Life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans

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When coaching business owners, the assumption is that a business coach empowers you in the following areas; strategy, business plans, profit, margins and bottom-line. Whilst I most definitely do, there are three main wholistic pillars upon which business coaching is built and which I address with my clients and these are; Time, Team and Money. The afore-mentioned elements would actually, only represent Money.

As an ActionCOACH Business Coach, I spend a lot of time with you as a business owner on building a future that is aligned with your values and the things that bring you joy – hence, building a dream chart. Together we make plans and set SMART goals for your business. I look forward to coaching sessions so that we can assess your progress and then I will encourage you and celebrate your wins with you.

However, in 2020 we have learnt that life is what happens to you while you’re busy making other plans… without exception, entrepreneurs are experiencing a world we never envisioned before or planned towards.

“I had no idea what 2020 would be like,” says bestselling author Seth Godin, in his most recent blog, “I don’t think anyone could have described the confluence of events, the unevenly distributed tragedy of our times, the injustice, the hurt and the illnesses as well. The despair that’s around us is real…”

On signing a client, we work our way through Mastery, Niche Leverage and Team. This is to leverage change and inspire development. To this end I was so fascinated by Brené Brown’s recent address (via zoom) to the University of Texas, speaking about the importance of getting back up and beginning again, when all our plans fail.

Dr Brown stated that “your ability to make the world a braver and kinder place, to disrupt and reshape the future, has very little to do with the greatness of your plan. It depends completely on your ability to get back up and begin again when your plan fails. What starts here changes the world if you’re committed to getting back up and beginning again, the exact same number of times that you fall, trip, and get pushed down.”

Brown warns of making false assumptions, setting over-ambitious goals and not meeting them. Success, she says, has little to do with particular circumstances and everything to do with the ability to get back up again, after every failure. “I’ve never seen a single person who’s built a life, a career, that did not have to scratch their way up from a fall and begin again a hundred times.”

Albeit that re-starting your business after the unexpected Lockdown requires courage born of vulnerability, Brad Sugars is clear about systematising the re-starting process. The latter will be the determining factor turning any entrepreneur’s vulnerability into his or her greatest strength: the courage to show up. The typical homegrown entrepreneur is raised to believe that vulnerability is weakness. It is actually the most accurate way to measure courage.

First, it’s so important to acknowledge that you have suffered a setback, that you have stumbled. “You have to be brave enough to acknowledge that you’re hurting. That you’re sad, disappointed or desperate.”

The most important question is: “What have I learned from this fall that I can take with me as I begin again?”

With this in mind, it is suggested that you implement the following ActionSteps:

1.Re-Educate and Prepare
2. Re-Build Your Team
3. Re-New with Deals for Days
4. Re-Opening Announcements
5. Re-Do Your Celebration
6. Re-Run Your Numbers
7. Re-Think Marketing and Sales
8. Re-Thank Everybody
9. Re-Write Your Plan

Whether you are an entrepreneur, an employee or the employer – the reality of your life and work today is not what you had planned when you sang Auld Lang Syne on New Year’s eve. Your short to medium-term and in some instances, long-term goals have changed. So too has your definition of success. Therefore, “being successful” is about the ability to re-think, re-invent and re-open.

 

Marina Ferguson, ActionCOACH Business Coach

marinaferguson@actioncoach.com  |  fergusferguson.actioncoach.com

 

 

Photo by Chris Lawton on Unsplash

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