I have looked at my watch about 10 times in the last half hour.
And if I’m going to be completely honest, I’ve been waiting for this moment for the last 48 hours.
You see, 2 days ago it rained, nothing too bad, but apparently it was enough for our Internet modem to stop working.
If this would had happened 5 years ago, this problem would have only affected me.
However, nowadays, we are all so used to being connected and using the Internet every day that when the Internet stopped working it didn’t only cause me frustration, but it was also a big problem for everybody in my family as well.
We suddenly had a wide variety of questions to answer, from where will I do homework for school, how I will study for an exam, watch a movie, buy dog’s food, pay bills, send emails or even make calls with clients.
All these things in just a few minutes become problems.
After countless hours of frustration I realized that in this particular situation, I needed to change my perspective.
Of course, it is easier to say it than to do it.
The way in which I normally change my perspective is by asking myself questions like:
- What can I learn from all this?
- Is there anything I can or could do differently to avoid being in this situation?
- What can I focus on to be productive and work on what I have yet to finish?
And that is how I came up with this post from a total state of frustration.
In my mind, I told myself, the worst thing that could happen is that this will be one of those posts that nobody reads because it will only live on my computer.
Why your business isn’t growing (and how to fix it)
When we have a problem and we can’t figure out a way to solve it, it’s common to feel both confused and frustrated.
Obviously staying in that state does not help in any way.
I will share with you the 3 steps that I followed to change my emotional state and my results.
1. The frustration of not being able to move forward
Just like it is frustrating for me not being able to use the Internet freely every day.
Something similar happens when businesses do not know how to take advantage of the Internet every day to grow, sell more and attract new customers.
The feeling of frustration is similar to that felt by people when they make the mistake of thinking that it is possible to grow a business without knowing how to attract customers using the Internet.
This uncomfortable experience has given me the opportunity to experience the feelings that entrepreneurs go through when they have been working for years to grow their business and still have no results.
This situation has allowed me to feel the frustration of not being able to move forward because my hands are tied, simply because there is a greater force that is holding me back.
In my case, this major force is the idea that it is difficult to function on a daily basis without being able to use the Internet freely.
But for many entrepreneurs, the frustration is not knowing how to use the Internet to attract clients.
In many cases, these entrepreneurs work more than 40 hours a week, they have a huge responsibility and they are sacrificing their family life without seeing any progress.
Most of the time, they have established businesses that they started years ago.
There are more businesses in this group that you can imagine.
And I know because every week I have the opportunity to talk with them.
These entrepreneurs invest all their energy and resources to work harder instead of solving the real problem they have in front of their eyes and accept that the world is not what it was 10 years ago and that the way they used to do business is simply outdated.
In the same way, our day to day life has changed and living without internet doesn’t seem possible, we must adapt our businesses to the new age.
2. Talk with others about your problems
If we had decided not to ask for help from our neighbours and friends, we would have not been aware that our home was the only one that didn’t have Internet because of the rain.
The same applies to business owners.
Nobody suspects the level of frustration that these entrepreneurs face every day.
From the outside, it would seem that these entrepreneurs have a successful, established business and this, in turn, makes them feel even more alone and makes the problem even more difficult to solve.
During these days, it was necessary and important to have the support of other people who helped us find solutions to this setback.
In our case, very soon the problem will be solved and probably in a few weeks, we will forget the challenges that we faced during the last days.
If you have a business and do not know how to attract customers using the Internet, you need to ask for help and do everything possible to solve the problem instead of hiding it, crossing your fingers and wishing that the problem disappears on its own.
The truth is that the problem will not solve itself, in fact, it will get bigger and harder to solve.
Before we continue, I want to share with you an infographic that illustrates: Why your business isn’t growing (and how to fix it)
3. How to cross the bridge of fear
What can I focus on to be productive and make progress?
That was exactly the question I asked myself a few minutes ago for the hundredth time, when I started writing this post and when I made the decision to look for the lesson I could learn.
It turns out that closing your eyes so you do not have to see the problem, never solves the problem, but rather makes it bigger.
Crossing your fingers and wishing the problem goes away on its own never works.
Talking about the problem, complaining and not doing anything to solve it does not work either.
And if I have to be honest, that was a little bit what I was doing until I realized there were other things I could do.
Like, for example, try to see what I could learn from this situation.
That small change of perspective helped me realize that there is always something we can do.
In the case of these struggling entrepreneurs, they know deep inside that the answer to their problems is to learn how to attract clients online.
However, opening the door to that world paralyzes them with fear and doubt.
In their mind, this decision involves a huge risk of investing time in money in a project that may not work.
What they don’t see is that not solving the problem is worse.
It turns out that the decision of postponing the project has a much greater risk. The risk that their business will continue to sink and that your competitors will continue to grow because they are taking advantage of all the opportunities that they are losing.
What would you think if I told you that the only thing your business needs now is for you to make the decision to grow?
If your business is similar to others, all you need is more clients and it is your responsibility as a business owner to ensure that you leave the doors open for your clients to find you.
The good news is that doing this exercise not only helped me put my frustration in perspective, but it also helped me write the post.
Better yet, I just received a call from the technician letting me know that he is on his way, which has restored my confidence and hope that very soon everything will return to normal.
And from today I will make a special effort to be thankful every day that the Internet works.
