As a business coach, I have way too often seen business owners get stuck in the hustle of business. When we get stuck with our heads down, we often miss the beauty of the view if we looked up. The moments we aren’t keeping our heads down, we are chasing after something that we don’t slow down to see around us. Business & life does this to many people, and I am guilty of it too. The solution to getting unstuck is so complicatedly simple: LIFT YOUR HEAD!
Now when I say complicatedly simple, what I mean is that even though it is so simple to tell someone to get unstuck, it is complicated to do so. We become so use to the hustle, that we don’t know any other way. We are told from day 1 that in order to succeed you need to hustle, keep running, don’t stop. It is put in our heads that the moment we stop, we have given up, failed ourselves and our businesses.
When we look down for too long, our vision that we are working towards can become blurred. We begin to chase after the wrong thing. For example, we chase the money and not the client. We want to reach for that specific sales target so hard that we hustle to get to that amount, but we forget what we need to get there.
When working with my clients and they tell me their financial goal, which I can see in their eyes can scare them as it seems too far to get, I change their mindset towards that goal. “Well, how many clients do you need a month?” “How many more products do we need to sell to get there?”. Suddenly, their heads are lifted, and the goal seems achievable. If I let them focus on that financial amount, they would get stuck with their heads down always trying to reach the money.
When we lift our heads, we get to appreciate the work we have done so far. When we keep our heads down or keep chasing, we don’t get a moment to reflect and celebrate.
Think of it as a stay-at-home mom. She has been cleaning all day, creating activities for the kids to do and kept them busy or helped with homework, made dinner and run errands throughout the day. A typical day for a mom stuck in the hustle wouldn’t you agree? By the end of the day, that mom is exhausted, perhaps feel as if all she has done is not enough. This is because she never stopped and looked up at all she has done. She has provided her family with a clean home and nutrition from that dinner she made. She has helped her children better their education and skills when she helped with activities and homework. Her children have their lunch for the next day for them to focus on school and do their best. It is not much different than the everyday hustle of a business owner.
There have been times when I have kept my head down and prayed for something I wanted, that I never took a moment to look up to see what has been put in place for my prayers to be answered. If we don’t look up or stop chasing, how can we be thankful for what has been placed or we have worked so hard to place? There are definitely moments when we should be keeping our head down, praying, working, hustling. However, don’t be an ostrich with your head in the sand. Look up. Don’t get stuck in the hustle. Take moments to appreciate the hard work you have done, the prayers that have been answered, the growth your business has made and the growth in you.
Lift your head!
