How To Have It All In Your Business And Life
As much as I wanted to pretend it wasn’t happening – I simply couldn’t. The undeniable truth was that I was experiencing a break down in how I was running my business. I found it ironic that my area of expertise is in helping entrepreneurs master their inner game of time and money and yet here I was feeling completely stuck in my own business around the very thing that I coach others to deal with.
I might have even enjoyed a good laugh at the irony of my situation if I hadn’t been so steeped in my experience.
I was preparing for my weekly meeting with a colleague and mentor of mine when the phone rang. “How’s it going?” my colleague asked. I was feeling too frustrated to respond with a casual, passing comment.
“I’m really stuck,” I confessed, “I’ve set up my business so that I see clients and have all my meetings and calls on certain days of the week and I’m already completely booked. My week feels crunched and I don’t have any extra room in my schedule for setting up additional coaching appointments. I’m committed to having time for my family and focused time for marketing my business. And I don’t know what to do — my schedule is filled to capacity and I’m feeling overwhelmed.”
“I completely understand.” My colleague responded. We continued to talk and what unfolded was a conversation where I experienced several insights on many levels.
In a flash I had the insight that the breakdown I was having was an inevitable aspect of being an entrepreneur - and of being a living, breathing human being for that matter. I had been holding on to the belief that somehow I was supposed to arrive at point in time when things would run perfectly in my business and personal life. And if they didn’t run smoothly that meant I was doing something “wrong.”
If I chose to cling to this belief I would continue to resist any and all challenges when they initially arose. I no longer needed to hold on to thoughts like, “I’m doing something wrong, ” or “If I were more enlightened (or even more successful) I wouldn’t be struggling with this right now.”
Conflict and challenge in my business isn’t a “bad thing.” It simply means that I’m being called to play a bigger game than the one I’m currently playing and that I’m being given the opportunity to create a breakthrough into the next level of growth and success in my business.
It’s very likely that after I’ve achieved my next level of growth and success I will experience yet another breakdown. And once again I’ll be given the opportunity to transform into yet another breakthrough.
With my particular situation I was being called to take an even bigger stand for re-creating my schedule and natural work rhythm in my business and to make some adjustments in individual coaching and begin offering more group coaching programs.
After having this insight the next thought that immediately followed was, “How am I going to achieve that with the amount of time that I’m willing to dedicate to my business? Since I’m not willing to sacrifice personal time and family time, that’s impossible!”
However, instead of believing that it really was impossible I realized that this was simply the “default” conversation I have with myself when I feel challenged and when my comfort zone gets threatened. While I might complain about my work schedule and about not having enough time my current way of arranging my schedule and my coaching programs was all too familiar to me and provided me with a sense of security on some level.
To re-create my schedule and coaching programs all that is required is my willingness to take the next step and create it. For me that meant re-evaluating my schedule and getting clear on how I wanted to structure my group programs.
By doing this I would be engaging in the alchemical process of creating something new, which doesn’t yet currently exist but has the potential to manifest from inspiration combined with action. And that’s what it means to be a powerful creator in my business.
