Today I’m addressing some big stuff. We are on the absolute brink -and some people may say we already are- in an economic crisis and doom and gloom and recession. And I’m here to state it and not to get caught up in it. And…with every problem there’s an opportunity and there’s a key point to learn. The key is to be prepared.
Read on or watch the video
I’m going to tell you a little story, and this story has to do with me, back in 2009 when we were having another economic crisis. I was first trying to get my life together after I had made the decision to separate from my crazy ex, which came a little bit after 2009 – I didn’t know what to do. I really hated feeling like I was running in circles, just trying to survive. I was in an economic crisis. The great recession still had that hold on us. It was actually a couple years after 2009 but I still had that FEELING.
It reminds me of today. Sure, we’re not in covid, but many of us are still in that survival mode. So – still in an economic crisis back then, I was faced with a big decision. What do I do about living with that abusive alcoholic? I was quite emotionally unstable and to say I was scattered would be an understatement. What I discovered in those first few years of my business and in that economic crisis, the crisis that I was in inside and out, was that counterintuitively I really needed to slow down. I had been running FAST for a long time.
The process of slowing down was unexpected. It worked really well, and that actually opened the door to me being able to think again and say ‘yes’ to my own needs. Imagine that, right? So, I found an amazing mentor, and she helped me build my coaching practice step by step. Slowing down allowed me to see what God had put right in front of me. So I ask you this, imagine if you were able to believe in yourself with ease, without getting constantly pulled in other directions by your family creating or amplifying that feeling of being scattered by that direction pulling. It’s so common among entrepreneurs who have the shiny object syndrome. If you dare to allow yourself to imagine this, do yourself a solid (like my teenager would say) and keep reading. I’m going to give you three tips.
The first tip to remember is to get your confidence back. If you are making a change…for example, -you’ve been away from your business for a little while, or if
-you are going to the next level in your business, if
-you’ve had a change in any way, you may have moved,
-you may have gotten divorced,
or any number of changes- that impacts our confidence. We don’t feel “in the mode.” Getting that confidence back, it’s really important to slow down and to really start working on what makes you feel good. What light do you have to shine on the world? Even if you feel a little rusty since you have not done what you used to do, and even if you feel scattered, I invite you to consider a time in your past where you were really on your game. When you place your mind there, you will walk out in the world with that confidence. It is a number one thing people are really looking for when they begin anew and being in an economic crisis and recession and all the doom and gloom and inflation – that can knock our confidence back and we can think ‘oh my gosh, I’d better run and hide’. I don’t want you to run and hide. Running and hiding will not get you there, I promise you that.
The second thing to consider is really taking a look at your time management – and that’s what I didn’t do. What I did is I ran around like crazy. I had great experience in running around like crazy, throwing spaghetti to the wall, smiling, kind of pretending everything was okay. And you know what? As a business owner, some days you want everything to look like Disney, or to feel like Disney – as everything is not Disney. And baking it, you can kind of tell in the background that things aren’t working. So give your time and attention to what really matters. How do you know what really matters? Well, if you’re making money at it, it’s lighting you up and it’s and it’s really aligning with you and your vision then those are the things that you really want to focus on.
Last but not least there’s a fear that some people have right now and that is that they will have to work full-time in order to support themselves, and that they will have no time to continue building their business the way they want because they just don’t have enough hours in the day. So for that, what I’ll say is you don’t have to work full-time. What’s so important is that you have enough coming in to cover your bills or you have enough put aside somewhere to cover your bills for the next (at least) three months while you’re undergoing some changes in your life. Whatever they are, whether it’s working on your confidence, taking care of your trauma, or maybe you’re in a business building program, whatever the case may be that you do have enough coming in or put aside, it’s actually really important.
The bottom of my iceberg graphic is economic and financial security. If you don’t have that it’s virtually impossible to really stay focused on the things that really matter. You’re going to be in constant fear and worry, and we don’t want you in constant fear and worry.
That’s what I have for today. In summary, you have a beautiful opportunity to harness the “crap of what’s going on in the world,” to take whatever transition you’re in, and capitalize on opportunities that present themselves. Transitions can be starting a new business, upleveling your existing business, changing your business model, getting divorced, getting married, or moving. Regardless, you must stay focused. These are wise ways to do it. So stay tuned for the next lesson for those, which will come out on Wednesday.
What transition might you be in? Comment below and let me know!