Personal Note
Dear friend,
The weather guys are predicting a snowstorm for us Michiganders today and tomorrow, dropping between 6-10 inches of snow! Of course, my girls are hoping for their first snow day this school year.
For them, there's nothing better than being able to sleep in then play outside all day to build snow forts and snowmen, make snow angels, and sled down the hill next to one of the neighbor's lot. (We live in a small developing subdivision and the kids LOVE having their own personal snow hill.)
Oh yes,
I can't forget their favorite thing to do and that's having the girls vs. boys snowball fight!
Kids like to play games because it's a fun way to challenge one another and there's always a winner! Speaking of games... when it comes to our business, many of us play a game with ourselves. Unfortunately, fear and apprehension gets the best of us which brings me to Today's Chat.
I hope my article will help you see things in a different light and encourage you to play the "inner game" to win!
Keeping you in mind,
P.S. Sign up for our exclusive expert calls in the Up Coming Events section to discover other ways you can strategically and effectively build, market, and grow your business.
P.P.S. Meet your colleagues Carolyn Hubbard, ACC, CPCC and Ford R. Myers who are featured today's Who to Know section!
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Today's Chat:
Playing the Inner Game to Win
You've been running your own business for a few years now and you know you do a great job at meeting the career coaching and/or resume writing needs of your clients. Your clients tell you so.
Perhaps you've been thinking about raising your prices, adding more to your coaching services, resume writing packages, or overall service offerings. Maybe you've been thinking about subcontracting some of your workload. You've been thinking about it, but haven't acted on it yet because it just never seems like the right time to take action. At least, this is what you keep telling yourself.
Maybe it could be something
else that’s putting a halt to
moving forward towards your goal. For example, you’re afraid that people might think you’re too expensive to work with or you’re not sure if you’re ready to handle the additional workload that comes with adding new services. Possibly, delegating some work to others doesn’t make you feel that you’re in “full control” of your business. Sound familiar?
“In every human endeavor there are two arenas of engagement: the outer and the inner,” says Tim Gallwey, author of The Inner Game of Work. “The outer game is played on an external arena to overcome external obstacles. The inner game takes place within the mind and is played to overcome the self-imposed obstacles.”
You can try harder to change by taking more action in the “outside,” physical world. But if you’re powered by limiting beliefs and negative feelings, chances are you’re just going to go faster in the wrong direction.
So how do you effect real change, change that starts from within? The first step is to identify just what's holding you back. Some common internal roadblocks are:
- Fear – Probably the most popular reason, the list of fears is endless. Whatever your fears, they prevent you in some way from experiencing your full potential.
- Thinking Small – If you expect less, you get less. You have to think big and believe you can have success before you will actually experience it.
- Being Out of Balance – When we over focus on certain areas of our lives to the exclusion of others, we experience stress and incongruence. Creativity is then compromised.
- Lack of Motivation – Without excitement or passion for what you’re doing (or at least a big payoff), it’s difficult to get moving in any direction.
Once you determine your specific roadblocks, it’s time to face them head on, reprogramming your beliefs and defining (or redefining) your life priorities and purpose.
We know working with a coach helps many to determine a practical strategy for navigating the roadblocks. Coaches have coaches too! Steven Covey of Seven Habits suggests writing a personal mission statement and then organizing your life around it.
Whatever you do, keep looking inside. Take responsibility for what you create externally and work on winning the inner game. When you do, you’ll start winning in the outer world, too.
****
Personal Note
the same way they've always done them, simply because they don't know "what" to change.