You’re standing in the middle of an empty white room, not sure if you’re clothed with equally white garments or it is your naked skin that radiates brightness or angst; at that moment it’s all the same to you. Suddenly, out of the irritating silence, you hear a genderless voice that drills in your brain and soul the unavoidable question, “What is stopping you from moving forward?”
Defenseless, you begin to scream the thoughts you believe lead to a wide range of possible answers: Procrastination? Lacking a well planned strategy? Not having a product or service? Not concretely knowing the Mission? Negative Attitude? A need to learn more?
You bend forward in excruciating pain and yell, “What about if it’s none of the above?” You know you must be dreaming. These questions normally arrive in a dream-like form; hard to tell if you’re watching a scene, completely unrelated to you, or if this is a fact from your life that mischievously scurries through your subconsciousness while you lay down to rest, or try to.
You have spent months learning from the pros; embracing new technology and innovative ideas, designing your website and inspirational messages; coming up with a solid scheme for your business mission and vision; building your email list; producing creative, informative and engaging copy for your email campaign, writing your content and revising all your material; sharing your experience and skills with others; building your network; developing a relationship with your social media followers, contacts, connections; creating freebies and give-aways; offering complimentary consultations; supporting your colleagues and friends; launching marketing campaigns to promote your business through traditional media (Media Relations), through your Circles of Influence (PR), and online (Social Media); preparing workshops; creating programs; developing ideas for podcasting, live streaming, and webinars; learning how to create landing pages.
You have spent months learning from the pros; embracing new technology and innovative ideas, designing your website and inspirational messages; coming up with a solid scheme for your business mission and vision; building your email list; producing creative, informative and engaging copy for your email campaign, writing your content and revising all your material; sharing your experience and skills with others; building your network; developing a relationship with your social media followers, contacts, connections; creating freebies and give-aways; offering complimentary consultations; supporting your colleagues and friends; launching marketing campaigns to promote your business through traditional media (Media Relations), through your Circles of Influence (PR), and online (Social Media); preparing workshops; creating programs; developing ideas for podcasting, live streaming, and webinars; learning how to create landing pages.
And, still, you feel you need more, a lot more! But, what??
The ideation and developing processes have been intense! You have done sooooo much with so much passion and all of the above sounds incredibly productive; you have come a long way…but…there’s that “But” again! What? What’s missing? Why do you still have the feeling that you are swimming against current.
You’re almost there…you feel that you have done it all …. completed all the tasks … studied all you needed… you’re on the verge of crossing the golden bridge that will take you to your goal…and yet… you still don’t take the leap, can’t dismount, avoid the launch, reject the jump, don’t allow for that IT to happen; because, instead, you feel that you’re about to jump off a cliff and fall into an abyss of darkness and desolation.
Then, your mind wonders and stops in the “Tomorrow”. Tomorrow, you say, tomorrow I will put a budget together, tomorrow I will create a package, tomorrow I will assign prices to my product or service, tomorrow I will register the company, tomorrow I will open a PayPal account, tomorrow I will open a bank account with my company name, tomorrow I will promote to sell, tomorrow I will make money.
That’s it! There is the missing link that still makes you feel like you haven’t accomplished anything. There is the piece of the puzzle that you had been holding in your hand all this time and couldn’t place. There is that thorn that is stuck in your throat not letting you sleep, eat, or breathe. You wake up to the crude reality that you’re still not making money; that, out of everything you’ve learned in business ownership, that is the very essence of your sentiments of uneasiness, anxiety, and failure.
No! It’s not that you are negative, or can’t control stress, or are not organized, or any of those things you learned not to be or to do. It is the reality of entrepreneurship. It is the prize we entrepreneurial people have to pay if we want perfection, achievements, goal attainment, a better life quality for ourselves and our loved ones; it’s part of the game and we have to play it. We must strive to thrive. We must receive to give forward; our ultimate goal.
So, it is clear. When you find yourself on the edge of madness, about to throw in the towel on your business plans, confused and unclear about why things don’t work, then you notice that you are actually scared. You realize that you have been alone all along, that you have embarked on a solo and very lonely journey, that you are climbing the mountains avoiding falls by picking up random tools just enough to keep you from falling, that you are navigating that ship through sunshine and heavy storms and barely making it to the nearest port.
You suddenly understand what it is to be alone at a crossroad and that you can only learn so much on your own. You know you’re almost there. It’s like running a marathon, for a weak moment you think you won’t be able to make it; but, just when you’re about to quit, there comes someone to cheer you up and give you that push you needed.
So, when you reach that point where you feel depleted and breathless, trust that you will get the right phone call, receive that email you were waiting for, hear that special song, or get the perfect God-sent message that will lift you up and make you notice how close you really are to your goal. He is there to help you figure out what it is that you’re missing to get to the finish line. He will show you the way to gratify you emotionally and financially. Believe and you will receive. Just hold on to your faith, whatever that might be.
Don’t give up. Trust yourself. Keep pushing through. The tougher it seems, the closer you’re to your objective. Just find focus, connect the link, find the spot for that loo
se piece of your puzzle, and cut that thorn from its root without hesitation. There is indeed light at the end of the tunnel in a very existent reality, far away from a dream.
