in the now, to sleep when you're tired, and ask for love when you need it.
This year, when I'm watching Clarence, I'll be thinking of Troy.
CALL TO ACTION
Whew! I always cry a bit whenever I re-read this story. While it is a story about loss, it's also a story about growth. Troy helped me grow. And whenever I grow, my business also grows.
As I consistently share with you, there is a direct link between who you are, what happens in your business, and your income.
Marcy Stahl’s passion is helping women direct sellers and solopreneurs achieve the successful lifestyle they want. She knows that the top entrepreneurs have the top mindsets. Her mission is to help every entrepreneur develop a profitable and abundant mindset.
Marcy is a serial entrepreneur. Previously, she co-founded and managed a government contracting firm that earned over $1M in annual revenues. She holds a B.S. with honors and M.S. in Computer Science from George Mason University. Prior to coaching, she spent 21 years in the corporate world in technology.
She is the co-author of Direct Selling Power. Marcy is an Area Chapter Coordinator with the Direct Selling Women’s Alliance (DSWA) and a member of the Direct Selling Women’s Speaker Bureau. She’s currently in coaching school for direct sellers.