So many people who come to a strategy session tell me how much they want to change their life, start a business, be successful, etc. but when I offer the help and support that they admit they need, they say they want to think about it. This is probably why their lives haven’t changed—they are still thinking about changing. But thinking doesn’t always lead to action…in fact in this situation it only leads to inaction.
Why do they do this? I think it’s from fear…fear of change. The ego wants you to stay in your comfort zone and creates the fear. Your soul wants to break free and move to the next level out of love of life. So there’s a conflict between your love of life and change and your fear of change and the unknown.
What’s the best way to deal with this? Unfortunately there’s no magic pill, one size fits all, that’s available. What works for some people may not work for others. We are all on different paths. You have to find what works for you. Is it pressure? Is it challenge? Is it inspiration from others? Is it [fill in the blank]?
After three years of working 6 to 7 days a week trying to build a sustainable, profitable business, I had 4 months go by without any sales. I was at the point of giving up and getting a job. I knew that if I was going to make this work, something was going to have to change and I would have to do something very different in order to make that happen. But I didn’t know what. At the time, I didn’t know that what needed to change was me.
I knew I needed help figuring it out and when an invitation for a strategy session that resonated with me came up, I accepted. At the session, it was clear that I needed to hire this coach and her program would help me start to make a profit. My first obstacle was to get the money to hire her. At the time, we had just spent a bit more money than we had planned on, making some home improvements, and had also experienced a drop in income. So I wasn’t prepared to take the next step.
But I knew I had to, so I said yes to the opportunity, and then furiously rearranged my finances so I could have the first month’s payment. I had no idea how I would come up with the second month’s payment, but I was committed to making it work somehow.
That’s the kind of commitment you need to have as a business owner. There are so many behind the scenes stories of how great companies started out with challenge after challenge, but their commitment to making it work won out in the end.
And that’s what happened to me but not until I was willing to change.
The first thing my coach asked me to do was something I said I would never do again because I was so bad at it. That was to offer complimentary strategy sessions to enroll clients in my new program. There were so many fears attached to that one activity, conditioned from past experience. Fear of rejection, fear of looking stupid, fear of not having a good enough program for people, fear of having too many clients to handle, fear of becoming someone different, fear of overpromising, fear of not being able to get results for my clients, fear of not knowing what to do if a challenge came up…it was a long list.
It was out of frustration, desperation, and indignation with myself that I jumped off the cliff. It was also an economical decision—if I was going to pay someone to help me, I had to do what she said. So I made my offer, and started having conversations.
It was uncomfortable and scary until I made my first sale. Then I saw how I could make it fun. I was talking to people who had reached out to me. They knew me from my newsletter. They needed my help. I knew I could help them. It became easier, more comfortable, and more enjoyable than my past experiences and I reconditioned myself to look forward to the time spent doing them.
It was the turning point. I had to change who I was and that allowed me to change what I was doing, so that I could get new results and change my life. That’s the order in which it happens. And as a result, I not only made enough money to pay for the coaching, but I created a sustainable income and made a success out of my business. It began with a willingness to change and to take action instead of just thinking about it.
So don’t let fear keep you from changing your life!
