We’re going to talk about, and work on, this process to help you to make more money for a while. But this might not be the perfect time in your life to do that. So before we get deep into this, I want to stop and check, are you all the way in?

Even if you want to make money, there might be some good reasons why this year might not be the year that you make that leap. To make a big jump in your earnings is going to mean significant changes in how you think, how you work, and how you see yourself. It’s going to take a lot of your mental and emotional capacity — and some years you don’t have that to give.

You can’t always grow fast

Here’s a chart of my company’s trailing twelve-month sales from Jan 2006 (about the time I started keeping good records) until now. If you look at it, you can see that from Sept 2008 until May 2017 my sales grew very slowly. We only grew about 23% over that almost 9-year span. I didn’t have the capacity to lean into my goals during that time. I got married in Oct 2007; there was a recession in 2009 – 2010; and I had a house full of teenagers for the next 8 or so years. I was investing in things outside of my business. We still grew, but not like we did in 2018!

During that timeframe I was working hard, but there were a lot of life distractions, and that’s OK. Business isn’t the Olympics! It’s not a race. You have limits and we have to work within them. So we experienced slower growth for a while then 2018 happened!

In that one year, 2018, our sales grew almost 20%.

What did I do differently? I cleared the decks; I put a lot more of my time, energy, and attention into growing my business. I made some pricing changes. I realigned my team, and I streamlined the work I was doing. The results speak for themselves. Boom!

Where are you this year?

So maybe you are investing in a relationship, or you are dealing with aging parents, or there’s something else that’s getting a significant amount of your time and attention. Let’s recognize that and say, “OK, I’m going to grow, I’m going to do some different things, but I might not make that BIG goal until _____ .” I know you can do it, you can earn more, but this year’s goal might be more modest.

Is this the year that you want to make that big kind of difference in your business? If so, I want to work with you to make that happen. There’s no doubt in my mind that we can hit your goal. If not, feel free to follow along, but you may not have time for every challenge or every piece of homework, and that’s OK too.

It’s OK not to grow, or to grow slowly – as long as it is what you are choosing. To decide you need to grow big when you don’t have the energy, focus, or time is just going to make you miserable. But make sure the choice you are making is about capacity and health and not about those fears, doubts, and criticisms we talked about previously. 

So today, ask yourself realistically, are you ready to clear the decks? ‘Cause on Thursday we are going to start working on how to make more money.