I’m not on track

How can we know, if we never set quantitative benchmarks in the first place?

It’s a reminder that it’s less about whether we “feel” like things are working or not and instead, an invitation to make more measured assessments based on concrete data points that we hopefully established at the top of the quarter.

In their absence, it’s easy to become susceptible to judging ourselves based on where we assume everyone else is rather than on anything concrete or rooted in the reality of where we currently are.

The other part to unpack is the bit about “possibly being in danger of failing.”

As entrepreneurs, “failure” can often feel like such a loaded term but in the context of whether we’re on track or not, failure is objective.

Have we hit that predetermined measure of success or not?

Sometimes, we just need an accurate measure to tell us whether we hit the mark or not.

We don’t need to protect ourselves, or sugar coat it in order to feel better. Oftentimes, that simply robs us from getting a firm grasp on what’s going on – and is why doing the emotional regulation and personal power work, alongside all of the strategic stuff is so important.

My question for you is what comes up when you think of “failure” in this context.

As someone who has intimately coached hundreds of business owners at this point, one of the top ways I see people self sabotage is by not keeping track of their progress or defining what progress means for the sheer reason that they’re triggered by the possibility of failure.

The unconscious idea being that if they don’t set a benchmark for success, they can’t be disappointed if they don’t hit it; or if they don’t track at all, they can simply focus on “holding the belief” rather than doing some of the “challenging” work to pivot or refine that their brain wants them to avoid.

Is any of this ringing true?

That’s why so much of strategic planning and building traction is first, removing any resistance around creating quantitative markers of success and then actually being willing to judge your performance against it. Because only then can we troubleshoot.

Also notice when you succumb to stories about the economy or the time of year in determining why you are on track or not.

A practice that’s served me well is to look at expanders that give me evidence that success is possible in spite of those very real factors that may be at play and challenge myself to reflect on what those people are thinking that’s allowed them to take the necessary actions to thrive amidst it all. I want to calibrate to that, rather than reasons that support a result I don’t want.

Here’s a few questions I’d love you to sit with:

1. Based on what you’ve achieved in your business so far this year and what you know about Q4 based on past data, what are you on track for this year?
2. Where did you want to be at the end of 2023?
3. Where do you believe you’ll land financially at the year’s end?

One of the things I walk my clients through around this is firstly making peace with where you are. If you don’t, it’s easy to fall into the trap of hustling to try and close the gap in these last few months in a way that gets you distracted, thinking short-term in a way that costs you long-term, and ends up leading to burn out and stop-start energy. We don’t want that.

Coming to terms with where you currently are and self-regulating is what allows you to return to net neutral so you can make more empowered decisions and use all of your brain power and creative thinking to move the business forward in a way that serves you now and later; rather than leaking it by stewing in mind drama and resistance.

If you’ve been here for any time, you know that I’m for all energetics but always combined with concrete strategy.

It’s not enough to hold the energy or get clear on what we want. If we’re off track, it’s important that we understand why so we can fix it.

I find that it’s usually that it’s usually because:

1. We underestimated just how much went into achieving the result and didn’t plan accordingly or take our actual capacity and bandwidth into account.
2. We fell victim to mindset blocks that slowed us down and didn’t have the support to work through them.
3. We were simply taking the wrong actions, meaning, the work we did just wasn’t the right actions to focus on to unlock the next level of growth. This can be because we didn’t create a strategic plan and were working reactively or because we didn’t have enough information or experience to choose the right actions.

And just so you know, I’m not on track for the goal I set for this year.

We’ll either make the same amount as we did or slightly less. And that’s in a year where I may have worked less but applied myself far more than I probably have in years.

And I share this because I think it’s important for you to know that there are years when that happens.

I completely underestimated just how much would go into reimagining my business to support where we’re heading next.

In many ways it’s felt like I’ve been living in a house that I loved but wanted to make renovations, only to start the process and realize that I needed to take it down to the stubbs and basically build something new.

It’s been a lot – like, a lot, a lot – but I’m okay with it because I know that this was what needed to happen to support the long-term vision, which is what allows me to accept the reality that we are not on track and still forge ahead without resistance.

This year reminded me that we’re not entitled for things to just work; whether we’re just starting out or have been in business for years, like I have.

Growth will always require us to apply ourselves and come against new edges.

The question simply becomes how willing we are – but also how much capacity and bandwidth we have – to lean into that and make peace with it.

As always, let me know what comes up for you and if this resonated.

And definitely click reply with your coffee chat questions and any business stuff you want answered. I’d love to support you.

Until next week,

Naomi