Don't Be Like Raymond...

Things were going great for Raymond, an advisor in rural Oregon. He had developed great relationships with his best clients, he was well respected in his community, and the biggest farmer in the community asked him to research something for him—opening a serious possibility that the man might be interested in switching advisors.

Despite (or maybe because of) the fact that this could be his biggest client yet, Raymond sat on the request until the farmer finally told him someone else had given him the information he wanted.

Raymond’s delay had sabotaged his chances of landing this client. But WHY did he delay?

Self-sabotage is getting in in the way of your own success, doing something that will undermine your ability to get the very thing you want. You behave in a way that hinders your development, making it more difficult for yourself.

Why would he have allowed that to happen? He wasn’t so busy that he couldn’t have done the research right away.

A 2011 article in Psychology Today described it as “a misguided attempt to rescue ourselves from our own negative feelings” about an opportunity. You create protection that ends up damaging the opportunity.

When it comes to business, self-sabotage shows up in many ways, usually as the result of some negative feelings: stress, trauma from a previous experience, fears, or limiting beliefs.

Sabotage the opportunity, and you don’t have to deal with any of these negative feelings.

There are lots of ways you might be sabotaging your opportunities. Four of the most common are:

Procrastination. This was Raymond’s downfall. The fear that he might get or lose this “big” client overwhelmed him, so he simply didn’t act.

Inappropriate conversation or action. Saying or doing something that you know at some subconscious level will damage a relationship or opportunity.

Backing off. Imposter syndrome is giving in to the belief that you’ve been faking it and are not worthy to be successful. You feel overwhelmed or you’re subconsciously afraid of either failure or success, so you back off–you don’t take the action you need to take to avail yourself of the opportunity.

Waiting too long because it wasn’t perfect. I sometimes tell clients that “perfection is the enemy of effectiveness.” Raymond procrastinated, but another advisor might have done 20 more hours of research than this prospective client needed, so that his or her response would be perfect—with the same result: The client would have found someone else to get the answer he wanted quickly, even though it might not have been the perfect answer.

Any of these can cost you thousands of dollars in additional revenue, and you might not even know they’re there. How much might these be costing you this year alone.

I help my clients find the often hidden things that are interfering with their growth: limiting beliefs, fears, and the feeling that you’re not enough or not good enough. We identify them and find proven productive ways to deal with them that will set you free to grow your gross production into the mid-six figures, or a million dollars or more, without increasing your workload or wasting money on expensive marketing.

If you’d like to take your business to the mid-six figures and beyond, don’t procrastinate when it comes to learning about how I can help you. Message me, and we’ll arrange a time for a brief conversation.