Have you ever felt like life was knocking you down no matter what you did? And that things that you thought were going to work in your business, suddenly didn’t? This article is a story of some big lessons I learned recently and wanted to share with you because the concepts I’ll talk about can be the very thing that could jump start you to make new and better decisions in your business and your relationships.
woman with broken hand
This all started last month when I broke my hand right before Christmas. It was a bad enough break that it required surgery. In my mind, I just wanted to get my hand back. You can probably imagine what it’s like for an online entrepreneur to lose her ability to type on the computer. I thought that surgery would be the worst of it. But I was so very wrong.
I went to my follow-up doctor’s appointment last Thursday and discovered the error of my thinking. After they cut off the cast, my fingers didn’t move. I was a little freaked out and then the doctor came in and bent my fingers for me (OUCH!). Then he told me the worst was yet to come and sent me off to the physical therapist.
I was pretty emotional driving to the physical therapist office. I kept thinking that I couldn’t handle it getting any worse before it got better. (You may have felt like that from time to time with your business.) But I didn’t have a choice. I knew that I wanted to have a right-hand that functioned like it used to. So I was going to have to suck it up so that I could get better and do what I need to do.
It occurred to me that often in our business and our lives, we get comfortable with the “dysfunctionality” of how we are operating. We unconsciously choose not to fix it. But as I was driving home I wondered if we were told as entrepreneurs that very often it’s pretty normal that things get worse before they get better…. how often would we do what it takes to make it all work right?
In the last four weeks, I got really good at typing with my left hand and pecking with my right. I was compensating pretty well. Just as in our businesses we overlook, adapt and go around the places we aren’t strong in. We even compensate in the relationships we choose.
In my life I can see places I have chosen to stay comfortable. In my business I see areas where I have defaulted to the old ways of being that kept me in my box. (Just read my blog for more examples of this.) What is it for you? Maybe you don’t pass off tasks to your team because you feel you can do it better yourself. Maybe you are tolerating clutter and noise in your workspace. Maybe it’s just distractions in your life that keep you feeling like you can never catch up. Think for a bit about where you are working hard at keeping things the same.
But here’s the funny part of the story. It turns out that when I got to the physical therapist, they didn’t hurt me at all (I was expecting some major pain). The pain did come with the exercises that I need to do 3 to 5 times a day. But what I had imagined on my drive over was way worse than the reality. And that’s exactly the business lesson. We fear making the changes so we don’t, but when we are on the other side of thing we are most afraid of is when true growth occurs.
So let me ask you a few questions to get you thinking.
What are the areas of your life, your relationships and your business that are not functioning at their best?
Would life be easier and maybe even happier if you had your (metaphorical) right hand back?
Are you compensating for something and you don’t even know it?
I’m going to encourage you to keep going, reach out and know that change sometimes happen with pain. But if you push through and learn the lessons, everyone is better off in the end.