growintolife By Elizabeth Papalia
I wrote this last year, in June 2023. The year was already full with work, projects, collaborations and more… however Lisa Johnson, who I have been learning from over the last three years, launched a new course. It is CPD accredited, and it trains the cohort with the skills of Business Planning, Strategy and guides people through the process of supporting, equipping and empowering business owners with a plan of action that leads towards the outcome that they hope for. So in mid-May I submitted my case study and completed the exam, and by the end of May I knew I had passed. What a wonderful moment. To achieve the seal of accreditation on top of having access to the training for the rest of my life… haha! It felt like a light-footed and joyful moment. The relief of getting the most out of it so far.
And yes, I will have to jump back in there (to the training), dig into certain areas to develop my understanding and strengthen the clarity of how to support others, and myself, as we grow our businesses. It’s a huge project.
Fluffy business planning, weak action takers, muddled focus areas, a treasure chest of amazing ideas and limited time, confidence, and clarity can slow the pace of the formation of a business as well as its consolidation and growth.
We can tackle that with accountability, implementation support – ie – someone involved and cheering us on as we take ACTION! We can diffuse the fear by building in support systems who remind us that taking action, the plan not working and then having to go back to the drawing board is not a bad thing! No it isn’t. We all flop and disappoint ourselves at some point, or another. It is absolutely normal. And it is normal to want to stick our head in the sand for a bit too.
What if we had someone nudging us out of the sand sooner than we might do if we were tackling it by ourselves. The sand isn’t going to tell us to get up, look around and take learned action again… nope, the sand will mold itself around our form… it will coolly embrace us and hold our person until we begin to extract ourselves. The sand can become our sanctuary. Our comfort zone.
A Business Strategist can take the sting out of some happenings… and can help us examine actions and goals from a more rational and business-minded perspective – after all… for some of us, our businesses are our babies… I know mine is sometimes. You can end up taking action faster, learning faster, growing faster and building that credibility and proof of added value faster because of the support system you invite into your business life.
For me, the added angle of being a wellbeing life coach is incredibly exciting as I can blend it as needed into the planning and strategic support that is on offer for people who want to get intentional about business and/or their lives. It basically goes hand in hand, right?
Photo by Unseen Studio on Unsplash