I meet so many business owners who, on the surface, appear to have everything lined up to successfully market their business, but for some reason they simply aren’t taking the necessary action. When I talk to them in a bit more detail there is usually something that is holding them back from getting their business “out there” in a bigger way. Invariably it’s related to either their marketing message or their belief in themselves to deliver the results their marketing talks about. Quite often they won’t be aware that they are subconsciously holding themselves back. You can imagine how detrimental this can be on their business. They will have a target to reach of £X but are failing to achieve it, and the lack of progress towards it is probably fuelling the subconscious doubt, making things even harder.
Now you’ve either read that and have thought “yep I do that” or “that’s OK but it’s not me”. Am I right? I have another insight for you…it is you! I have yet to meet a business owner that has never self-sabotaged their progress.
Think about the goals you have set yourself and the list of key strategic actions you needed to take to achieve them. I bet there is at least one significant action you haven’t taken and if you truthfully analyse why you haven’t taken it, it will be because you convinced yourself:
- you could delay it
- it wouldn’t work well for you
- that someone else will have already done it
- that it’ll be too difficult, and so on.
I have found this self-sabotage tends to be caused by 2 things…1) you don’t feel your marketing material is quite right so it’s holding you back from taking action. This is usually because people are experiencing website/LinkedIn/brochure shame and so don’t want to direct people towards it. And/or 2) you are letting the little voice in your head convince you that, for whatever reason, you shouldn’t proceed. The net result is you don’t reach your targets which for most people will mean they don’t make the money they need/want to.
The absolute irony is that you are punishing yourself by doing this, but, you also hold the key to breaking out of this cycle, and this is how you do it:
Step 1: Work out why you haven’t taken the action. Be very honest with yourself here. I’m assuming you do want to achieve the business you’ve dreamt about so you need to dig deep and work out what is holding you back.
Step 2: Sort it out! I know that may be easier said than done but it’s reality. If you need to polish your website then do it, if you need to silence the little voice in your head then do it. In the majority of cases it is usually something quite easy to remedy that holds people back so do the soul searching, work out what it is and take steps to move forward. If it helps break “things” in to small steps as it will be easier to make progress and gain momentum that way.
Step 3: Enjoy making the progress and let it fuel even more. I find it can be really motivational when people push themselves through these self-inflicted barriers and make strategic progress with growing their business.
You, and only you, hold the key to achieving the business of your dreams. Take action today to get you nearer to achieving yours.
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