Sometimes you get in a headspace that is not healthy for your business.
On the surface everything is okay; you’re getting the bare minimum done. But you’ve lost your enthusiasm, your drive to do more, to be better and grow. And if you stay in that mindset for too long, you can literally kill all the hard work you have previously done to get to this point; AKA sabotage, as my good friend calls it. I like to call it the hard work rut. You’ve worked hard, started to see the results, the business has grown and for once you take a breath, and then another and then another. The oxygen filters through to my your brain and before you know it your brain says, “Woah I’m tired, take a break”. And you consider that request, responding, “Well yes I have worked hard, and I do deserve a rest. Fab let’s do it!” You didn’t take much convincing did you?
I’m all for taking a mind break, but there has a to be a point where you stop and get back to focusing on your business growth and direction it should be heading.
We all know when that point is, but sometimes you can be having so much fun that you ignore the signs – and keep having fun. At some point, the seesaw tips that other way and the mind break begins to have a detrimental effect on your business, missing opportunities being the biggest one. You need to be in a particular mindset to be open to opportunities, and if you’ve taken a mind break, those opportunities are going to fly right by! This week I had to give myself a good talking to. That seesaw was tipping too much the other way. It’s quite a surreal experience when you give yourself a talking to, but it went something like this:
My business voice: “Why don’t you want to work on me?” My mind break voice: “I’m not sure; you’re not exciting me at the moment.” My business voice: “I need you; I needed you last week and you weren’t around.” My mind break voice: “I’m getting there, don’t rush me.” My business voice: “I’ve been really patient, but I’ve had enough. Do you really want to wreck all the hard work you’ve done until now? If you don’t come back on board now, you and I are going to have real issues. I can’t keep doing the bare minimum, I need you back and in the business growth mindset.” My mind break voice: …….silence……. My business voice: “Do I take that silence as a sign that you’ve finally heard me?” My mind break voice: “Yes” My business voice: “And?” My mind break voice: “Geez I could have really stuffed that up couldn’t I? Okay I’m not going to dwell on that, I’m back. What do you need?” My business voice: sighing, “Finally. Right, so…..”
Do you need to have this conversation with yourself?
