Entrepreneurial Quote of the Day:
“In order to profit from your mistakes, you have to get out and make some.” – Anonymous
Hello Fabulous Women!
I had a meeting with the teacher of my nine-year-old daughter the other day. She’s doing well overall in school, but her teacher says she doesn’t participate enough. Doesn’t raise her hand, and when called on, often says “I don’t know” instead of trying to answer.
Now I know my daughter, and I know that she is just not as confident, in general, as her older sister. She’s quite bright and can do the work, but sometimes she’s afraid to try because she doesn’t want to be wrong.
So, my fellow women entrepreneurs, can anyone can relate to that? Is there some aspect of your business that you just keep putting off? Maybe you’re afraid to try something new, don’t know if you have what it takes to make it happen? Feel stuck? Read on…
Her teacher wanted to talk about it because she wasn’t sure how to get my girl to participate more without putting her on the spot too much. Just telling her “You need to participate more” made no difference. (Kind of like when I tell myself I need to “market more.” It doesn’t mean anything to “market more.” Way too easy to keep putting off!)
Now, I’m a business coach, right? My specialty is helping people break through old patterns, change their accustomed way of doing things and seeing things and create amazing new results. So how about my daughter? Well, what works for my clients will work for her, too.
Whether you are a business woman or a nine year old girl, when you need to change a pattern, a way of being, one of the best ways to get started is to make a small change, something very do-able that will break up your old pattern and help you to see things differently. Once you start doing even one thing differently, things start to shift and new things start to seem possible.
For my daughter, (who, after all, did not request coaching from me, and isn’t very motivated herself to change), we needed to create a small change, something tangible that she could do. Together, her teacher and I came up with something concrete. We told her that we wanted her to participate just once a day. Just once a day she promised to raise her hand, or offer her opinion or an idea in class. That’s it, just one little change, but something tangible that can be kept track of.
Now how about you? If there is any aspect of your business (or your life!) that is stalled or in a rut, the simplest and most effective way to start making a change is to do just what my daughter is doing – just do something different. Even just one thing makes a change, shifts us out of our usual pattern and starts a whole new train of events.
For you, what would that one small but concrete change be?
Maybe it’s one more phone call a day. Or contacting someone about creating a website for you. Or scheduling time for marketing with specific tasks to complete. Or putting an appointment with yourself in your calendar to work on that thing you keep putting off. Or scheduling coaching sessions to create a real and powerful plan for your business instead of putting it off again.
Choose what that small change will be, and make sure it is concrete, something you can measure and know that you either did it or you didn’t. Nothing vague allowed!
So what change, what new action can you take today? Don’t over think it, just do it, and see what happens!
–Ann
On Track and On Purpose, Business Coaching for Women Entrepreneurs, Business Woman Coach
