My 2 weeks in the Spanish sun is drawing to a close this weekend and I have been intentionally putting into play those pointers I wrote about in last week’s post (about how to use downtime to get an unfair advantage).
This week I’m going to share a little insight from our SA business that will hopefully resonate and be helpful to others too.
In amongst some amazing experiences with my family on holiday I have also had moments of fearful thinking and uncertainty, in relation to our SA business. Recently we have been experiencing a few setbacks from one or two longer term bookings not coming through and from some uncertainty of others that were in discussion. We have experienced a mild hiatus in bookings across a few of our properties, and while this is not drastic in the grand scheme of things, it has thrown some negative thinking and worry into an otherwise great SA business.
Chris and I know that a good booking is round the corner and can quickly buoy confidence, however the mini hiatus and delayed decisions have naturally given rise to more uncertainty than confidence.
Whilst running on the boardwalk, or during afternoon siesta time, I have absorbed some great content this week. Interestingly there have been 3 different pieces that shared a common theme – that of reframing uncertainty and fear.
One podcast interview referred to the mindshift of being able to “dance with fear” and use uncertainty to channel your nerves and focus on the problem in hand.
Another post gave the analogy of looking at a fall as an opportunity to “be like a ball” and bounce back higher – in other words to learn, iterate/take action and grow to new heights.
Then just today, whilst preparing some chicken skewers in marinade for the evening’s BBQ, I was listening to one of Rob Moore’s Disruptive podcasts about growing through your challenges. As Rob put it – challenges are there to help us grow, and when you do grow through your challenges you often have new strategies and techniques to do the thing you were struggling with better the next time (I couldn’t agree more), and ultimately set yourself up for bigger challenges and bigger growth next time. [Thanks Rob for that great podcast #161 and I love the idea to brainstorm 15 new money making ideas each Monday- I’ll be implementing that from this Monday coming.]
So in summary, my mindset has totally shifted over the course of this week and I am reframing this little hiatus in our SA bookings as a huge positive and a kick up the proverbial backside. Maybe we got too complacent with a long run of contractor bookings? Either way we are using this little dose of fear and uncertainty to channel our energy and focus into making adjustments in our business so that we don’t experience this kind of lull and uncertainty again. Chris and I have been brainstorming ideas to ramp our direct bookings and identifying parts of our SA business and systems that can be tweaked and improved.
So, after a solid stint of R&R I’m feeling motivated to hit the ground running next week with focus and energy. We have the opportunity to “be the ball” and bounce back higher than before so we can scale our business.