Why does it all seem so hard sometimes? – 3 Steps to End the STRUGGLE
I often get the same question from my clients: Monica, why does running this business seem so hard?
Are there days when everything just feels like a struggle? You are doing dozens of free sessions and you’ve only signed one client. Or you’ve gone to countless networking meetings and only met one person who is interested in your programs. Or perhaps you are just stuck and you don’t know where to go next. You may be wondering how you could make your business more effortless? Shouldn’t clients should just flow in as long as you “visualize” and “think positively”?
As someone who has visualized and had positive thoughts until I was blue in the face, I can tell you one thing – relief from your struggle doesn’t happen until you start to examine one very important aspect of your life.
Your mental game.
Yup, you guessed it, it’s all in your head. What if I told you this – “if you go to five networking events this week, you’ll meet two clients. One will sign with you on Friday for a six month program at $2,500. The other will sign with you in six months after she has been reading your newsletters for a while and is ready. So in total these next five networking events will be worth about $5,000 to your business. That breaks down to about $1,000 an event for about 2 hours of your time.” How many of you would be delighted to go those networking events? Most of you would say sure, name the time and the place.
And here’s the clincher. Most entrepreneurs don’t mind the work, we’d go to 10 networking events if we had to. We just long for CONTROL and SECURITY. The knowledge that if we do XYZ activity we will get ABC results. But because we can’t see into the future, we look at the 5 networking events where we only met one client – and we create worry, anxiety and pressure on ourselves for more. WE CREATE THE STRUGGLE.
You see, EFFORT is necessary in our businesses. You have to leave your home. You have to conduct your initial sessions with folks. But that EFFORT becomes a STRUGGLE when we add worry, pressure and anxiety on top of it.
Try this one on for size. You have an initial meeting with a potential client on Thursday. You’ve been looking forward to it for days because you really want this person to join your program. You do the session and the person is perfect. You do your best as a sales person, but in the end you just don’t convert your client. You hang up the phone dejected and upset. You think to yourself, “Gosh, this is never going to work. If this keeps happening I’m going to have to get a job. This is just too HARD.” You wonder why everything is such a STRUGGLE. You shut down and decide to work on your website for a while and clean out your inbox. Results at the end of the week – 1. A prettier website and empty inbox. 2. No new clients or new cash flow.
Now, let’s look at person number two. She gets on the phone with a potential client, does her best as a sales person and the client doesn’t convert. She gets off the phone and says, “well, here is what I did wrong, A, B, C. EFFORT is part of this process as is LEARNING.” She then goes to her e-mail and ASKS another person for an initial session. She ends up doing five initial sessions that week. And she signs one new client. By the end of the week she knows two thing: 1. She is $2,500 wealthier. 2. She has exact questions that she can ask her coach about in order to improve her conversion rate.
Most of us are creating STRUGGLE on top of our EFFORTS. There is a distinction here. Effort is necessary. Struggle is not.
Here are 3 ways to reduce the struggle in your business:
1. Build up your trust in the universe or FAITH. No, you can’t tell the future. But if you trust that what you ask for is always present, then you don’t need to worry about whether your EFFORTS will pay off. Work on building your faith and trust daily. I start the day off with a 10 minute meditation, a conversation with my guides. I remind myself daily that all is well and we are all taken care of.
And for the record, sometimes I need to do what I call a Faith Breakout in the middle of the day. When the worrying gets the best of me. I stop, take a 10 minute break and remind myself that “I can’t have a desire that the supply isn’t there to fill”.
2. Make a plan. I plan my business 12 months out. I know that if I just stick to the plan, it will all work out. Planning is a great way to avoid second guessing, doubting and worrying mid-process. I help people make plans in my Powerful Planning Days. If you’d like to set one up, please e-mail me at Monica@revenuebreakthrough.com.
3. Ask for help. If you are truly doing something over and over again in your business that is not bringing in results, you just need help. Think about investing in a business coaching program to help you start getting the results you want, so you can start having the CONTROL you need.
Follow these steps to stop creating your own struggle and start embracing the effort required in your business. Trust me, the day is much less mentally and physically exhausting when you aren’t worried, second-guessing and doubting yourself at every step along the way. Let me know what you think in the comments below.
