Each month I facilitate a live MasterMind group for busy entrepreneurs who want to focus on growing their business. It’s a fast moving 90-minutes! Great group of entrepreneurs at various stages of growth and experience. And everyone always takes something valuable away for themselves.
A MasterMind group, if you’re not familiar with it, gives the opportunity for peer support, best practice and idea sharing, and keeps accountability for strategy and commitments. Business Intelligence at work!
It’s important that the facilitator allows the group to breathe life and ideas into each meeting. The collective wisdom of the room is far superior.
A quote that was shared in our most recent meeting dates back two-thousand years… from Marcus Aurelius – and made popular by stoic philosophy author, Ryan Holiday, in his book of the same name: “The Obstacle is the Way”.
Whether in business or in life – it is so often true that the obstacle is the way - the way forward. When there is an action to take but you are dragging your heels on it – the obstacle is the way. When there is a conversation to have but your inner critic voice keeps saying to put it off again and again – the obstacle is the way. When there is a difficult decision to be made - the obstacle is the way. And when you know you should move forward with a certain project but are feeling stuck – the obstacle is the way.
So often the resistance we feel is from fear. Fear of rejection. Fear of failure. Fear of loss. Even fear of success.
Over this past week I needed to have a conversation with a colleague that I wasn’t looking forward to. A necessary conversation, but not one that you look forward to. A prickly conversation. It would have been easy to avoid. The little saboteur voice says, “Just leave it…it will probably go away on its own. Leave it for a while longer.”
That little saboteur voice never has the best advice. It’s job is to keep us playing small and too safe.
It had to be overcome.
How to Overcome in 3 Steps!
1. When we feel fear or resistance, we must acknowledge it. As we coaches say, ‘Name it to tame it!’ Even if it is not out loud, we name the feeling the fear is causing us to experience. Name the resistance. Call it out into the light. Immediately you notice it starts to die down. It subsides and calms.
2. Then replace that feeling with the one you want to be feeling. Think about the feeling you’ll have when you take action in the right direction. When you simply start. When you take the first bite! It is a triumphant feeling. Allow that one to take hold. To settle in. Marinate in this feeling for a few moments.
3. Take that first step. Take a deep breath and jump. Open your mouth and say the first word…the rest will follow. Or plan your action right away. Take that first step. Take action.
Action is always the cure
If there is a conversation or issue that you know you need to take action on but are dragging your heels – employ this 3-step process above.
Relief, satisfaction, and the solution are waiting for you on the other side of the resistance and the other side of that action.
Reach out if a nudge would help
If the resistance still feels too strong, reach out to me and let’s have a confidential conversation to move you forward. You may get everything you need from a single conversation.
Email me, or book your complimentary call directly @ https://calendly.com/coachchrisw
“The obstacle is the way.” - Marcus Aurelius