Cut yourself some slack

Cut yourself some slack and stop worrying what everyone else is doing!

Recently I was asked to write a blog about taking care of yourself as a business owner – one of the ways I suggested was to ‘cut yourself some slack’ and stop worrying what everyone else is doing.

Easier said than done(!) and it’s one I need to remind myself of often…

I know I won’t always do everything right (and neither does anyone else!) – therefore it makes sense to enjoy learning/being a beginner…

The car to watch is the one behind the one in front of you!

There’ll always be someone more experienced than me, blogging more often, present at more events, more active on more social media channels, (apparently) more successful…

“Don’t compare your beginning to someone else’s middle” – Jon Acuff

It’s a bit like learning to drive – the car to watch is the one behind the one in front of you..!

When teaching dancing, if people spend all their time trying to follow the teacher or other couples, two things can happen:

1. they struggle with the dance because their neck is often twisted round so they can see people behind/to the side – heads are heavy (about 5kg) and having your head in the ‘wrong’ position is not only bad for your posture, it makes it difficult to move in the correct direction/way…

2. they don’t actually learn the steps… (kind of missing the point really!) – so I encourage people to take a bit of a leap of faith and (once they’ve got the basic gist) try dancing it and seeing how they get on – after all, there’s no guarantee that the person they’re following (perhaps the teacher excepted!) is doing it right! Then coaching and/or further tuition can help to improve the dancing…

Was I better today than yesterday?

I think the same applies in business, once you know what you’re trying to achieve and have some idea of what’s needed, the time comes to give it a try and see how it works for you and your unique business

– and then evaluate (measure) how it’s working for you and what improvements you might make…

Dan Pink suggests asking at the end of each day:

“Was I better today than yesterday?”

Not forgetting, what we see of others may not be the whole story – remember swans are calm on top but paddling like hell underneath(!) – and/or what works for them may not work for us anyway…

How do you make sure you cut yourself some slack? Do you find you’re worrying what everyone else is doing?

Let me know your thoughts by adding your comments below…

To find out how I can support and challenge you to focus on your business, please get in touch via the contact form or call me on +44 7526 740486.

Best wishes!

Sian