Three Questions You MUST Ask If You’re Feeling Stuck
Even the best step-by-step system in the world doesn’t guarantee your success in business, and sooner or later, even the best-trained entrepreneurs I know wind up hitting a stuck point where they can’t seem to break through to that next level of success. No matter how hard they try!
It doesn’t help that too many experts like to make it sound as if business is a walk in the park. “Buy my program, and you’ll make six figures effortlessly overnight!” Now I’m not dissing the value of these programs. I’ve been in many myself, and most are truly invaluable for learning the skills you need to grow a profitable business. But the grand promises rarely match with the reality of day-to-day business.
As an avid backpacker, I would use the analogy that there’s the breathtaking mountain peak, and then there’s the long slog up the side of it to get to the top. Is the grand promise of the top reality? Absolutely! But so are the moments of sheer frustration and overwhelm or even panic when you’re not sure if you’re on the right path or if you’re ever going to reach your dream at the top.
I’ve been there myself–both on the mountainside and in business–often enough to know exactly what it feels like. In the process of personally wrestling with how to get unstuck quickly, I’ve discovered three key questions that can point the way to breakthrough solutions for you.
1. Are you crystal clear on exactly what you need to do to reach your goals?
If you’re not taking action, it’s rarely a case of laziness or stubborn resistance to change. No, inertia far more often stems from a lack of total clarity.
Make sure you have a clear picture of where you are headed and know at least the next few critical steps you need to take to get there. You don’t need to worry about every minute detail ten miles down the trail, but you do want to know exactly what steps you need to take for the next hundred yards or so of the journey.
2. Do you “feel the love”?
It’s pretty hard to keep moving forward if you don’t feel a strong emotional connection to your destination or to why you’re on this journey in the first place. Take the time to reconnect at a deep emotional level with that bigger vision and sense of purpose if you notice your motivation waning.
It’s also tough to maintain momentum when there are underlying mindset issues getting in the way. Maybe the task before you feels too big and impossible. Maybe those nay-saying voices of doubt have worn you down. Maybe past experiences have left you feeling scared to take that next step. If you don’t “feel the love” around the journey ahead, it’s worth your time to explore what might be standing in your way on an emotional level.
3. Can you change your environment or create systems to support forward movement?
In Switch (now officially one of my favorite books of all time!), the Heath brothers call this “shaping the path”. Our environment can exert surprising influence on our success… either for good or for bad. It can make it easier or harder to take action and stay in motion. To build good habits or bad. To stay focused or get distracted. To fudge on our goals or achieve high-value actions and results.
Rather than berate yourself for all your failings in business, recognize your environment may be sabotaging your success and look for even small ways to change it so it more positively supports you. This could mean rearranging your office or your schedule, piggy-backing new habits on existing routines, forming a support team to hold you accountable, or even simply unplugging your Internet router for the next hour so you can write that blog post without the distracting chimes announcing a new email in your Inbox.
As always… I’d love to hear your thoughts, comments, and questions! Let me know if these three questions help you get unstuck and back in motion.
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