What's Your Why? Staying Motivated In Hard Times.

Hey ya’ll.

So this is a question that I have always asked myself, especially now. Can I be a little transparent with ya’ll? Starting a business is hard. Leaving steady income is harder. And doing this in the middle of a pandemic...what?! Have I lost my mind? The last month has been more challenging than I’d care to admit.

I left my job, have done beta testing, received positive feedback about my services, and still, there is a lag between site visits and customer purchases. I’ve asked myself several times: Why can’t I convert sales? Is it because I don’t provide a freebie…when I actually do. I provide several freebies including free virtual retreats and consultations. Then I ask myself is it because people don’t prioritize mental health? I’ve asked myself am I marketing to the right people even though I have worked hard to create an avatar and I’m marketing where they are. I’ve gone as far as to reduce my prices because the market is “oversaturated” and people don’t want “another mental health therapist or life coach”.

I’ve debated going back to my former employer like “I messed up. Let’s work this out and give me my position and office back”. I really did love my office. It has an amazing view.

I have read so many times how most businesses fail their first year. I have read that life coaches only make a certain amount if they don’t scale their business to and for the high-ticket clients.

I said to myself: I don’t have time for that!!!

I don’t have time for failure nor do I have time to compromise who I am. I had to get a point where I believed in my brand so much that I could no longer compromise the value of the services that I provide while priding myself on being accessible. I don’t want people to think that life coaching is for the elite. You know? I had to get to a point where my mindset had to change.

I asked myself: what is your why? I had to look at why I am advocating for mental health and the services I provide. Why is this important? What I discovered are 3 strategies for me to stay motivated during this hard time and I hope that it will do the same for you too.

1. Make your purpose a goal.

This was a hard one, but most essential one. I think so many times we just make our purpose this overarching mandate in our life. We complicate things more than it has to be. When I made my purpose a goal, things became doable. I had to evaluate and think about what it was I was doing to actually reach that goal. I had to break it down and be specific and find ways to measure if I was actually doing it. The more I reflected, the more that I realized that it starts with Tahkyra first. I have to get mentally to a place where my success cannot be predicated by what’s going on around me. In other words, I couldn’t let things or people knock me off my square! The more your reach those small specific steps, the more accomplished and confident you will feel.

2. Surrender the outcome.

I really had to let go of the idea that I am responsible for people’s outcomes. I have to be accountable to myself when it comes to the things I am working on. But when it comes to people, I had to realize that I help people lift a burden and then direct them to where we are sitting this bad boy down. Otherwise, they are free to walk off and leave me holding their stuff. Oh no. Not anymore. We have to let people be people and stop expecting them to be like us. Let the chips fall where they may and keep working on your process. Recognize your role in theirs, but not to the point it interferes with your life. Their outcome is theirs because they have to live with the decisions and choices they make. It's not your outcome.

2a. Don’t get caught up in perfectionism. (That’s a free one). Perfectionism will cause you to miss many opportunities in your life because you can’t show up. A false version of you will. The imposter version of you will. The one that has to people please. Perfectionism doesn’t mean excellence. What makes something operate in excellence is having good character, ambition, willingness to correct mistakes, and professional boundaries. Everyone doesn't deserve access to you to the point where you are stressed and burned out.

3. Reflect on your why.

I’d be lying if I said that it’s easy to not think about the numbers and outcomes when it comes to running a business. But when that becomes priority over your why; you’ve already set yourself up for failure. It is remembering my why that has pushed me to keep moving forward. What’s my why: I want to provide practical solutions to some of life’s most difficult and heartbreaking problems through biblical principles and theoretical concepts. I can remember what it was like to be bent over, unable to stand up straight because the weight of mine and everybody else's stuff burdened me. I remember feeling overwhelmed and taxed because of what I had gone through. I don’t want others to be stuck in cycles and not be able to move forward because of feeling like they can’t be their authentic self. I know what that pain is like. I know how to help people overcome that pain. I remember being hospitalized, misunderstood, and feeling crazy. I don’t want others to go through what I went through and help be a bridge whenever I can. That's my why. It's why I am a life coach and mental health therapist.

Listen, I hope this helped you to reflect and remember that motivation that comes from deep inside of you. The one that not a single soul can take away from you when you are secure in your beliefs and yourself. It’s your girl Author Tahkyra TK Terrell. I’m just Minding My Vision!

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