The Real Reason You’re Getting Stuck in Your Business

It’s Monday morning, and you’re on the way out the door, coffee in hand, when you reach for your keys by the door - and they aren’t there.

They aren’t in your pockets. 

Or your purse.

Your typical morning routine descends into a frantic quest to find your damn keys already, and you and your home are looking more disheveled by the minute.

When you finally find them on the coffee table, you’re so mad at yourself because you ‘know’ you didn’t put them there. Yet, there they are, in plain sight!

The Secret of the Not-So-Lost Keys

Here’s why this happens: 

Your brain receives an overwhelming amount of sensory information every second of every day. It’s too much to process, so your brain creates default maps of your routines and the places where you spend the most time to decrease the amount of attention and energy you expend on everyday details. Like your home and where you put your keys when you get there.

You may not notice, but you tend to move around these places and spaces in habitual patterns. When you break those patterns, say because your phone rang while you were carrying the groceries in, so you put down the bags and dropped your keys on the coffee table to answer your cell, your brain isn’t paying attention. It expects you to stick with the routine and follow the map like you do every other day. 

This is also why you might notice yourself walking into the coffee table after rearranging your living room. Because your brain has a default map of where things are - or should be. When you’re in a familiar, safe place, those default maps are one of the primary ways your brain can save those resources and redirect them to more important things. 

You’re walking into your coffee table because, until something requires attention - like the pain in your shin - your brain isn’t paying enough attention to update your default map.

Basically, you couldn't see your keys because you weren’t expecting them to be there.

Default Maps and Business Blind Spots

This same thing happens in your business. You miss the solutions that are right there under your nose because you are operating based on habit and routine, to the exclusion of all the unexpected possibilities.

From that initial flash of inspiration, through the hustle and grind of the start-up phase, we create and reinforce ideas and beliefs about “what it means to be a business owner” and “how to run a business” until these perceptions become all we can see.

But when it comes time to grow, you can’t see beyond your preconceived notions. 

Expansive growth requires you to break down the barriers you’ve built around “how,” “when,” and “why” businesses succeed.

We all have preconceived notions and limiting beliefs that hold us back.

Rewiring this default operating system and expanding your map of possibilities is one of my favorite things I do with my Catapult clients. There is no quick fix to adjust those internal blinders, but there are real, practical steps you can take to get there.

How to Expand Your Map of What is Possible

To start with, identify a belief that’s been holding you back.

It might be “I don’t have enough time,” “I’m not decisive enough,” or even “I don’t feel heard.”

Now, as you go about your day, I want you to look for evidence of the opposite truth. 

Make a note of the unexpectedly long lunch you were able to take, every decision you made, and every time someone listened to you.

At the end of that day, share every single one of these instances with someone you love, trust, and feel safe with. It might be your partner, spouse, roommate, or best friend. 

Pick your person. 

Whether you share when you’re snuggled up in bed, catching up on the phone, or simply sending a text as part of your end-of-day routine, I want you to consciously review your day and shine a spotlight on every time you see evidence that your belief is untrue.

Yes, every single one. 

No matter how small.

Cultivating a Conscious Shift

This simple practice shows your brain, over and over again, that what it believes so ardently just might not be the only possibility after all. 

Do it every day. 

Yes, really.

When my clients use this daily check-in system, they report that within a week, sometimes less, they stop having to look so hard for evidence. 

Instead, they see evidence of the new belief in the moment - and then it’s all they see. Because the more evidence you give your brain that something else is possible, the more it believes you and then begins to look for more evidence to back up your new belief.

• If they started with the belief that there was never enough time, all of a sudden, they find they have time to spend with their kids, their friends, or on themselves.

• If their original belief was that they were indecisive, they find themselves making clear, concise decisions regularly.

• If they have been feeling unheard, they see a shift in communication and how others understand them. Interestingly, this shift doesn’t change the behavior of the people around them. It changes their perspective and how they’re communicating.

Over time, as you keep showing up with more and more evidence that something else is possible, you’re unraveling that limiting belief and replacing it with an idea that supports growth, expansion, and possibility.

You’re drawing a new map for how you interact with the world around you.

This personal practice of rewiring your internal operating system is one way I support my Catapult coaching clients. By taking intentional, proven action to shift their limiting beliefs, uncover bold, new opportunities, and create room to grow, I empower them to step out of the “busy business owner” mindset and into owning their role as CEO. 

When we work together, we take strategic action to elevate your operations, but we don’t stop there. Because building a successful, sustainable business on your own terms isn’t simply defined by the strategic actions you take. 

Because your internal narratives - what you believe about success, leadership, and your own capacity to achieve your goals, and what it takes to get there - these personal beliefs are the default map of what is possible for you and your business.

If you want to level up your business, you need to stretch those growing edges so you can show up as the CEO your company needs.

Are you ready to bring clarity to your blindspots so you can show up to unlock new opportunities, grow your business, and achieve your next-level goals?

Send me a DM. Tell me what you want to believe is possible for you and your company. Let’s find out if we’d make a good team.