One word that will stop you thinking you're crap
I’m showing my age here, but I finished prep in 1985. My parents had arrived in Australia 18 months earlier and, not knowing what age kids started school here (vs England where we had come from) I was put into school at 4 years old. For the next 13 years I was always the youngest kid in my year level (often younger than those in the year below me as well).
In two months, my 6.5 year old son will finish his first year of school (i.e. prep). The differences in the way kids are educated now vs the mid 80s is massive. And, for the most part, it's far better.
Case in point: I collect my son from school every afternoon (it’s one of the reasons I started my own biz #Freedom).
Our conversation always gets around to which three things he learned that day. Recently he told me he had spent the day focused on one new word. I admit I was initially baffled; six and a half hours on one word?
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Me: What’s the word then?
My son: Yet.
Me: Yet?? (Seriously? An entire day on a three-letter word?!)
My son: Yep, we learned that we can’t always know if we are good or bad at something. Instead of saying “I can’t play basketball” or “I’m not good at maths” we add the word “yet” to the end.
He proceeded to tell me about resilience and trying again and, “not telling yourself you’re not good at something as you just don’t know if In the future you might be”.
Why am I sharing this?
Well , I can’t count how often a small biz owner tells me they “suck at” XYZ. When I reply asking them to state the facts around this belief they’re often stuck.
For most of us, we started our biz with skills in a particular area we felt we should share and make an income from. It may have been skills in design or making products, skills in delivering a service or skills in technology. What we quickly learn is that running a small biz involves a lot more elements that just those we’re “good” at. But instead of telling ourselves we are crap at XYZ, perhaps we need to take a leaf out of my son's (school) book and add the word “yet” to our statements.
I’m not good at social media, yet.
I’m not good at numbers, yet.
I’m not organised enough with my systems, yet.
What would adding “yet” do for your mindset ?
It may just prompt you to figure out the steps you’ll need to take between where you are right now and where you’d like to be in 3, 6 or 9 months.
When we say I’m not good at X it’s a finite statement. When we add the simple word “yet” to the end of it, we open the door for possibilities of learning how we can improve.
Need help with improving areas of your small biz? There are a few places left for 1:1 business coaching between now and early 2020. Get yours here.
Read this post and still think you could improve when it comes to marketing your small biz? My online marketing course opens for enrolment Monday 28 October. If you would like to join, please click here. Investment for this course will increase in 2020 so this is the last intake at the current price. More importantly, this time of year is perfect for getting your 2020 marketing plans sorted!