Is it just me, or do you ever feel that life (and business) makes NO sense whatsoever?
You know those times when it feels like you’re doing all the ‘right’ things – following the same kind of plans and systems that are working for everyone else – but you’re just not seeing the results you hoped for.
It just doesn’t make sense, right?
And it can feel super-frustrating.
I know, because I have SO been there.
To be honest, in the 6 years I’ve been in business, most of the time there hasn’t been a whole lotta correlation between the action I’ve taken (writing blogs, marketing myself, being on social media, creating products, running events) and the results I’ve seen.
A couple of friends who run their own businesses asked me over the summer how I attract clients and my answer was, ‘I don’t really know!’
Because the truth is that my clients tend to come to me in unexpected ways, rather than via elaborately created marketing funnels.
Whether it’s seeing one of my EFT videos on Youtube and knowing they want to work with me, or just having a feeling that I’m the person to help them, my clients just show up (often very randomly).
And when that happens, it’s wonderful (of course), but it can also feel pretty erratic. I mean, how do you make plans or set goals when your clients just rock up whenever it ‘feels right’?
In the past it’s felt like there’s been no real pattern to the results I created in my business. I knew that doing inner work (using EFT, hypnotherapy and journalling) made a difference – but any practical action I took didn’t seem to have any specific impact.
Over the summer I started to feel burned out and the flow of new clients dried up (I wrote about it here) and I instinctively knew that I had to just STOP.
So I did.
I stopped taking any action in my business.
I stopped ‘trying’ to attract new clients.
I stopped sending my newsletter every week without fail.
I rested.
I decorated my kitchen.
I went for daily walks.
AND prospective clients started to contact me again.
I gave myself permission to slow down and my business started to flow without me taking any particular action.
In fact, earlier this week I started working with 3 new clients – one of whom I first met two years ago and another who first enquired about working with me 18 months ago, and they both suddenly decided that now feels like the right time.
So what on earth is the lesson here?
How can you and I use this experience to create even more abundance in our lives and businesses?
What I’ve come to believe is, it’s REALLY simple.
Perhaps so simple that we resist believing it (because as the wonderful humans we are, we kinda expect things to be complicated).
What I’ve found is the less I DO, the more I receive.
The more I relax and feel good, the more I attract into my life.
That it’s not about the action you take, it’s about the way you FEEL.
And in one form or another, I realise I’ve heard this many times in the past. One of my coaches always used to say, ‘Your only job is to feel good’ (and this would trigger the hell out of me. I’d think, ‘Yes, but how is that going to pay the bills?’)
But what I’ve seen over the past few months is that I really need to do very little (much, much less than you would ever think) to attract clients and make money.
It doesn’t seem to make sense, but that’s how it’s been working. And I know in the past that I’ve always had the best months in my business when I’ve been feeling good and often after taking a holiday.
But how do you translate this into your own life and business?
Because I know it can be pretty darn frustrating to hear someone say – ‘Just go with the flow. Focus on feeling good and everything will turn out fine’.
Well here’s what’s worked for me:
Not being attached to any particular goal or outcome. I KNOW this can be super-annoying to hear too! I could write a whole other blog post on this (and probably will), but put simply – be playful with your goals, see them as a kinda game and always be open to other outcomes.
If you start feeling icky about something (under pressure, busy, anxious, stressed), take a break and do something different. Get outside and go for a walk or take a nap. Just before starting to write this blog post, I wasn’t sure what I wanted to do (or whether I wanted to do anything!), so rather than just keeping myself busy, I went for nap and the inspiration for this article came to me. I’ve no idea what the response will be, but I’m enjoying writing it (and if it resonates with you, I trust that you’ll let me know!)
Do way less than you feel you ‘should’ be doing. Seriously, many of us seem to be caught up in an epidemic of busy-ness, constantly on-the-go and doing something. Strip your to-do list back to the bare minimum, only do the absolute essentials and stuff you really enjoy. Apart from that, allow yourself to just be. (And rest far more than you think you need to.) At the moment I’m working about 3 hours per day and believe me, the world hasn’t stopped!
Practice delayed gratification. If you’re anything like me, you get a 100 different ideas about things to do in your business every single day (I may be exaggerating slightly, but sometimes it feels like it!) I used to believe that I had to implement every single idea that came to me – so I would start something and then something else would come along and I’d end up feeling overloaded and distracted. Not good. My head is still a very busy place, but now I’ve given myself permission to delay acting on any inspirations that come to me. When my thoughts go into overdrive, I simply send thanks to my mind for being so creative and remind myself that my number one focus at the moment is writing my first book. If I’m still wanting to take an idea forward after a few days, then I might come back to it (but usually my mind has moved onto something else by then!)
Trust. This kind of approach to business (or life in general) demands a huge amount of trust. It can feel completely counter-intuitive to do less and purely focus on feeling good. All sorts of limiting beliefs have come up for me, especially the idea that I’m just being lazy. But the proof is in the pudding. For the last few months, I’ve been working about 50% less than I had been and my income is the same as it was, if not higher. Go figure. Seriously, the Universe does not require you to run yourself ragged. Try doing less and see what happens for you.
As I was out walking today, I realised that I could sum my new approach to business up as radical non-action.
I’m allowing myself to do very little and everything I am doing, I’m doing because I enjoy it.
I must admit, it does feel strange at the moment. I keep catching myself trying to create work so I can feel busy, because I feel like I should be doing something.
And it feels strange (and a little scary) to realise that there’s no particular system or action steps that I can follow to create a specific outcome.
But I’m enjoying this process of letting go.
So, watch this space as I’m sure I’ll be writing more about radical non-action (or not, depending on how I feel).
