So, last month my company hosted a live, in person retreat for all our Scale with Success® clients. We host these a few times a year and it’s an amazing opportunity for our team and our clients to come together and do some REALLY deep thinking about life and business.
There are breakthroughs, tears, laughter, and a whole lot more.
Anyway, the night before our big 2 day event, I always treat my team to a big, fancy dinner. As our team has grown, so has the size of our table!! I think at our first event it was three of us and the last time we had a table for 11. Incredible!
We were all having some kind of artisan donut dessert thing when the topic of goal setting came up and I said something that made one of our coaches (you know who you are) blurt out THIS SHOULD BE YOUR NEXT PODCAST EPISODE.
So, HERE WE ARE.
At the beginning of the year, most of us set a revenue goal.
We’re excited, we’re passionate, we’re super motivated, we’re unstoppable…
…and it’s January 1 – so, maybe we’re a little hungover.
Anyhoo, as the months go by, we MAY start to realize that we are NOT on track to meet our goal and on top of that, it seems like because we set that new goal everything in the business is starting to break!
I want to pause right here and I want you to notice the language I’m choosing to use: “BECAUSE we set that new goal everything in the business is starting to break.”
In that statement, there are two different beliefs.
1) Everything in the business is STARTING to break
2) Everything in the business is starting to break BECAUSE we set a new goal
There’s a lot that we can unpack further, but let’s stay here for a moment.
We are literally telling ourselves that setting a high goal is CAUSING our business to break.
Wow. That’s pretty intense.
Is it true?
Is it true that the act of setting a goal CAUSED your business to break?
So, you’re telling me that your business was JUST FINE, but the second you chose to write Dear Diary, this is the year I’m going to make $1m Sincerely, Me…your business INSTANTLY BROKE?
Well, if that’s the case, you better lower that goal! You dreamed TOO BIG! You wanted what you CAN’T HAVE! Having BIG DREAMS and BIG GOALS is dangerous! In fact, it’s causing your business to break – right before your eyes.
Raise your hand if you’ve ever had that thought.
If you have ever thought that your goals were UNREALISTIC and you were stupid for setting them so high.
And if you TOLD anyone about that goal…well, now that’s even MORE embarrassing. Who were you to think that you were DESERVING of something so big and so great.
When I was a little girl, on Christmas morning, when I opened my presents and got what I wanted – do you know what I felt? Not joy. Guilt. I felt embarrassed. I was ashamed that I received something that I liked because deep down I didn’t feel like I deserved it. I felt like there was something fundamentally wrong with me and that everyone else just hadn’t figured it out, yet.
So, when I got what I wanted, I felt shame and guilt.
And when I didn’t get what I wanted, I made it mean that it was TRUE that I was undeserving of good things.
Wow. Can you imagine trying to grow a business when you feel like you are undeserving of good things?
I know you can, because many of you listening feel the exact same way.
So, we SET goals and when we don’t achieve them right away, we lower them, make it mean that we’re undeserving, then we wonder why we’re stuck and making the same revenue year after year!
I asked a client just yesterday…
What was your revenue goal for last month?
$50,000
How much did you actually make?
$20k
So, what’s your goal this month?
$20k
HOW DOES THAT MAKE ANY SENSE???
The REASON why you haven’t achieved your goals is not because you’re undeserving, it’s because you are CHOOSING to keep LOWERING them.
You do this because you do not understand that setting the goal is NOT what broke your business, it’s that your business is ALREADY broken and stretching for that new goal is REVEALING what ALREADY exists!
When you set a goal and you are not on track to hit it, I want you to ACTIVELY LOOK for obstacles and problems – NOT so you can make it mean that you’re a terrible business owner…NOT so you can make it mean that you are UNDESERVING…
I want you to ACTIVELY LOOK for problems, so that you can FIX THEM.
Wow. What?
Caitlin are you suggesting that I look for problems keeping me from reaching my revenue goal so that I can fix them and actually reach my revenue goal.
YES.
I don’t care who you are. I don’t care where you are. If you are listening to this podcast right now, YOU are capable of generating $1m in revenue in 1 year from 1 course.
The ONLY reason why you haven’t YET is because you are making your “business problems” mean something about YOU as a person.
It’s not the problem that defines you, it’s the WAY you respond to it.
Will you freak out, throw a sheet over it, and run into a closet to stress-eat gummi bears?
I’ve been there. It’s ok. Next time you can make a different choice.
We all have the ability to make a different choice.
Identify the core problem, propose a solution, implement the solution.
Did it work? Great.
Did it fail? Great. Fix what’s not working.
If you are SCARED to discover what’s not working because then you’ll make it mean something about YOU…FANTASTIC.
This is your opportunity to practice a DIFFERENT response.
It is a myth that successful people encounter FEWER problems.
The truth is that successful people DON’T encounter FEWER problems, but they CHOOSE to respond differently to the problems they DO encounter.
They don’t get sucked into the drama of “I’ll never get where I want to go. Does anyone else ever feel like they’ll never make it? I’m starting to panic that I haven’t met my goal yet.”
A capable, confident person doesn’t waste time dwelling on thoughts like those.
A capable, confident person greets each problem with excitement! Yes! A new challenge/obstacle/problem has revealed itself. This is good news because now we get to FIX IT.
Your sleep mask had been removed. What a blessing. Now you can see what’s not working.
This is the work of successful people. Identifying and solving problems over and over…at every level.
The problems aren’t new, they’ve been there the whole time – they’ve just been covered up and you couldn’t SEE them.
You don’t have a million dollar business because those problems were not being fixed, they were being ignored – by you.
And now you can fix them and use the powerful momentum that’s created from solving the problem to solve the NEXT problem.
Is this making sense?
Tell me, what is the biggest problem you are facing in your business right now and how is SOLVING that problem going to move you closer to your goal?
Follow me on Instagram @caitlinbacher and slide into my DMs to tell me all about it!
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Thanks so much and make sure to tune in next week for another episode of The Caitlin Bacher Show.
Today’s episode is brought to you by Scale With Success® Accelerator — an online course designed to help you generate launch-sized revenue without lanching. If you want to learn MORE about our proven method for success, click here to watch my free masterclass. See you in there!