Ever feel like you’re on a high? You’re pumped about something you’re working on? You know exactly where you’re going? Then someone comes along and bumps you off track? Maybe suggests something different or questions why you’re doing something a certain way. It gets you thinking, doesn’t it? Maybe makes you question yourself?
As entrepreneurs, we probably go through this more often than others because we are treading a path that is unknown. I’m sure the people who have brought us many of the great products and services we use today, had the same thoughts and feelings as they were launching their business idea.
We must learn to give ourselves a pep talk. If any of you have children or are mentors to others, you know how to do it for them. Encouraging words often comes from our mouths for others, but rarely directed within. As an entrepreneur, I’ve learned to do this to myself. Whenever I’m in doubt or feel like someone has bumped me off track, I whisper words of encouragement to myself. This is particularly important when working from a home office as there’s no one else to do it for you.
Another suggestion is to post a couple sticky notes up around your work areas with a select few words or phrases of encouragement. A good one is “Believe in yourself and what is in your heart.”
And so today I’m back on track.
by Marci Lall, on January 2 2008 @ 8:42 pm
That’s awesome advice! any time i feel like i need to accomplish something i just start talking and motivating myself to overcome whatever i have to do. I think believing in ourselves and having confidence in our selves is vital for our success.
Great Post!
by Denise Feltham, on August 26 2008 @ 6:31 pm
Self employment is certainly one of the roads less travelled. As one teacher in my entrepreneurial training program at the Toronto Business Development Centre remarked, the difference between those who dream about starting their own business and those who accomplish the dream is visualizing and putting that dream into action. As children, we are very creative, but as we grow up we are socialized into thinking conventionally rather than outside the box. We lose confidence in our creativity and because our business idea originates from within us, we do tend to take feedback (constructive and destructive) personally. However, we have to believe in our problem solving skills and reframe our challenging experiences - do we go through, below, over or around the problem. Successful people experience setbacks but they have a vision and never lose sight of that vision, even though, while we are alive, we never fully reach our destination. Albert Einstein had a mathematical learning disability, yet he developed the theory of relativity. I have a visual perceptual, motor and mathematical learning disability. I failed calculus three times before I gave up on it. I broke the Guiness Book of World Records for losing a job in less than a day. Then I discovered Gardner’s theory of multiple intelligence and focused on my aptitudes and talents instead of my weaknesses. And despite the doubt and skepticism generated by significant and non-significant others, I am embarking upon my own service based business after developing a self assessment tool that explores the impact of disability on career choice and work performance. We all have talents, skills, aptitudes. We all have the right to be productive members of society, be it conventionally through salaried employment or unconventionally through self employment.