Looking through the blog posts on my website and you may be forgiven for thinking i took time out. In a way that was true. The website i had created several years ago had been allowed to go to seed… a lack of updates and a complete focus on firstly completing my MAPPCP masters in positive psychology and coaching psychology, and the on gaining accreditation with the EMCC, the ICF and more lately going through the portfolio route with the British Psychological Society (BPS) to become a Chartered Coaching Psychologist. Add to that an international move back to the UK, ongoing work with INSEAD on their Leadership Courses and with the IPPC coordinating their Coach Development programme and examining on the same, and I created for myself a perfect storm of busyness (no that isn’t a typo).
So why is busyness a problem?
Well, in my case it allowed me to keep my focus away from those parts of my business that I find tedious, or difficult – the marketing side and the accounting side of running your own business. The move from Dubai to the UK prompted action on getting this site overhauled and the setting up of a new HMRC compliant accounting package, but it wasn’t until today that I uncovered the very large mental block I had on self promotion and the effective use of LinkedIn.
This mental block was having a very real negative effect on my ability to attract new clients, which in time would have sapped my confidence to do so. By ignoring it, it grew out of all proportion in my mind – something without boundaries… an impossible task.
So what happened?
What happened was networking. I joined a women’s business network to start meeting people my new area. And today, I went on a ‘Lunch and Learn’ session on optimising your LinkedIn profile. It combined my strength of Love of Learning and Curiosity (what was the presenter going to say? It satisfied my business goal of meeting people, my wellbeing needs of spending quality social time with others (it can get very isolating working on your own) and some rather wonderful food.
It was fun!
And that combination of being fun – which opened my mind to new ideas – and being with others, thereby keeping me somewhat accountable (after all I was going to check out everyone’s profile after, so mine had better be updated when they checked out mine) that spurred me on today to rip that mental block to shreds and budget an hour to making a start on making the changes that I had learned i needed to make.
So why hadn’t I done anything before?
Like many of my clients, I had not truly looked at the problem and listed exactly what needed to be done. i had not estimated how long this might take me, and therefore the task appeared infinitely large. As a coach, I have asked countless clients “and how long do you think you will need to achieve that?” and seen the dawning realisation that whatever it was that they have been putting off would only take 10 minutes / half and hour / a morning and that then they could move on. Today, I asked the same of myself and was equally surprised by the answer.
I am not claiming my LinkedIn profile is perfect yet. However, I have broken the back of the major things I needed to do and have a list of what there is still to tackle. For me, the mental block was uncertainty of what I needed to do, and how it worked. For many of my clients it is a fear of failure that creates their mental block.
If you would like to talk to me about facing your mental blocks in your business, contact me by booking a chat on this website.
