Why is the grass always greener on the other side?
Most entrepreneurs come to me for coaching because they are stressed out, and ready to blow up their business. They have been working 24/7 for months and are frustrated at the slow pace of growth and realize their strategies just aren’t working. They are questioning their life choices and wondering if they should just go back to traditional employment. Some have taken their passion projects and made it their business and now they don’t know if they still even like what once used to bring them joy. Looking over the fence to green pastures, they see their friends working 9 to 5, their daily grind doesn’t seem too hard. They get regular pay, they don’t seem so stressed and the entrepreneur starts dreaming of greener pastures. These thoughts are all relevant and sometimes it is time to assess prior to giving up only to be ruled by the man again.
Coaching gives three key opportunities for entrepreneurs: an opportunity to destress, unwind their thoughts, and back-up to take a second look at their business.
De-stress: Coaching offers a high level of relief for an entrepreneur because just being able to talk to someone and be heard, many times results in stress relief.
Entrepreneurs don’t always have a professional outlet as they fear being judged by their employees, their spouses, and friends. To hear the statement, “I am sure it will work out, you just need to work harder, or the inevitable, I told you it wouldn’t work”. Coaches don’t judge, we hold space, we let you be heard, BUT, we are also forward-looking, and so you can expect that we won’t dwell long with you in your misery.
Unwind: Part of moving out of that misery is by starting to help the entrepreneur unwind all those jumbled-up thoughts mixed between lighting the business on fire, conquering the world, and everything in between. Sometimes clarity is what happens in the first session to understand where you are really at as an entrepreneur. Perhaps you just need an ear to get clarity, perhaps it’s the fear calling, or a good reframing helps. But ultimately, unwinding is the first step in the road.
Back-up: There was this pilot named Charles Yeager who became the first pilot in history confirmed to have exceeded the speed of sound in level flight and left this quote as he left for his final orbit last year:
“You do what you can for as long as you can, and you finally can’t, you do the next best thing. You back up but you don’t give up.”—- Charles Yeager
This quote really resonates with coaching as coaching gives an entrepreneur the white space-time they need to take a second look at their business, reframe it, recreate their vision or simply clearing the fog for new ideas, a new strategy, and a new action plan.
Coaching gives the opportunity for an entrepreneur to assess if they truly want to mow another man’s lawn or if they are just going to water their own.
