Do you ever look at where you want to be and feel overwhelmed, like you don’t know how you’re going to get there?
How often do you check out what your competitors are doing, to get inspired, but instead feel heavy, defeated and like you have nothing unique to offer the world?
As a small business looking to grow, it’s normal to feel this when you look out and see what other businesses are doing. You can absolutely feel like a small fish in a big ocean.
Seeing yourself as small can leave you feeling flat, unmotivated and less than inspired. You can start to think, “I don’t know how they do it” and “How do I find the time to market effectively?” or even “Who am I to do this?”
I struggled with this a lot when I was developing my business ideas. I ended up in a real funk with no momentum and a pretty low self-confidence. During this low time, I realised three super important things:
- I had to trust and develop my unique point of difference by focusing on my story, my message and my vision. I could see that this was what would make my business unique and what would allow me to stand out in the market.
- I needed to be brave enough to share my uniqueness so I could attract the people who are out there looking for what my experience, my insight and my approach can offer them. Not everyone is going to love me and what I do and that’s a good thing.
- I needed to honour my own journey and not compare it to people further along because I didn’t know the real or full story behind their success.
But the single most important thing I realised I need to do was:
Get busy creating and not comparing.
Having Chronic Fatigue Syndrome for 7 years, I know a lot about what ENERGISES and what DRAINS us. Getting stuck comparing, losing sight of what we are passionate about and not creating, are some of the main reasons we end up feeling zapped, unmotivated and flat (or even depressed). If you’re feeling like a small fish in a big ocean, here are three things you can do to get your groove back:
- Focus in and not out: Take 30 minutes to re-connect with your WHY in business and what makes you unique because of your life experiences. Take yourself out to a nice cafe, a favourite place in nature or sit somewhere in your home that allows you to focus on you. Re-connect with why you started this entrepreneurial journey.
- Look back to look forward: Take 10 minutes and grab a notebook and write where you were this time last year, or even just a few months ago, and where you are now. Use this to see how far you have come and as a reminder to only compare yourself with yourself.
- Create, Create, Create: Use your time to create content, products and offerings that will move YOUR business forward. It’s important to know what your competitors are doing, but not if it distracts you from creating and expressing your own brilliance and helping your customers.
You have an amazing story and message that the world NEEDS to know. Honour and celebrate your journey and get focused on creating not comparing. This way you can bring your beautiful message and offering to the world and connect with more people who are LOOKING for exactly what YOU provide.
If you need help moving forward, I’d love to offer you a super–focused 30 minute Skype chat to help you move through your number one challenge at the moment so you can get your message out there and start attracting more customers who need you and what you are doing. Click here to find out more about working with me.
