Small Business Talk
The Podcast to Grow your Business Faster
Self Sabotage and How to Manage It!
Show Notes
Self sabotage, OMG we are so often our own worst enemy.
On the verge of greatness we cause ourselves such drama and often detrain a perfectly good plan by letting our lizard brain run wild.
You would never dream of talking to your friends in the way that you talk to yourself, you wouldn’t even say such things out loud. So why do we treat our most important business asset in that way?
Because we can – we have no one else to answer to or report in on with regards to our own behaviour and self talk.
Self Sabotage Can Ruin Your Business
Your cruising along and things are going well, everyone is happy and you are making good money, when out of no where it happens . . . .
Those little voices in your head start.
Classic self sabotage maneuvers
- Not invoicing
- Not managing scope creep or charging for additional services
- Letting delivery times slip
- Offering to do contra deals when customers can and should be paying
- Procrastination
- Not following up
There are so many little behaviours or lack of action that can really cause huge issues in your business. I beat you can relate to some or all of these things and have plenty more to add to the list.
- Overbooking
- Procrastor cleaning
- Staying up to late
- Not getting up early enough
- Running Late
- Negative Self Talk
- False Fears
And so many more.
Denise Duffield-Thomas from Lucky B says “New Level New Devil”. No matter at what stage in your business you are or where you are in your development path you may be engaging in self sabotage behaviours and we all do it at some stage.
How to Stop Self Sabotaging Behaviours?
That is probably the wrong question. Now I am not a psychologist or any kind or health professional, in my experience it is not about trying to stop these behaviours it is more about channeling them to be useful and recognising patterns before that become a problem.
Procrastor cleaning can achieve amazingly clean houses and office that probably needed to be cleaned however was it at the expense of something else and was it needed at that time.
Look at why you are doing the task / action that you feel you shouldn’t be and what you are trying to avoid or prevent by not doing the task. Are you leaving that grant application until the last minute because you do your best work under pressure or is that you are afraid of the positive consequence is you are to win it? Are there other ways you can reproduce the pressure environment that you need without creating the stress and drama of doing it all last minute?
From Small Things, Big Things Grow
Whether it is positive or negative, small little things can grow into larger habits.
Let’s look at some of the things that we can do to help you stop these self sabotaging actions.
Stop focusing on all the negative – if it has already happened see what lessons can be learned and then move on.
If you offer that contra deal when you should have asked for payment is it just the universe reminding you that you are worth it? Turn this around by quoting the next prospect a higher price. Being too cheap is another sabotaging action because your potential client may overlook you because they understand what goes into delivering your service and know at the price you are currently charging it won’t be sustainable in the long term. Most people don’t like change and if they can already see that you are not in it for the long haul then why even start with you and you know the saying you get what you may for so make sure you are charging appropriately and increase your rate as your knowledge expands.
I am sure you have heard or seen the meme of the plumber that takes 10 mins to fix something and charges $200. When questioned he says it’s not the time, I was here it is for the 20 years’ experience I have to know what to look for and where to hit that you are paying for. Value yourself, your time and your experience.
Don’t beat yourself up when you make a mistake – like offering the contra deal just acknowledge it and move on.
Awareness is Power
Become aware of when you are not at your best and when you creating your own downward spirals and plan not to be doing important work at these times. If it takes you ages to get going on a Monday morning or you daydream all Friday afternoon then practice some selfcare and don’t put big projects in for calendar for these times.
Knowing means that you can plan, prevent or mitigate your actions to create less drama, more action and less stress. Take note of the actions you repeat time after time, when and why you do these type of behaviours and you will be surprised that how empowered you are to prevent them happening in the first place.
You have got this, it may take a bit of awareness, planning and you may even need to ask for a bit of outside help. Ask someone that know you well and they will be able to tell you far more than you may like to admit to yourself.
Yes, you have got this, you can do it, so GO DO IT NOW.
Self Sabotage and How to Manage It!
See you next week for a special guest who gives us some amazing revelations about “The Secret”, yes “THE” Secret. You are not going to what to miss episode 118 of Small Business Talk Podcast.
In the meantime, listen to the full episode of Small Business Talk episode 117 for all these tips on Self Sabotage and how to manage it.
