Have you launched or are you wanting to start a coaching, consulting, training, or speaking practice, but the reality of all that’s involved has you overwhelmed or stuck? Yikes. How do you prevent your fears, doubts, and busyness from casting a dark shadow over your calling, purpose, and vision?
Reality checks are smart and reasonable steps to take; however, when a reality check halts your progress, it is being misused. Unfortunately, reality checks are most often interventions used by well-intended others to tell us we’re crazy, blind, stupid, or out of touch. Listen and learn, for they may have pearls of wisdom for us. Then again, it may be their fear or concern for us processed through their fears, perceptions, and experiences.
The proper use of a reality check is to gather insights, make an assessment, adjust as necessary, and take the next step better informed. That’s worth a lot of saved time, energy, and money. Retain your agency.
The secret sauce to reality checks is a mindset that all information is good and helpful to the design, development, and execution of your practice. Imagine running through a maze where dead ends, while frustrating, tell you, “Not this way.” As you turn and try a different way, be thankful you’re a bit wiser for the experience.
Why might you feel stuck or overwhelmed? In FIT 4 Leading, my survey of over 850 small business owners revealed lots of reality checks were taking place incorrectly. Chances are one or more of the following issues are at play:
- Lack of clarity: You’ve lost site of your purpose and vision so your mission is muddled.
- Unrealistic expectations: You’re taking on too much and drowning in tasks.
- Misdirected priorities: You’re on a learning curve and allocating resources inefficiently and ineffectively.
- Fear freeze: Everything from fear of selling, failure, success, or making a mistake has you frozen.
- Burnout: You are working too hard, spread too thin, and not caring for your wellbeing.
- Money worries: You’re feeling the pressure to produce and you’re panicking.
Once you’ve identified the root cause, develop a simple strategy to overcome it. For example, if you’re locked in fear, post some affirmations around you. Talk with others who have overcome a similar fear. Get with a colleague on a regular basis to talk through your fear. In other words, create specific and achievable micro-actions designed to move you past your fear.
Feeling stuck or overwhelmed in a start-up is a common challenge, but it’s not insurmountable. Reality checks aren’t positive or negative — they’re informative. And that information is power so you can motor through whatever is holding you back. Stick with it for at least the next 30 days. Then repeat this process until you’re back into momentum with your budding solo practice.
Be On-Purpose!
Kevin
