What’s “the stairway to heaven” to you? Is it about God and Heaven? A metaphor for business growth, maybe? I think of the Led Zeppelin song and a picture on the album cover something like the one here. It’s a long stairway heading up into the sky, with landings or stopping points, and changes of directions.  Which is a lot like business, at least business in the front lines of startups and entrepreneurship.

Business is a lot of climbing. Even as an entrepreneur, doing something you supposedly like, it’s still a lot of struggle. It’s late nights and early mornings and spreadsheets and presentations and airports and hotels. It’s worries about cash and hiring and firing, making do when you have to, and building something better whenever you can. That’s the stairway. We hope it’s going up.

The landings are pauses. You stop the climbing. You look around. You check the landscape, taking a fresh look. What’s changed while you were concentrating on taking those specific steps? Are you still moving up? Are there new options?

Are you still okay with your planning? Or does your plan need to change? Are you still moving in the planned direction, towards the planned objectives? If not, why not? And what do you do about it?

And don’t forget to ask whether you are still enjoying it. Is it still what you wanted to be doing with your life? Is it blocking the view of more important things (like people), or, we would hope, helping you help them and relate to them. Have you forgotten everything except the damned stairs?

When I was young, backpacking in the High Sierra, straining under the weight of the pack, struggling up a long uphill stretch at 10,000 feet altitude, I would occasionally stop, relax, breathe, and consciously enjoy the beautiful view of the mountains around me. I would forget the struggle of walking up hill with a pack and remember why I was there. The mountains made me happy. They were beautiful.

Do yourself a favor. Pause. Take it all in. Reorient yourself and your business. Take a fresh look.

(Image credit: Saiva_l/Shutterstock)