There are infinite ways to skin a cat. (That’s a well known saying in the UK meaning there’s more than one way to do things – no animals harmed here!) It’s the same with strategy and it’s true in business and in life.
Very often a business coach or mentor will share a fabulous strategy which is really going to move the needle on your business.
You feel excited, it seems like a great plan and makes total sense. You throw yourself into it with gusto. Or you might find that despite your initial enthusiasm you don’t end up putting it into practice. You end up feeling bad about it or worse, yourself.
You might be feeling frustrated, having taken the gusto approach and found that you didn’t get the results you were hoping for.
The common thread here is that someone else’s strategy has led to you feeling bad. Now please don’t feel bad about feeling bad! It’s totally natural and very common, but you can choose a different path.
5 insights to help you improve your mood when a strategy hasn’t worked for you (yet!)
1. Just because it worked for them, doesn’t mean it’ll work for you right now.
Business coaches and mentors tend to teach what has worked for them. The reason it has worked for them is an ineffable blend of their beliefs, experience, existing skills, audience and timing. If you don’t share the same beliefs, experience, existing skills and audience, you will get different results to them.
That is totally normal and to be expected. Life is a journey and you can choose to change your beliefs, gain more experience (you’re doing just that by giving this strategy a go!) Develop new skills, and grow your audience. You’ll improve your results as you go, you just need to keep on going.
2. Just because it hasn’t worked now doesn’t mean it’ll never work (or that it wouldn’t have worked if you’d done it earlier.)
Timing is everything. The world is new, as are you, in every single moment. Sometimes we throw out a strategy before we’ve given it time to work. Success might be just around the corner. Other times you’re being taught a strategy that did work when our coach or mentor did it, but things and algorithms have changed and it’s just not as easy to gain traction with that strategy now.
Alchemy happens when you allow it, and it might just be that your coach or mentor was having one of those alchemical moments when they did the thing that they’re teaching you. They were in alignment, feeling good, they were on a roll, feeling confident, in their momentum, allowing their intuition, following the breadcrumbs from the universe. It doesn’t mean that strategy will work for everyone because everyone else is in a different moment in time (see point 1.)
Being new in every moment means that you can revisit a strategy at any time and it might ’suddenly’ work for you when it hasn’t in the past. That’s because your beliefs, experience, existing skills and audience have changed, as has everybody else’s! Follow what feels good to you and you’ll be guided to the right strategy at the right time for you.
3. Everything is an experiment.
You seeking experience from a coach or mentor is a brilliant way to find inspiration for your next steps. Try stuff, if it doesn’t work move on, just a tweak or a big shift, it’s all good and you can always come back to it. Remember that life is supposed to be fun! Bring your playfulness with you as you try different things.
4. We can learn as much about how we don’t want to run our business from teachers, coaches and mentors, as how we do and that’s a good thing.
When we hire a coach we hope we’ll find the answers we’re seeking. Being open to the idea that the answers may come in different ways than we’re expecting can be a real help. Learning what doesn’t work for us or how we don’t want to run our business, takes us closer to what does work for us and how we do want to run our business. Whether we end up loving what we’ve been taught and getting great results, or a clear no – this doesn’t work for me, or somewhere in between, it’s all valuable information.
5. Coaches, teachers and mentors are human.
They (we) make mistakes. Are human. Are doing the best they can with what they know. They may have guru status, but they’re still human. They don’t know what’s best for you or your business. You do. They can give you their opinion and share their experience, but at the end of the day, it’s for you to discover what works and what doesn’t work for you and your business. Through a process of experimentation and keeping on keeping on. You’ll find your way to bring your dream life and business to reality.
No matter where you are in your business, what strategies you have tried or are trying, you are creating the life and business you desire. You are exploring your way to do business and life. Some things will work, other things won’t (right now,) but if you keep an open mind, follow your inner guidance, create space to listen to your inner knowing, treat yourself really well and keep on taking the next step for you, you’ll get to enjoy the journey with all its ups and downs and become more of who you are – more experienced, more skilled and with more and more self-belief.
If you’re looking for a coach to help you grow your self-belief at the same time as getting stuff done and allowing your dreams to become your reality book a call here for a no-obligation chat about whether we’d be a good fit to work together.
