Mike’s Notes | By Mike Steward

I recently came across a message from motivational speaker Inky Johnson about commas and periods. It’s a simple analogy, but it stuck with me.

Think about it.

A period means the sentence is over. It’s finished. There’s nothing more to say.

A comma represents a pause. The thought isn’t complete. There’s still more to come.

It made me wonder how many times in life we put a period where there should have been a comma.

Maybe it was a business that failed. A relationship that ended. A career that didn’t go as planned. A financial setback. Or simply reaching an age when we start wondering whether our best years are behind us.

Something happens, and we begin telling ourselves a story.

I tried that. It didn’t work.

I’m too old to start something new.

I missed my opportunity.

That’s just the way things are.

Before we know it, we’ve placed a period at the end of a sentence that might not be finished.

The Stories We Tell Ourselves

Over the years, I’ve owned businesses, made investments, experienced some great successes, and had my share of things that didn’t work out as planned.

I’ve also spent a lot of time working with other business owners, and one thing I’ve noticed is how differently people respond to setbacks.

Some experience a difficult year and begin questioning whether they’re cut out for business ownership.

Others face similar challenges and start looking for a different approach.

The difference isn’t always talent, money, or opportunity.

Sometimes it’s simply the story we tell ourselves about what happened.

Was it a failure that defines us? Or an experience we can learn from?

Was it the end of an opportunity? Or the beginning of a different one?

The answers to those questions can shape what we do next.

A Comma Doesn’t Erase What Happened

I think it’s important to acknowledge something here.

Not every setback is a blessing in disguise. Not everything happens for some wonderful reason.

Sometimes life is just hard.

Businesses fail. Relationships end. We make mistakes. Opportunities disappear. We lose people we love.

And sometimes the consequences are permanent.

But even when we can’t change what happened, we often still have choices about what comes next.

A comma doesn’t erase the words that came before it. It simply means there’s more to the sentence.

That’s a distinction worth remembering.

Maybe You’re Not Finished. Maybe You’re Just Changing Direction.

As I get older, I find myself thinking more about the next chapter of life.

Not necessarily retirement or slowing down. More about being intentional with the years ahead.

What do I want to build? What do I want to experience? Who do I want to spend more time with? What kind of impact do I want to have?

And perhaps just as importantly, what am I holding on to simply because I’ve been doing it for so long?

I suspect a lot of people in their 40s, 50s, and 60s ask themselves similar questions.

We spend decades building careers, businesses, relationships, and identities. Eventually, some of those things change.

A business we once loved becomes exhausting. A goal that motivated us at 35 doesn’t excite us at 55. Something we thought we’d do forever no longer fits the person we’ve become.

It’s easy to interpret that as losing our way.

But maybe we’re simply ready for something different.

Changing direction doesn’t mean the journey was a failure.

Sometimes it means we’ve learned enough to make a better decision about where we want to go next.

Sometimes a Period Is Exactly What You Need

Here’s the other side of this analogy that I find interesting.

Not everything deserves a comma.

Sometimes we keep extending situations that really do need a period.

A business partnership that no longer works. A habit that’s hurting our health. A commitment that consumes our time but no longer has much meaning.

We convince ourselves that persistence is always the answer.

And while I believe strongly in perseverance, there’s a difference between refusing to quit and refusing to recognize when something needs to change.

I’ve seen business owners continue pouring time and money into something simply because they’ve already invested so much.

I’ve probably been guilty of that myself.

Sometimes the smartest decision is to stop.

Not because you’re giving up on your future, but because you’re making room for it.

Knowing when to keep going takes courage. Knowing when to move on can take just as much.

You’re Still Writing Your Story

I like to think our lives are made up of thousands of sentences.

Some are wonderful. Some are difficult. Some we’d probably rewrite if we had the chance.

But we don’t get to go back and edit every page.

What we can do is pay attention to what we’re writing today.

Maybe you’ve been telling yourself that an opportunity has passed.

Maybe you’ve decided you’re too old, too far behind, or too committed to change direction.

Or maybe you’ve been holding on to something that needs to end before something new can begin.

Here’s something I’d encourage you to think about this week.

Where in your life have you placed a period that might deserve a comma? And where are you continuing a sentence that really needs to end?

I don’t know exactly what every chapter ahead will look like for me. I’m still figuring some of that out myself.

But I do know that I don’t want to confuse a difficult chapter with the end of the book.

And I certainly don’t want yesterday’s decisions to write the rest of my story.

Maybe the most important thing isn’t what happened in the last chapter.

It’s remembering that you still have a say in what gets written next.

Until next time,

Mike