She Caught Me 🙀

I had a text exchange with my mindset coach the other day, and she caught me… [btw, I couldn’t resist that subject line. Hard to kill that ol’ marketer.]

I was going on about the discomfort of moooovvviiinnggg-sooooo-slloooowww (for dramatic effect) in life and business.

For context (if you don’t know me well):

-I’ve grown big businesses really fast in the past
-Patience hasn’t been my strong suit (working on it)
-I’m good at engineering economics and strategy for growth
-I’ve always been in a hurry to get to the next achievement

I’ve-gone-as-fast-as-possible-always.

The funny thing is, that version of Chris-ungoverned wasn’t healthy. Lead to burnout, anxiety, depression, and loss.

But like a crack addict, I still want to go back to speed. Not the drug. 🤣 

Speed of achievement, next, more, etc. ugh.

Back to my coach…

I said, “Things are moving too slowly.”

She said, “Can I reframe you?”

Me, “Yes, of course.”

Her, “Things are moving.”

Fine. 🤣 

She’s right. That’s the key.

Even though my “old ways” served A purpose, the expectation of going 100 miles an hour all the time is unrealistic.

Perspective shift.

I’m not the only one who struggles with this. Please raise your hand if that’s you.

As a matter of fact, this morning, I got a voice note from a successful entrepreneur who feels guilty for not going faster.

So if you resonate, I want to give you a few questions to keep in front of you daily to help release the guilt, shame, anxiety, __________, about where you’re at.

Am I enjoying what I’m building?

Days will suck, for sure.

But for the most part, are the business and life you’re building fulfilling you?

Or are they sucking the life out of you?

I was at the place in my business where I didn’t want to admit how unfulfilled and drained I was from my business.

I didn’t have appropriate boundaries, and the byproduct wasn’t good.

If this is you, you know. 😊 

If you are fulfilled, enjoying what you’re doing, serving the world, and the bills are paid, shut off the “shoulds.”

Am I tired and worn out all the time?

Let’s check in cause we’re insane entrepreneurs.

If I’m consistently tired, maxed out, and living with very little margin, emotionally, spiritually, physically, etc.

Isn’t this a funny thing? We feel like sometimes we’re barely holding on yet want to go faster and further.

Dude, you might just need to pull off on the side of the road for a while. Seriously.

Are you honoring your limits?

We’re not limitless. We have limits. It’s a fact.
Time.
Energy.
Family.
Money.

Yet, we think that we can go on like we don’t, and then we get mad about it (like above 😅).

Maturity = honoring our limits.
Wisdom = honoring our limits.

Are you progressing?

Progression in the right direction is the goal.

I was telling this to a well-known entrepreneur this morning, “When you are controlling your speed, you can build with a lot more intent.”

Also, nothing is fixed.

Don’t know about you, but my unbridled perfectionism either presses me to go as fast as possible or nowhere at all. lol

When we move at a healthy pace, we have greater optionality to shift things as we move.

My extremes have been:

1. Go so fast it’s hard to change anything I’m doing (a lot of reasons behind this I won’t get into today).

2. Don’t go at all, and well, that doesn’t work either. 😅 

Building RIGHT is better than building FAST.

Are you listening?

One of the problems I’ve had is NOT listening to the “internal.”

My soul has said I need to slow down, go a different direction, and change something up. Instead of tuning in, I put the earplugs in.

The reason? 

Values…

What do you value?

The reason why I didn’t listen is because I don’t think I really valued:

• Healthy pace

• What I REALLY needed in life

• Things that are unseen (mental and emotional health)

• Rest

• Discomfort (I built a lot for comfort)

Our values contribute to our actions. If we value looking or being busy, we’ll be busy even though it might not be effective or good for us.

What we see isn’t what’s truth.

Whenever you feel behind or that you’re not going fast enough, pull this up on your phone.

Chris