I hope that your answer to this is yes because if you aren’t you should be! Today’s business world calls for continuous improvement. I used to think that once you fix everything you’ll be fine and it will be easy sailing from there on in. Are you guilty of this fantasy as well or even if you know logically that it’s impossible still fantasize about it being true? Business thinking in these times requires us to look at problems as possibilities and obstacles as opportunities.
If you’ve been hunched over, nose in your business, shoulders tight, just trying to ride out the recession chances are you’re missing out on quite a bit! Remember when you first started your business how you felt? Adventurous, exhilarated, full of energy, anticipating each new working day and once you got into office you tackled each new challenge as if your life depended on it. And it probably did!
Now – if you’re asking yourself why you’re doing what you’re doing – it’s probably time to stretch yourself yet again. But do you have the energy for it?
Regardless of where you are – your probably ARE in the midst of a reinvention. Either needing to reinvent your business to align with what’s going on today or reinventing your life to align with where YOU are right now! How do you get unstuck and start moving again intelligently?
The first step is to get clear about where you are. Here are some surefire signs that you’re struggling with clarity:
- You feel as if you’re drowning in a sea of choices
- You are beginning to resent your employees
- Every day you keep having to deal with negativity and power struggles in the office
- You feel overwhelmed and exhausted on a daily basis
- You feel stuck
- You are constantly changing your mind
- Communication problems abound in your business
- You no longer feel motivated
- You are struggling with relationships in your business and in your personal life
Once you know where you are then you of course can get a clearer picture about where’d you’d like to be and what you expect your experiences to be like once you get there.
This is what we’d describe as the second step – identifying the gap.
Many times as business owners, we may have some idea where we are but underestimate what it will take to get us where we want to be. We sedate ourselves with solutions that we wished were easier done as said.
- Things would be great if she would just resign
- If they would stop complaining everything would run smoothly
- If I could just get the reports I keep asking for things would be fine
- Why can’t they just perform as they’ve been trained?
- Everything is pretty good except for that one guy in accounts but he’s really good at what he does and I’d hate to lose him. His attitude sucks I know but he does his work. People just need to stop taking him so personally, take a page out of his book and just shut up and do their work
And almost inaudibly, I can hear you whisper “after everything I’ve done – why is my staff so ungrateful?”
Awareness is the start of the reinvention process. If the gap between where you are and where you want to be is huge then you will be experiencing a lot of drama in your business. The bigger the gap the more potential for drama; the bigger the change the more likely you will experience turbulence. There will be drama in the gap because of what is being experienced – whether it’s impatience, disappointment due to unrealistic expectations or general loss of motivation.
Step number three is of course to acknowledge where you are. Tell yourself the truth. We make up stories all the time to soften the effect of our present circumstances. This is partly due to our programming and negative mind habits that contribute to the drama and ups our anxiety, self doubt and fear.
Before you can deal with the drama head on you have to figure out your own stories.
- They will never get it
- Business this rounds is tough and you just have to work with what you have
- My staff really don’t want to work in fact they work hard at trying to get out of work
Now you’re ready to start the reinvention process. When you change how you see yourself and the stories you’re telling yourself, everything else will change. Drama is a key indicator that you are going through some big changes in your business and ready for a reinvention once you can admit that that’s where you are!
Get clear about marketing! 