Is self-belief choking your business? Relax the strains before it's too late
Nov 22, 2021There are many reasons why businesses fail. Some can’t be helped, but many can. One of the lesser talked about reasons why companies crash is because the owner’s self-belief is choking it.
Let that statement digest for a moment.
One explanation for this misfortune is that the business owner simply isn’t aware that this choking process is happening.
Is self-belief choking your business
Let me illustrate what I mean by sharing a story.
Tanya is a female consultant. She’s excellent at what she does and has a commendable academic background. She’s also very good with people, and everyone she encounters likes her and feels the positive energy she exudes.
Despite this, Tanya experiences feast and famine in her business, barely making ends meet.
When each new contract lands, Tanya over gives to clients. She spends copious time perfecting what she does to please the client and get their approval because she does not want to disappoint!
Like a tune on repeat, Tanya is concerned that clients will not gain the outcome they want and is always overdelivering to compensate. Deep down, Tanya doesn’t believe she’s good enough to do what she’s doing.
Despite recurring highly fulfilled clients, Tanya still doesn’t believe she has the skills to be working with them. Consequently, she looks to other ‘experts’ to help her gain more sales and support with marketing, admin and finance. She continually buys online training packages, attends seminars, invests in sales coaches (and some) to help make the business a success, but nothing changes. All this extra knowledge she’s piling on top is overwhelming. She feels low and inadequate.
After working with her clients, Tanya fails to keep in touch with them because she doesn’t think they’ll want to hear from her again. In reality, she never asks them, so how would she know if they didn’t want to hear from her? It’s an internal assumption on her part.
Tanya doesn’t ask for testimonials either because she thinks her clients will hate her for interrupting their day, asking for something so trivial.
She neglects to share her clients' positive results and never thinks to capitalise on creating a portfolio of case studies to share successes. She never promotes the benefits her clients gain because who is she to boast? It’s all a fluke!
Tanya does everything possible not to market her business or be visible, preferring instead to keep a low profile so that she’s doesn’t ever get called out on being an impostor in her field.
Tanya is heading down burn out road. She’s working so hard and battling daily with her inner voice, holding her back, telling her she’s not good enough. Deep down, Tanya knows she’s heading for a complete wipe-out but is ignoring it. She needs to take time out to rest and recuperate. She needs to heal her limiting behaviours and beliefs. She needs to trust in her abilities and work on her self-worth before she falls apart.
Still, Tanya does nothing to stop fighting with herself. She considers quitting everything before the wheels fall off while everyone is watching. It’s her deepest fear to feel like a failure and having to listen to people saying, ‘I told you so’. Even though that’s never been the case, Tanya believes it to be true.
Or does she?
Maybe it’s time to stop going against the flow. Perhaps there’s a thin line to grab hold of to stop sinking further and take control.
What Tanya needs to do is take the reins before her health and wellbeing take a deep dive into the darkness where it will take hold forever, never letting go.
Tanya has had subtle messages from her heart and soul many times, but she has always ignored them.
Then, one day (like clockwork), Tanya is rushing around and suddenly loses part of her vision. She becomes spaced out and doesn’t know where she is or what she’s doing. Fortunately, she was at home and it’s not long before her partner finds her crumpled in a nervous heap. Minutes later, Tanya ends up in hospital with a suspected stroke.
Thankfully, the suspected stroke turns out to be an aura migraine. It’s still not what you’d wish on anyone, but at least it wasn’t as serious as it could have been.
Tanya wonders whether her experience is a prod from the universe, encouraging her to slow down. And she would do well to take note.
This is Tanya’s story. It’s a true story.
What parts did you relate to?
Relax the strains before it's too late
Tanya’s story is powerful and doesn’t need further explanation. A warm word of caution to you, though … if any parts of Tanya’s story relate to you, this is your sign of reconsidering your current thoughts, behaviours and actions. This is an opportunity for you to review how you work and the behaviours you are displaying.
If you think you could benefit from speaking to someone with a wealth of experience in pulling people up and out of the darkness, just like Tanya, then let’s have an informal chat. It could be that self-belief is choking your business.
