How do you define success?

Have you ever thought about it before?

Not all that long ago I was in a coaching meeting and my client said to me, “you’re REALLY successful. How did you do it? What are your tips? How can I be as successful as you?”

And that question hit me like a ton of bricks and stirred up SO many thoughts. Things from, “Me?! I’m not successful.” to, “Yes! I’ve been blessed with 15+ years in businesses - has it been easy - no, worth it, YES!”

It took me a minute to process the question and give an answer. My answer was short, “I didn’t give up. I kept working even when it didn’t feel like I’d ever come out on top.”

After that meeting I took some time to write out what I thought success is/was, ways I was successful and what I thought success in my businesses could look like. I then went another layer deeper and pondered, “what will it look and feel like if I don’t succeed? How can I pivot in the midst of failure/success?”

I didn’t ask myself this because I was trying to force failure upon myself. In fact, quite the opposite. I wanted to think through how I will process when things don’t necessarily go the way I want and to also not be overly attached to one outcome or another. Obviously I want everything to succeed, but we all know that is not the case. Sometimes things don’t hit right when we release them into the world…sometimes you have to keep shouting from the rooftops the thing you’re doing or selling for a long time before people realize that they want what you’ve got.

But, what if you could view things in a way that would showcase the successes even in the midst of, what some would consider, a failure?

Let me give you an example. When I owned the yoga studio I was SO HARD on myself when classes were small. I would tell myself that no one wanted to come to class and that clearly I was doing something wrong because no one was showing up. Everyone else had huge classes and mine were…tiny. I was putting all my energy into chasing people to come into class that I was missing the point. People were showing up but my energy was not in the right place. I was operating from a place of scarcity and already being in the belief that “no one was coming”. Being in the belief that no one was coming was sabotaging my classes and my business. Looking back I needed to learn that in order to work through it. It’s like a child learning to walk. We don’t berate the kid for falling. We cheer and get so excited no matter if it’s one step or 100 steps.  

When I started working with my business coach she asked me, “how many people need to show up for your classes to feel successful?” My answer, “3. That would cover studio costs if 3 people came to each class.” At the time my definition of success was the amount of clients I needed in order to cover the costs of running the studio. After saying that out loud I realized that things weren’t actually that far off. Most classes had 2-5 people coming so there were only a couple of classes that I needed to put my thinking cap on to create clients for. 

And yes, I do believe that I manifested a larger populous to my studio. When I stepped into the belief that people were coming to class, people started showing up to class. Within 2 weeks of putting that thought out into the universe I was pleasantly surprised to see more people starting to come in. And within a month, I was averaging 4 per class for every class!!

Now, to some this might seem like it’s not a success. But just like the quote that I opened this post with - “Doubting yourself is normal. Letting it stop you is a choice.” I was CHOOSING to let the belief that no one wanted to come to class be true. And it was true…the amount of people I wanted in the studio was not what I wanted it to be because I was already in a failure mentality. As soon as I let that thought go and replaced it with, “people are coming to class” SO much shifted. It got easier to talk with people about coming to class, easier for people to sign up for classes and, best of all, I was able to take some much needed rest myself (and practice what I was preaching). 

What exactly was I doing to get these results??

Meeting with my business coach weekly, giving myself attainable goals and self coaching each morning.

My question to you is - Are you ready to shift your business? I’m continually amazed at the results I’m able to see - for both myself AND my clients. I’d LOVE to chat and teach you how you can do the same thing! 

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