Running your own business is hard. I don't care what you call it -- freelancing, entrepreneurship, small business ownership. It's just hard. When you're alone in your office every day making every decision for your business, you sometimes get a bit too far into your own head.
Suddenly, everything is a risk. Every decision is wrong. Every word you write is stupid. "Who am I to tell anyone anything?" you think. And the negative self-talk becomes the only thing you hear.
What happened to that confident, world-conquering woman of last week? How did she dissolve into this quivering mass of "I can't do it" doubt that sits at the very same desk today?
I was that quivering mess over the past few days. For me, it's because I forced myself out of my Introvert comfort zone and into a mass social situation at a conference for five days straight.
Do NOT misunderstand me. I LOVE getting to know the amazing, talented, smart and genuine people that I was privileged to meet last week. I sat at dinner on the last night of the conference in complete bliss at the company around me and marveled at the opportunity I had to surround myself with such genius.
As an Introvert, that comes at a price. After the conference I crashed. I slept until noon for three days straight and I just started feeling normal again. This video from Mel Robbins is what smacked my brain back into gear.
"Getting what you want is simple. But it's not easy."
- Mel Robbins
My brain is getting in my own way. I get it. My brain was tired. What seemed so simple when I'm surrounded by my Introvert cocoon in my home office suddenly seemed like climbing a mountain. I needed to recharge instead of wallowing in the pity party my brain had created for me.
Mel says that if we don't act within five seconds of having an idea -- we simply won't do it. That in order to harness the "activation energy" that helps us make change and accomplish our goals we only have five seconds.
That's why I put off finishing work for a client to write this article. Because had I not acted immediately, this would have been yet another in a long line of article ideas that never became words on a page.
My hope is that this article will start a chain reaction of activation energy. Maybe my five seconds of action to write and post this article will prompt you to take that next idea and turn it into a reality. If it does, drop me a note because I'd love to see what you can accomplish.