by Liz Clark | Mar 31, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development, Pursuits
I paced the floor…teeth clenched. I was wrestling with a HUGE decision. For the first time in many years, I was working as an employee. Decent salary. Benefits. 401K. Stock options. But, looming in front of me was an opportunity to make the leap from “secure” employee to running my own business. I had done my homework on this new venture, and the numbers all made sense. It was a lucrative opportunity. But, I couldn’t stop thinking the same thoughts, over and over: What if it doesn’t work out? What if my clients don’t pay on time and we fall behind on our bills? What if I SUCK at this new business and my clients cancel my contracts? Those questions were just different versions of the BIG question: What if I’m not good enough to do this? It was a risk. But, I saw a problem in the market that I was excited about solving. Fast forward: I took the risk and launched out on my own as a consultant. I didn’t fail. We never fell behind on our bills. In fact, I earned more money than I had ever earned before. In retrospect, I see that the time I spent wondering if I was “good enough” was a waste of time. Those feelings didn’t help me make a decision. They only caused me to get stuck in “analysis paralysis.” In my case, I took the risk. But, many people miss out on incredible opportunities because they’re too preoccupied feeling “not good enough.” Most of my business coaching clients have fantastic new ideas, products or scalable strategies they want to try…but they’re stuck. The questions I hear these already-successful entrepreneurs struggling with are:...
by Liz Clark | Mar 24, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development
“I need to make a deposit,” I said out loud to an empty apartment. I sat on the floor at the foot of my bed with papers spread all around me. Bank statements, receipts, a checkbook, a notebook where I kept track of my “budget.” A curly landline phone cord stretched across the room from its normal spot beside my bed. I punched numbers into the handset, hoping the robot voice on the other end of the line would help me. I was close to overdrawing my bank account. Again. This was a common scene for me in college, in the dark ages before online banking. In fact, this was a common scene for me for the first 10 years of my adult life. Back then, I treated my bank account like a demanding, hungry teenager. It seemed like no matter how much I fed it, it always needed more. I spent my waking hours trying to figure out how to make sure it didn’t get completely empty or worse – overdrawn. It was a constant cycle of stress. I felt like a slave to my monthly expenses. Then, I began learning about the concept of investment. An investment is when you make a different kind of deposit. Not one to cover this month’s spending, but a deposit you plan not to spend. At least not for a long time. Why on earth would someone deposit money and not spend it? So that the money you invest can multiply…and you (or your kids) can spend some of it in the future. This concept of investment began to invade every area of my...
by Liz Clark | Mar 17, 2016 | Personal Development, Pursuits
There’s this little gem of personal development “wisdom” circulating the internet that goes like this: “You’re the average of the five people you spend most of your time with.” I’ve seen this idea applied to income. As in, if you took out a calculator and added up your top 5 BFF’s incomes, your income will be the average of those 5 people. I’ve also seen this idea applied to behavior and attitude. As in, you will behave in line with the average of the 5 people you spend the most of your time with. It doesn’t take a math whiz to calculate that this theory doesn’t work for everyone. These days, the 5 people I spend most of my time with are my husband and our four sons. Now, I love my kids to the moon and back, but I definitely out-earn them (ha!) and we behave very differently. I think the basic idea behind this quote is a good one, though: Pay attention to the people you allow to influence you. If you’re allowing yourself to be influenced by people who… aren’t tapping into their creative potential just want to hang out and stay the same never take risks …then, you won’t either. On the other hand, if you’re allowing yourself to be influenced by people who… challenge themselves to be their best think big cheer you on as you grow into the person you’re called to be ….you’ll be more likely to do just that. The key concept here is influence. Your behavior will naturally align with the mindset you allow yourself to hold. Learn to...
by Liz Clark | Mar 10, 2016 | Personal Development, Pursuits
“He’s going to the Olympics, you know.” The smell of chlorine burned my eyes as I watched her son walk along the edge of the indoor pool. He certainly looked like he could be a pro swimmer one day – lean and sleek. “Really? That’s incredible!” I replied. I welcomed the distraction of conversation while wrestling with regret over my terrible wardrobe choice to wear a sweatshirt to the most humid pool on the planet. The mom next to me continued sharing her son’s swimming accomplishments. “Yeah, we just have to get him competing on the high school team. He just needs to work on his speed. Mark my words. He’ll be in the Olympics.” My 15-year-old son was taking lessons alongside her son, but he had a very different motivation. In an epic parenting move, I had lovingly shared my humble opinion with my teenager that video games DO NOT count as exercise. I generously “allowed” him to choose a winter “activity” – one that actually worked his real-life body (without a screen). He protested, then saw I wasn’t kidding and finally agreed to “do swimming.” Probably because it alleviated the troublesome “problem” of gravity. (And he loves to swim.) Snow flurries danced outside the foggy glass walls encasing the pool, while the boys descended into the water for their first advanced lesson. My new mom-friend detailed her son’s workout schedule and the long saga of all the coaches that just don’t believe in him. I listened and watched. I tried not to notice that my video-gaming son, who stopped taking swim lessons about 8 years ago and...
by Liz Clark | Mar 7, 2016 | Business Matters, Getting Stuff Done, Personal Development, Pursuits
We all use excuses from time to time in our lives. The “no excuses” movement is unrealistic and dismissive. So, what are excuses and why do we all make them? Do they actually PROTECT us? When do excuses go from being a socially acceptable way to communicate boundaries…to something much more...
