The Light Bulb Moment

When faced with a problem it is often said that when you clear your head and stop thinking about it the solution often presents itself. But what if you don’t realise there’s a problem in the first place?

Come January it’ll be my five year anniversary of being a self employed massage therapist in SW London. It’s been ridiculously hard work and, as a client pointed out to me a while ago, I don’t seem to have a first, second or third gear when it comes to business. I’m either operating on fifth or sixth gear (which then results in a burnout) or not at all. Goal after business goal is set, making the pressure of ‘success’ a permanent fixture of my life. The pressure has undoubtedly only come from me, always striving to be better; to do better and eventually end up in the land of accomplishment (and without the useful tool of a business satnav. I'm more of a 'google map on the steering wheel' kind of girl anyway, basically making it up as I go along, heading in vaguely the right direction but perhaps with a few unnecessary detours along the way!).

I appreciate there are many people (you may well be one of them) who operate in this way. It’s human nature to want to continue achieving (I stress here in what way is extremely personal, as is what it means to be ‘successful’). However, I hadn’t realised that the way in which I have been viewing the way my business has developed over the years has been extremely negative. It took a client to ask me the simple question ‘when do you ever stand still?’ to give me a powerful ‘light bulb moment’.

Now, whether it’s the case that I’ve reached a stage in my life when I’m ready to actually listen I’m not sure, but the clarity that came to me with that simple question has impacted on my perspective in such a way I felt the need to blog about it!

I realised, for the first time, that I never acknowledge my achievements. I’ve always been looking ahead at the next goal and, as a result have been living in a perpetual state of failure. It doesn’t help that I happen to be a very impatient person so even if I have recognised achievement no doubt I think it should have been accomplished a long time before I was able to, so inevitably there has always been failure attached in one form or another!

To feel this kind of ‘failure’ has inevitably led to ‘success’ being pretty much unattainable. When have I ever really stopped for a second, looked around and appreciated what all my hard work has resulted in? Never. Until now...

Almost instantly, I finally got it. Where did all the pressure come from? Me. Who can take it away? Me. In one afternoon I managed to lift the biggest boulder of weight ever off my shoulders and not feel guilty for ‘standing still’. When was the last time you did that? I find myself on unfamiliar territory here, as for the first time for as long as I can remember, I don’t really have any big business goals (although please appreciate that I’m not saying I no longer have them or want them, they are imperative to business success). But I guess I’ve taken the pressure off myself to achieve anything new for the time being.

Since making the conscious decision to nurture the business I have, in the form that it’s in now, there has been a massive domino effect on the way I’m living my life. Now I feel that I have achieved so I’m taking the time to really ‘be’ in that achievement: continual growth of a client base from both my Teddington and Harley Street clinics, and looking after that client base. And that really feels enough for now!

What’s even more interesting (and I’ll just make this last point and then I’m finished, promise!) that since I decided to tread water for a while new business ideas have occurred to me. But, and here’s the difference, although I’ve started brainstorming and making notes on this new business venture I’m in absolutely no great rush with it. As and when ideas and concepts pop into my head I jot them down, but really for now, I just want to focus on my existing business as I’m seeing it with fresh eyes.

My business, to me, is actually exciting. It doesn’t feel like the hard slog it has felt like over the years. I have renewed energy and vigour which, I’m hoping also has a knock on effect during the treatments I give. So far, feedback has been amazing, and yet, technically all that’s changed is my perspective!

I feel these lightbulb moments are few and far between. When you have one, don’t dismiss it as a crazy thought or notion. Grab on and nurture it, suddenly your whole world shifts and you enter new thought processes that continue to affect one after the other. Truly incredible!