Why Facing Up to Your Feelings Can Grow Your Business
By using them as leverage for clarity
Growing up, I’m often told by my mom that I am “too sensitive” and I cry easily. Fast forward to 30 years later, I’ve now learnt to leverage my sensitivity for my business. Let me share with you two main reasons why facing your feelings is such an important success factor in growing your business.
#1. You get to pause and examine any autopilot behaviour
How easy do we believe our thoughts? Pretty much all or most of the time. We create our feelings based on the thoughts we have. So if you feel good, chances are you probably have a thought that energises you. The same goes for the reverse too.
For example, say you’re hosting an event and the turnout rate is low. You could think, “Damn! I’m no good at hosting events. I fail.” This thought would lead you to feel discouraged. Even dismay. Perhaps if you continue down this track, you might even think of calling it quits. Disastrous if you are actually building up an events company.
#2. You get a chance to reframe and choose again
Or you could catch yourself when you have this thought. And go… wait a minute, this is the result. What is the feeling that I want to create? Let’s say you choose to feel curious about the turnout rate. Your thoughts could go, “I wonder which process do I want to tweak to yield a higher turnout?” Or “Perhaps I could ask for feedback from friends in the same industry on what I can improve.”
See? Same result, absolutely different thoughts. All because you choose to face up to how you feel and choose again. We think if we try something different, just anything, that we could somehow stumble on the success we want. But if we do that, holding similar behaviour, then it’s likely the result is the same.
So…
Try it. The next time you feel icky, pause. What do you want to create here in your feeling and thought? And I pray that it’ll lead you to a different result down the road.
Be blessed.
