This Year, I Belong Here

A member since 2025. Where I belong, this year.

A Recommendation, Almost Without Thinking

An event of the Réseau des Femmes d'affaires du Québec (RFAQ), a Quebec network of businesswomen. A conversation between entrepreneurs. A colleague talks about what she's looking for.

And I hear myself say: "Here's what I learned in my training. So I'd recommend…"

I share. I recommend. Then I do it again with someone else.

Nothing spectacular. But one sentence stayed with me: this year, I belong here.

I Didn't Speak the Language Yet

After 22 years in the federal public service, I knew how to work. Train, organize, support.

What I didn't know was how to speak entrepreneurship. Offer, positioning, clientele: those words seemed to belong to someone else.

So I went to networking events. To training sessions. I listened. I learned the language.

What I misjudged was the order of things. I thought I needed confidence to speak. It was by learning to speak that confidence came. Confidence in what I do, in what I can offer, and a clear understanding of my place in the ecosystem.

Happiness Isn't Something You Chase. It's Something You Feed.

In the EQ‑i 2.0, happiness isn't a skill you work on head‑on. It's a well‑being indicator. It draws on four subscales: self‑regard, optimism, interpersonal relationships and self‑actualization.

Rereading my recent posts, I can see the path. The registration button I hesitated to click. The knot in my stomach before every networking evening. The two piles of business cards on the way home. The roundtable where I voiced my doubts out loud.

None of those moments looked like happiness. Together, they prepared the ground for it.

To revisit those steps (in French): self‑actualization, optimism, interpersonal relationships and self‑regard.

A Serial Entrepreneur, and Happy to Be One

Today, I run my three businesses with a lot of joy. What I learn in one, I carry over to the others.

We are emotional beings. We'd like happiness to arrive like a promotion, with a date and an announcement. Instead it shows up afterwards, when we notice we're no longer forcing ourselves.

The joy of running three businesses, one conversation at a time. Photo: Rachel Boutin

What If…

This is what I explore with the people I support through the EQ‑i 2.0. We don't chase the result. We look at what feeds it.

What if happiness were simply what grows when you finally feel you belong?

If you'd like to receive these reflections, my newsletter goes out directly from my website.

Tell me in the comments: where did you feel you belonged this year?

Rachel

What if it were possible for you?