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It isn’t pretty, but I’ve repeated a pattern of sabotage twice a year for as long as I’ve been in business

1. I consistently work on my business.
2. I get prospect appointments.
3. I close clients and stay consistent.
4. I get MORE prospect appointments. My schedule gets really full.
5. I start to freak a little, and my mind races, “What if this goes on forever? I’m never going to have any free time. What if things start falling through the cracks? I don’t want to be this busy forever!”
6. Prospect appointments start to cancel, postpone or no-show. My closing ratio goes down.
7. I start to panic that I’m not going to have enough business, and start over at 1.

In January, I noticed it kicking in and all I could think was, “Oh hell no. I am not doing this again.”

I started talking about the pattern to friends, but not as something I was suffering with, but as something I was calling a stop to. Something I was seeking the resolution to.

I called a friend and through our conversation, I recalled a situation where I had experienced the same feelings of panic but was able to resolve them very quickly.

Many years ago, I worked in a staffing office and a temporary employee came into the office, furious because there was an error in his paycheck. The guy was HUGE. We stood face to face, about 3 feet apart, and he started to raise his voice and lean in, using his size to intimidate me.

I WAS intimidated, but then a crystal clear, perfectly calm part of me knew exactly what to do. I lowered my voice and took a half step toward him. This completely disarmed him, and we were able to calmly create a solution.

This is exactly how my sabotaging pattern felt: looming, scary, intimidating. And for years I cowered when faced with it.

Armed with this knowledge, I set aside some quiet time. I visualized my pattern of sabotage as this looming man, allowed myself to deeply feel the fear. Then stepping forward with kindness and calm, I felt the pattern dissolve.

Since then? Consistent prospects. Consistent opportunities. Busy? Yes, but also able to make good decisions about how to clear my plate.

I encourage you to notice your patterns, then take a brave step forward, look them in the eye and calmly say, “Oh hell no. I am not doing this again.”

Wading through a client’s massive list of ideas, concerns, strategies and more for the New Year, I was struck by the thought: “Dude – you’ve got to burn some of these bridges!”

My client is a successful trainer, and a corporate escapee. He has a laundry list a mile long of things he thinks he should add, change, explore and develop in his business. 52 items in total!

Carrying around this swirling mass of ideas about what he could do, could massively limit his ability to actually get things done.

How did we boil down the list so he felt more focused and confident about reaching his goals?

1. I pulled everything off the list that I could answer quickly, as his mentor. Simple answers like “yes”, “no”, “2nd quarter”, whatever. Just cleared it off the plate.
2. I asked him: what are three things that worked best this year? This gave us a starting foundation to build on BEFORE we started entertaining the new, the novel and the downright distracting.
3. I separated the rest of the list into program development, marketing and processes. We evaluated each on ease of implementation, alignment with his goals, profitability, and capacity. This clarified his priorities.
4. The priorities were broken down into a specific action plan for the first quarter. It’s a thing of beauty, if I do say so myself ;-).
5. The last step was to decisively delete or delay the rest of the list. The rest of the items on the list will be ignored until our next evaluation before the second quarter. This one big decision freed up his energy to focus on what is most profitable.

Items #1-4 are all about identifying the best way to get into action. I’m a big fan of taking action.

But #5, being decisive about what NOT to do… that is how you create the space and the energy to actually get things done.
I wish you space and energy and much success in the New Year.