The dreaded P word

If you're a business owner or a solopreneur, you are all too familiar with the imperative to always be generating more revenue than the year, month, day, or even hour prior. This becomes even louder when your revenue in your business is the lifeblood that keeps your lights on. Listen to me. Take a deep breath. Drop your shoulders.

It’s okay if your income reaches a plateau.

In fact, it’s normal. It’s capitalism that tells us the mark of a strong business or a sound investment is consistently producing more income.

But that’s not possible, let alone feasible. An infinite growth model is a pipe dream. Our planet cannot physically sustain that much economic expansion. Everything reaches a plateau at some point. But capitalism tells us we need to push through these plateaus and innovate or produce enough so the profits continue to grow. Settling into a level of income that’s more or less steady is seen as just that: settling.

Some people run from this idea, thinking that a plateau in revenue means their market is saturated or that they need to step up their individual earning potential somehow. Some people are traumatized by poverty and find a sense of control by earning more and more and more, building up some sort of stockpile of security for the day when their income flow is inevitably cut off, because their trauma taught them that the flow is always cut off eventually.

Some people have internalized the idea that their income is a measure of their value, and when the income stops growing it must mean they are no longer progressing as a person. I just need to add more value, as if who you are and what you offer isn’t valuable enough already. I would challenge those people to examine why constant progress is seen as a mark of their goodness or worthiness (hint: it has to do with the infinite growth model I mentioned already).

Many of us are told not to settle for “good enough” in many areas of life, most notably in relationships and our financial situation. But what is that constant seeking, constant yearning for something better, constant striving for progress if not just repackaged pressure to be in an infinite state of growth?

Just like stability, perpetual growth without stagnation or decay is almost unheard of in the natural world. Capitalism exists inherently in opposition to the natural laws of our planet because it insists that growth can continue on endlessly, or that a state of perfect stasis can be achieved and maintained ad infinitum. What if you set those expectations down, and allowed yourself to stagnate? What if —gasp— you allowed yourself to decay? What would happen if you discovered what is enough for you, and then fucking settled for it?

Constant growth is impossible. Stability is fleeting. But enough can bring you true safety and self-acceptance, if you allow it to transform you rather than scare you.