Where has my confidence gone?!
Do you ever have a moment when you suddenly realise all your confidence in running a business has vanished. Stolen in the night by worry or anxiety. Or their big cousin, fear?
Many business owners do, or at least the ones I speak to. And I do too.
It has caught me out many times in the past and it was one of the reasons I intended to write another book. It was going to be specifically around the fear of doing your accounts and tax return, but equally I was going to cover a few more general issues. But then, erm I got paralysed with fear.
I’ll share the specifics another day but I went into default mode and got on with what I knew best. To be fair, time was limited and it was my busy time of the year so I didn’t really have much choice either. But what I didn’t realise was, that by just getting on with what I could do was a strategy in helping me to recover my confidence, reminding me that I could do at least something!
Fast forward a few months and I’m feeling more hopeful. I’m tackling the thing I fear and whilst we’re not best buddies. I’m learning to embrace it more.
As chance would have it, a conversation with two good friends yesterday reminded me of the worst things I have feared in the past, some of which came true. I’m still alive though. Scarred, but ok, and without sounding too cheesy, I have grown from the experiences. Most of them came from my personal life, but some were business related. But let’s be honest, our business is personal…
This month as I celebrate a very special anniversary* I am reminded very vividly of one major fear and accomplishment. It was the fear of writing and publishing a book that expressed who I was, what I thought and how I believe we can find more peace in our business.
I believe the world would be a better place if we had more peace and happiness in our lives especially around issues such as money & time, so I wanted to write books to spread my voice further afield and to remind those I worked (and myself!) that there is more to success than money when running a business.
Yes, you heard that right. An accountant saying “there is more to success than money when running a business”.
And so after gathering feedback from a questionnaire I first wrote 12 Steps to Improve Your Cashflow, (a 10,000 word e-book) then Successful Business Minds (a 55,000 word self-published book).
I wrote both these books for everyone, but I also wrote them for myself. To remind me (of what I know when I’m not caught up in fear) is that there is more to life and a business than money. Whilst it matters a lot, we must also acknowledge other areas. I regularly dip into both books to remind myself of my awesome wisdom 😉 and confidence. I may wake up some days and wonder what I’m doing wrong or where I went wrong but then I am soon reminded.
I’ll leave you with an excerpt of the chapter ‘Have faith and take action’ from Successful Business Minds.
“Successful business owners don’t worry about the finer details of how they will achieve their goal. They use the information their business, and their own mind, tells them to guide them and make adjustments as they take each step forward. These include their finances, sales figures, customer feedback, and as mentioned in the last chapter, how they feel.
Think of it like walking down a busy main street to reach a shop on the opposite side of the road. You don’t doubt for one second that you will not make it, nor do you know exactly, step by step, how you are going to get there although you have a fairly good idea. You start walking by paying attention to where you are stepping. You then wait at the pedestrian crossing for the traffic lights to change, so you can cross the road. You will walk around bus stops, lamp posts or a crowd of people on the pavement. Eventually you will reach the shop. You simply manoeuvred your way around. However, if you were to have your eyes shut, the chances are that you would either bump into someone on the pavement, or get hit by a car crossing the road!
Every day in your business you are walking down that busy street…
Remember to be compassionate on your journey though, as you will sometimes have to take a side step to pause for a moment, or to avoid an obstacle coming towards you. That is ok. Acknowledge why you need to take those actions by understanding the obstacle. These obstacles are opportunities in disguise, because every obstacle that comes your way will have something to teach you. Your thoughts, beliefs, actions and finances will all tell you the answers you need to hear. This is why it is essential to pay attention to things like lack of sales, no money or feeling down because they will all tell you, to ensure your head, heart, body and soul are aligned before taking action.
Trust that you will be guided each and every step if you pay attention to your head, heart, body and soul. Scan your environment, look at your accounts, sales and other business related information and take action.”
© Helen Monaghan/ HM Coaching Ltd
*Successful Business Minds is 2 years old on 28th April 2018 . To celebrate, I have reduced the price of both the kindle and paperback by 37% and 47% respectively!
