Have you been self-diagnosing and self-treating your biz?

When you have five kids, they’re bound to bring home colds and viruses from time to time and sometimes it seems like forever before it gets through everyone in the house and we’re all back to healthy.

Well, this happened a couple times in my house this winter and I was the only one who wasn’t getting any better. I had a cough that wouldn’t quit, my voice would be here one day, gone the next. I had chest pains (from all the coughing, or so I thought) and just felt downright terrible.

As the mom, I’m the last one that is ‘allowed’ to get sick and as a business owner—forget about it, I didn’t have time to be sick! So, I’d try this cough medicine or that cold medicine, made chicken soup and basically kept on keeping on thinking I’d get better eventually.

This went on for a solid month. It wasn’t until my prescription ran out for something else, that I went to see the doctor. Did you catch that? I didn’t go to the doctor because I was sick”I was going because I had to go in order to get another prescription filled. It was during that routine exam that she asks me if I was aware that I was ‘wheezing’. Nope, I had no idea that’s what the pain in my chest was. And that’s when I started spilling the beans about all of my other symptoms.

Long story short, the icky cold had turned into a sinus infection and bronchitis. It wasn’t until I was able to take pain-free deep breaths again that I realized how bad I had let things get.

Over the next few weeks I had a few Take It Off My Plate Sessions with potential clients and I was recognizing the same behaviors in them. They were coming to me for a completely different issue than the ones that really need to be addressed in their business.

Where in your business are you limping along, telling yourself that if you just push through it, it will get better eventually?

Are you putting up with that email marketing system that doesn’t do everything you need it to do because making the switch to something better is too overwhelming?

Is the business getting too big for you to manage, yet you struggle with the idea of letting someone else in to help?

Do you put off doing anything new like live events, or offering new programs or products because you’re waiting for things to settle down? Or you just don’t feel confident that you can pull it all off?

Yes there are times when you have to suck it up and just push through–we’ve all had those.

But when that’s not working, you have to draw a line.

You have to go see the doctor. Or get a coach. Or bring on a new team or team member.

When I was sick I didn’t equate going to the doctor with being able to breathe easily again. It sounds dumb as I write it. I saw going to the doctor as a hassle. It meant time away from my office and the work that needed to get done. That’s how many people feel about finding the support they need in their business too. But then, there was that moment, after a few days of medicine, when I could take a deep breath, and it didn’t hurt!

My goodness, the relief!

What kind of relief can you bring into your business?

Sometimes, we’re so far into the thick of things that it’s too hard to see things clearly. The idea of any kind of relief seems like a fairytale.

If that’s where you are right now, schedule a Take It Off My Plate session with me.

In 30 short minutes (less time than you spend in the doctor’s waiting room!) we can get to the heart of the matter and start the healing process for your business.

Comments

  1. As a coach, I think your take on this is SPOT ON! Great story to go along with it. Thanks for sharing!

  2. The problem really is not that people avoid going to the “doctor” when they have problems, Marta. It’s that they are just like you- they don’t recognize that their problems need outside help. They are positive they have them under control, until they fester too long. And, then, sometimes, the solution is truly unpalatable.
    I’m with you- don’t wait too long. The Chapters (7, 11, or 13) are NOT the desired solution…

  3. Excellent post, Marta!

    Sometimes it’s just so easy to leave things as they are rather than tackle what you know you should be doing to move forward.

    When that happens to me I remind myself of the times when I have made the effort and how good I felt afterwards!

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