By Debbie Peterson, Professional Speaker, Trainer and Mindset Expert empowering careers of today’s professional woman.
Are you forcing it or are you letting it flow when it comes to your career and business goals and decisions?
What does that even mean?
Let me give you an example. About a year ago I was standing at my kitchen window feeling an overwhelming sense of frustration. Tears were streaming down my face because I was working my plan and it wasn’t working. I was doing everything I should be doing and it wasn’t making a difference. I was doing everything I knew how to do and I wasn’t getting the results I wanted. The more I tried to figure it out the more frustrated and unhappier I got.
Have you ever had that happen to you?
You’ve got a career goal or a business that you’re building and it’s just not working out? You’re doing everything you know how to do and you’re not seeing your results. You’re feeling frustrated and maybe a bit (or a whole lot) cranky.
Here’s what I learned from that valuable experience:
I was FORCING it.
I was determined to make it happen this way and this way only. I had absolutely zero flexibility in how it happened and I needed to take a step back otherwise I would only be more unhappy and stressed out. I had to relax the death grip I had on developing my business and the “control freak flag” needed to go to half-mast.
How did I figure that out? Because how I was feeling was NOT the way I wanted to feel in my business.
I was frustrated. I was not having fun. I was overwhelmed, stressed out and irritated. That was not how I wanted to feel while building my business and I needed to pay attention.
While you’re working towards your career goals, working on a project or building your business, pay attention to how it makes you feel. That’s valuable feedback and if it doesn’t feel good, that says it’s time to find another way to go about it.
Here’s what else you need to know:
- There is more than one way to any career goal. If you’re so focused on THE ONE WAY, you may miss other opportunities that are easier and will get you there faster. Take step back and be open to other ways you can get to where you want to go.
- Actively brainstorm with someone from your tribe. Find a friend, mentor or co-worker to see if they have ideas as to how that can happen.
- Find out what others have done to achieve the same results. Ask them what they did. The caveat here is, there is no one way for everyone. Try it on and see what works for you and incorporate the pieces that work.
- Pay attention to how it makes you feel. If it’s exciting or it feels good (even if you’re a bit apprehensive), that’s good. If it feels awful and stressful then perhaps that’s not your way of doing things.
- Be willing to step outside of your comfort zone. If you do what you’ve always done, you get what you’ve always got. Be willing to try something different so that you create more options for yourself.
Keep these tips in mind as you work to achieve the next level or next chapter in your career or business. Your internal wisdom is there for you if you let it come out and play!
Be good to yourself and share this with another woman that needs to hear it.
Deb
