10 THINGS I DID TO COMPLETELY F%$K UP MY BUSINESS... AND THE 10 THINGS
1) I waited for permission…for some mythical anointed being to pin a badge to my chest that said “allowed to be successful”
2) I got caught in a perpetual loop of “getting ready”. Always learning more, always planning more, always finding another reason why I needed to wait until I pushed the GO button.
3) I looked to every webinar, downloadable PDF, or free video training from every guru to find the answers, instead of simply looking within and asking myself what the answer was.
4) I was afraid to make mistakes.
5) I used the word mistake to describe the essential experiences I needed to go through to learn what I needed to learn.
6) I tried to course correct before I was even in motion. Getting 90% of the way there, then hearing an alternative way of doing things and thinking SHIT I’ve got to start all over again.
7) I worried what other people would think of me. I valued their opinion (which would probably only flitter through their mind as a passing thought anyway) more than I valued my family’s financial security and my own happiness.
8) I hid – afraid to write, afraid to speak, afraid to share what I’m brilliant at, not so much because I was afraid to fail, but more so because I was afraid it would actually WORK…and then what?
Because if it actually worked, then I would actually have everything I ever wanted and I would actually become the person I always imagined I could be….but that’s not who I believed I was….cue identity crisis….yes you’re right, uncomfortable, icky…hide…hide…hide.
9) And then the expectations…oh the expectations. Because if it worked, then I would need to keep it up. If I said a weekly blog, people would expect a weekly blog. If I cracked those $10k months, then it had to be EVERY month right?
And what if I couldn’t?
So I didn’t.
10) I poured hours and hours down the drain of perfection. Forgetting that my words have the power, not the font they’re written in. Forgetting that IMperfect words actually spoken would be the ones to be heard over the “waiting to be perfect” ones hidden in the ideas folder.
So what about those 10 simple things I did that turned everything around?
1) I realised that the aforementioned list weren’t actually fuck ups at all. Every action or inaction was a perfectly crafted step in the right direction. Another learning uncovered, another string to my bow, another tool to make me better equipped to serve my clients and myself. We only ever SEE that when we look back and join the dots….but with that truth in mind, I began to trust that the same would be true going forward.
2) I embraced massive imperfect action. Having a crack, putting SOMETHING out there, even if I thought it was shit or stupid or totally off the mark. Because the act of doing so was what allowed me to find where the mark really was in the first place. And the funny part was, my “slap dash, give it a crack, throw it against the wall and see if it sticks” stuff was what actually STUCK.
3) I became a creator instead of a consumer. Instead of consuming all the content I could and cramming my head with other people’s ideas… I created my own ideas. I tuned out the noise from everyone else… and created my own noise. My own words. My own content. My own impact.
4) I simplified the shit out of everything I did. No more running before I could walk. No more 12 step funnels before I could even describe what I did without tripping over my words. I got crystal clear on who I was here to serve and EXACTLY what problem I could help them solve… then I went out and freakin TOLD them about it.
5) I learned to embrace the sales process. And how FUN selling can actually be when you’ve created an irresistible, drool-worthy offer, when your messaging is so clear that it magnetically draws in your dream clients and when having those pieces in place allows you to relax and just be your authentic self in such a way that those perfect clients can’t help but to say yes.
6) I stayed in the room.
In Bikram Yoga, with the heat turned up to 40 degrees, they tell you that even if you can’t keep up, even if you can’t hold a pose, even if all you can do is lie down… just stay in the room.
So even when I felt like I wasn’t good enough, or I wasn’t playing at a high enough level to occupy the same space as the women I aspired to be like, I stopped lurking in the shadows or slinking off in the background, hoping to slip out of the door unnoticed. I stayed in the room, despite that discomfort, despite those demons of comparison.
And soon enough, slowly but surely, it was ME starting to share the stories that others aspired to follow.
7) I focused relentlessly on cultivating the mindset of the “already there” version of myself. What would she believe? What decisions would she make? What actions would she take? And I began to operate from THAT place.
8) I stopped trying to piece together a business strategy from 100 different webinars and cheat sheets and instead invested in high level coaching from mentors who had already walked the path ahead of me and could shorten my learning curve by years and years.
9) I trusted myself. I trusted myself. I trusted myself.
10) And I freakin WENT FOR IT!
And I think it’s time YOU did too.
It’s YOUR time for more!
Mel
xx