Why shifting feels shitty

Transcript

Growth is often glorified. We often see the before and after photos of all the weight someone has lost, or the amazing sales result that someone has achieved in their business. But what we don’t see is the pain that came before the change. In today’s episode, I explore why shifting feels shitty and how you can move through it.

You’re listening to the Clare Wood podcast, where we talk all things business, finance, marketing, and mindset for entrepreneurs, sharing practical tips, and actionable advice to help you take your business to the next level. Introducing your host: me! I’m Clare Wood, I’m a numbers geek, a travel lover, and a reality tv addict, and I’m here to empower you to create an extraordinary business and an amazing life, because I believe you don’t have to choose between the two. Now let’s dive right in to today’s episode.

What is a shift?

What is change? In business it’s about uplevelling. Shifting or changing is a normal part of business and indeed, life in general. In a business contest shifting can mean moving to a new price point, stopping a service, adding new products, hiring or firing a team member, learning a new skill, investing money in a course or working with a coach, creating or investing in a new brand.

So how might be come to the decision to shift? Perhaps you are ready for something new and you are called to something bigger. Maybe you are seeing your peers or competitors uplevel, and take their business to the next level. Maybe you are bored of where you currently are. Prior to making the decision to shift, we can sit in contemplation stage for a long time, weighing up costs, the risk, asking lots of people for advice, researching.. but after doing this work, you might finally come to the decision, to uplevel, be ready to invest and grow and change.

We finally make that decision and then we expect it to be free sailing, but the journey to change doesn’t happen in a moment. The decision might happen in a moment, but change takes time. Once we make that decision we may continue to question our choice and want to pull back, or even pull the pin on the whole thing.

Why does change feel so shitty?

While you go through this process you might feel anxious, have sleepless nights, feel fear, depression, catastrophise what could happen. So when these shitty feelings come up, is it a sign that you should stop? Is it your gut or intuition telling you that you’ve made the wrong decision? Maybe, but most likely not. This discomfort that you are feeling is just a sign of the fact you are changing.

Many take the pain of change as a sign to stop, and it’s so easy to revert back to the way we were. For example, we start going to the gym and it hurts, we have less time with family or to work on our business, or thinking everyone looks better than me at the gym. Sometimes it can be tempting to step back into our comfort zone, where we feel safe. We can make the decision then to not go to the gym, or not to invest in our business.

Habits, practices, and your income level may be deeply ingrained in your neural pathways. It’s our natural instinct to revert back to where we are comfortable.

How to change and move through discomfort and pain

There are a couple ways to navigate through.

Firstly, we can break the long term change that we are trying to achieve, into manageable chunks. If you are dreaming of a million dollar business, break it down into manageable chunks your brain can wrap it’s head around, maybe you want to get to a 6 figure mark or multi 6 figure mark, that might be the next step to move you towards the long term vision.

Secondly, remind yourself why you got started. You obviously didn’t come to the decision lightly in the beginning, there was consideration and maybe discomfort or dissatisfaction from the place you were in. Remind yourself of that reason why you got started, to step up, to invest, to go on the diet etc. Come back to the why and that should be a motivating factor for you.

Thirdly, allow yourself space to grieve. Sometimes when I’ve increased my prices and dream clients of mine have chosen to walk away, it is absolutely gut-wrenching. You want to continue to serve them, but when you step into a new level or decided it’s time to change, and they are ready to come on that journey, it can feel awful. If you are shifting, allow yourself time to grieve what you are leaving behind.   

The next, and possibly most powerful way that you can navigate through a shift, is to seek support. Talk to a friend, a coach, someone to hold you accountable and on track to your goal. To remind you why you got started and not let you back down. Having someone outside of you is a fantastic way to stay on track towards your goals.

To sum up today’s episode, change isn’t easy, shifting can feel shitty but those feelings don’t necessarily mean it’s a bad thing, usually it’s a sign of your body trying to keep you safe. You can move past the pain of shifting by remembering why you got started and what the end goal is.

Thank you so much for joining me today, if you enjoyed this episode, please make sure you subscribe to receive future episodes, and I’d be so grateful for a review on apple podcast! If you’d like a copy of the show notes or any of the links mentioned today, please jump over to clarewood.com.au/podcast and remember that Clare is spelled CLARE, have a wonderful week and look forward to chatting to you again soon!