I’ve built my business so it’s flexible enough for me to jump in the surf as much as possible. But the time I spend with my one to one clients is always a priority, so every now and then I find myself having to sneak in a quick surf in between calls.
Last week, the surf was super fun. A good size, not much wind & a pretty small crowd. Ahhhh it makes me smile just thinking about it.
Anyhows, one day I was racing to the beach to fit a surf in between two clients. I pulled on my wetsuit and ran down to the water's edge as fast as my legs could take me. I paddled out, in a pretty frantic, over-excited manner and could feel my adrenaline & heart rate rising by the time I got out the back.
I spent the next 15 minutes zipping around, trying to pick off good waves, but somehow missing a whole bunch, and being in the wrong place at the wrong time for the rest. I looked around…. I remember thinking… ‘ahhhhh what am I doing ?? I need to get some waves… I’m running out of time !! ‘
A friend paddled out, and I said to her ‘Oh man, I’ve got that over-excited need-to-catch-a-wave feeling going on’. She laughed ‘So you haven’t caught one yet huh ?’. Haha, she knew exactly how I felt.
It turns out that everyone gets this psyched up about getting waves… Even more so when they’re racing the clock. It made me think about the days when I have no deadline to meet or no reason to get out of the surf. Somehow everything just flows better. I have no desperate need to catch waves, but they always seem to show up for me.
Later that day (after I’d finally gotten a few good ones !) I realised that I’d felt the same impatient, desperate feeling when I started my business. I had this crazy sense of urgency as if there was a deadline that meant if I hadn’t succeeded by that date, there was no point in me being in business.
I remember the same panicked energy and how it infused in my work. I was scattered, I was manic… I was chasing the mere whiff of a new client. Attractive huh?
It turns out people pick up that vibe pretty quickly. They sense when someone is desperate for a sale. It’s a massive turn off. However, when you show up with confidence in your own ability to do the work, and feeling grounded, calm & trusting everything changes.
It doesn’t mean you kick back and do nothing. It doesn’t mean you don’t put in the work. It just means you look at the whole situation with a fresh perspective.
Realising that actually, when you slow down when you take a breath and when you have faith that you’re exactly where you need to be…. the waves (or the work) will come.
I was listening to a podcast earlier today from one of my favourite business mentors, Gary Vaynerchuk. He said something that really resonated with me:
‘I truly believe that being an entrepreneur is about loving the process more than the things you get out of it.’
My challenge for you this week? Enjoy the process