Business Blockers: Mastering Mindset to Make Decisions and Take Action

“I love those who can smile in trouble, who can gather strength from distress, and grow brave by reflection. ‘Tis the business of little minds to shrink, but they whose heart is firm, and whose conscience approves their conduct, will pursue their principles unto death.” –Leonardo da Vinci

How you show up in your business is EVERYTHING. It can be a daily challenge to do that consistently as you struggle to balance the need to work on your business with the need to work in your business. It’s stressful to handle competing priorities as you grow personally and professionally. For many, busy is the new black, and there is never enough time to get things accomplished. To-do lists roll over from one day to the next. A sense of urgency combined with a lack of productivity can be paralyzing, which makes things even worse. Stress is a mindset; it’s a fear of not having enough time to get everything done. In that scarcity mindset, we let distractions, these business blockers, delay or derail us. They are the mental blocks preventing us from moving forward in our business, offering us a lesson if we take the time to reflect.

What If…?

Starting your own business is a huge risk. And you regularly need to make decisions with insufficient information, listening to your intuition to nudge you forward. We are bombarded with decisions from the time we get up until the time we go to sleep—and even then, those possibilities may be dancing around in your mind. “What if?” can be a business blocker because we are frozen in the not knowing. The lack of information blocks us from taking the next step. When we linger in “What if?” maybe the decision we need to make is no. If that is true, it calls us to reflect on what we are trying to avoid. Maybe the opportunity conflicts with your values or maybe it’s an opportunity for another time. It’s hard to say no when we are conflicted. Not deciding is also a decision, but doing so gives your power away. Decisions lead to growth. Any time we make a decision and take action, we are learning something new about our business.

Shiny Object Syndrome (S.O.S.)

There are so many ways to share your coaching expertise and attract your ideal clients: writing a book, giving a talk, creating a group coaching program or teaching a class. The list is endless. Starting too many projects decreases the likelihood of completing any said project (I am now reminded of the book I started last summer…time to make that happen). We’re all guilty of overextending ourselves at one time or another. But, what is it costing you? How is it impacting your clients? Often S.O.S. can keep us from finishing, so our creative services and products never reach our clients, who need our expertise and support.

One of my clients had taken coach training and earned several certifications but had yet to work with any paying clients. In hiring me, she was finally ready to start—or so she thought. However, in our time together, she was focused on creating a workshop, a podcast and her website. The hard truth was that because she wasn’t putting herself out there, she didn’t have a client base or audience to market herself to. Her aha! moment was that she had shifted from hiding in the classroom to hiding in creation mode. As we worked together, she discovered that she was struggling with impostor syndrome, and S.O.S. was her way of avoiding her truth that she was enough and had the education and experience she needed to coach her ideal clients.

Are you experiencing a business blocker? What can you do to shift into action? As opportunities come up to support your clients, compare each against your business plan and goals. Consider, does the opportunity:

• Align with your vision for your business?
• Establish you as a thought leader?
• Attract your ideal clients?

Every day we are either getting closer to—or farther from—our goals. Each action we take is building our business in a way that aligns with our vision or is jeopardizing it. Business blocks will always be present, so the challenge is to realize you are being blocked and take action to move forward.