Yesterday, I posted on my FB business page about the challenges of having enough time to grow your business.
(https://m.facebook.com/story.
Today I want to talk about another really common obstacle – sustaining momentum over the long haul.
Starting, running and growing a business is HARD!!
I think it’s at least as hard a any “job” I have had. And I had quite a few jobs I thought were tough 😀 When the buck stops with you, it can become all-consuming.
There is ALWAYS something you could be doing. Switching off completely can feel impossible.
If you have staff, their mortgage payment may start to feel like your own!! You have to keep the money rolling in to pay them as well as yourself.
It’s hardly surprising, small business owners often hit a wall fairly early on in their new entrepreneurial life. Having worked really hard and been really excited and passionate about doing everything, you suddenly and without warning find yourself not really wanting to do anything. Still caring about your business but feeling almost incapable of doing all the things you know you should.
It may not always be one big solid wall you only hit once. Sometimes it starts with a little easily broken wall that pops back now and then but that gets bigger and sturdier each time.
I catch myself saying certain phrases over and over. One of those phrases is that it seems like procrastination is the most common topic in any coaching conversation.
The “wall” is like procrastination on steroids.
Instead of putting off a few things, you put off everything.
And then you feel rubbish and guilty for not moving forward.
Why do we stop doing things we know we need to do?
There are 3 main reasons for general procrastination over something we should be doing – either we don’t know how to do it, we don’t think it will be enjoyable to do, or we don’t really believe it’s worth doing.
If we aren’t doing anything, there’s an underlying problem.
It will be connected to one of the above reasons but run a lot deeper.
The most important principle of The Product Academy is something I have named “The Happiness Gap”. And hitting the wall is one of the clearest signs of a happiness gap.
Whilst we were working on our business so incredibly hard, we weren’t focusing on something else that our brain cares about. Often it’s something our conscious brain didn’t even know it cared about. Or it could be something we thought we could care about later.
It means we’ve missed something important and it’s our brain stamping its feet to make us listen. I suspect but cannot prove, continuing to ignore the stamping is when the body goes full on tantrum and makes you ill!!!
(This one I recognise like an old-friend. Twice since starting my business have I lost my voice completely for 6 weeks and 8 weeks respectively 😲. I am trying to listen better but in my defence, I do have hearing loss in both ears 🙉😂)
Now, I want to say the following really loudly:
📣 Hitting a wall doesn’t mean you have stopped caring about your business.
📣 Hitting a wall doesn’t mean you aren’t capable of running your business.
📣Hitting a wall doesn’t mean you are in the wrong business.
📣Hitting a wall doesn’t mean your business is going to fail.
What it does mean is it’s time to look for what you missed.
The first question I ask when this comes up in coaching is, how did you celebrate your successes as you ploughed through your to do lists?
Here’s the most common answer:
🤔😶💭🌬🎶
“Hmmm… I don’t think I have really.”
No? So your body worked super hard for months, didn’t get recognised for its efforts, has downed tools and we are wondering why?
If you were a member of your own team, would you even need to question your (their??) motivation dropping?
Other times, it’s because we haven’t made time for fun, for family, for relaxation etc.
Or because we haven’t seen the business results we were expecting so all that effort starts to feel pointless.
Your reason will be personal to you. In coaching, I help clients delve into it and come up with a plan to build in what is missing.
Even more importantly, when we are developing a plan, I always look to ensure celebration, fun and any other needs or expectations are unearthed and built-in from the outset.
If you have hit a bit of a wall or haven’t yet but know you are putting everything you’ve got into your business, what underlying needs would you benefit from building in to your time?
Rather than slowing you down, factoring it in now will actually speed your success up in the longer-term.
If you want to get going again FAST and feel excited and re-energised about what you will be doing, book an SOS call with me here