The Power of Self Reflection In Your Business

October was a pretty interesting month for me that required a lot of self reflection. I found myself in a position that wasn't familiar to me and I really struggled to cope.

I shared my struggles with my mastermind group and because the feedback I got from them was that it was really helpful to hear when things don't go so well, I decided that you would benefit from hearing about it too..

Here's the thing: I almost quit my business in October 2020. 

October was a really rough month for me. I transitioned into my new business full time and went all in. I had set a lot of goals, had a lot of expectations… Yet nothing went the way I expected at all. 

I say that knowing I'm in full control of what my business looks like. 

The Power of Self Reflection to Your Mindset

You know how I say this all the time that mindset is 80% of your success? Well, when it's not on point, when it’s out of alignment and you're not practicing self reflection, your mind will be at the mercy of whatever your thoughts are telling it to do. 

In October, I had all these grand plans. But I also felt pressure to earn a certain amount of money. I set goals #allthethings but I know that for me, if I am focused strictly on making money, nothing works. 

And that's exactly what happened in October. I was focused on the money compared to being focused on serving my audience, which ALWAYS works. 

And I am completely aware that if you are in a situation where you need to make money, it's really hard to not focus on making money… 

But I can tell you this: if you focus only on making money, it won’t work. Sure, you might get a few sales here and there, but nothing will stick. The consistent won't be there. 

So instead, for me anyway, it always works better if I focus on how I'm helping, how I'm serving, and being excited about what I'm doing. 

This is the first law of stratospheric success. If you haven't read the book The Go-Giver, then do me a favour and check it out now. It'll take you less than 2 hours to read it.

Because I was focused on the money, I was out of alignment with that first law… The Law of Value. Everything that I did in the first three weeks of October out of alignment. 

Energy Matters

So every post I did, every email I sent, whilst on the surface probably looked really good, it wasn’t aligned energetically. And yes, energy matters!

Unfortunately, it didn’t really come into my awareness until I did some self reflection on why nothing was working.

I know this might be a little woo woo for you, but hear me out because it is about energy management. 

Here's the thing: If you are not excited about the things that you're doing in your business, what's the point of doing them? 

By the time we got three weeks into October, I had made zero dollars. Zilch. Nada. 

This was the first time in my 8 years of business that I had made zero dollars in a month. 

I had put myself under so much stress that I picked a fight with my husband (why is it we always unleash on those that are closest to us?). I remember it was about something really stupid and he called me out on it. 

We both have very strong personalities, but when he called me out on it, I just burst into tears. I had a meltdown because I was so worried that I hadn’t made any money and it was messing with my mind.

What am I doing? I'm completely failing at everything I do… 

Now for context, we have savings. It’s actually not that we needed the money immediately…

It’s just that I had put all this pressure on myself to make a certain amount of money, when in reality we have our six months worth of savings and we’re good. 

But my brain…

Ah, Neville! 

If you’ve read my book about mindset, Mind The Chatter, you know exactly what I’m talking about when I say Neville. If you haven't, you just need to know that Neville is the negative voice in my head that can get out of hand if I don’t keep on top of it using self reflection. 

Neville was running the show in October. 

And it wasn't until I had that meltdown that my husband really put things into perspective for me. 

I'm very thankful to have my husband, Guy, by my side through everything that life throws at us. He’s really good at speaking my words back to me and he said, “Babe, you got this! We have X amount of money in savings, take the pressure off.” He told me to take two weeks off to regroup and get back to what it is that I actually want to do.

He reminded me that I'm happiest and most excited when I’m serving others and focused on helping people. He sees that I do that really well. 

He was speaking all of this into me and it put my mind back to straight and focused again. 

I’m so grateful for his insight and I took his advice to heart. I took two weeks off to get back to the things that keep me on track in my business, and it started with a lot of self reflection. 

The Thing That Keeps Me On Track in My Business 

If there is one thing that I must do every day, it’s J.S.T. Just sit there. 30 minutes of mindfulness every day. For me, J.S.T. now involves walking on the beach. 

I’ve talked about J.S.T. before (see the 22:36 mark), and while just sit there literally implies that it’s done while sitting, I now do an active J.S.T. while I walk on the beach.

For my mental health, I need to do this. J.S.T. is not just for my business. It’s also for my mental health. If I don't do it every day, then I can get completely off track. Everything will get out of alignment, and not just in business. 

So what does that mean? What am I doing? 

The Magic Question

Literally, I walk along the beach and have a song running through my head. I shared it inside my Facebook group and it's called The Magic Question by Fia.  

And the magic question is how does it get any better than this?

It's such a catchy tune and if you really listen to those words, it sparks  my day off in the right direction.

Each day, I start with a bulletproof coffee and sit down to listen to that song. And then I play it again later when I’m walking on the beach. 

Every single day, when I play that song I close my eyes. I let the words wash over me. 

The words are amazing, saying things like: 

?? You are the author. 

?? You are scripting your life. 

?? You get to choose your story. 

?? I only choose things that raise my vibe. 

?? I speak energy fluently.

Wow! I really love that song. How can you not love a song featuring a ukulele?!?

And then the artist says, and I asked the magic question—how does it get any better than this? And that's the chorus. 

So that’s what’s running through my mind when I go for my J.S.T. walk on the beach. 

I’m looking at the ocean and letting the beach and the Universe wash over me. 

And every single day since I have started doing this, I've made money in my business. In fact, in the last week of October, I made $5,000 literally just by making this one tweak. 

I wanted to share this because it is so important 

When your mindset is good, happy, healthy and is energetically aligned, it has so much power. 

And if you are out of alignment… it will sabotage you.

I was self-sabotaging left, right and center. I just kept pushing because it’s part of my personality to just keep pushing through the rough spots. I'm an active relaxer, so I'm constantly moving and it makes me feel good if I'm constantly doing. 

But if you're constantly doing, you don't allow space for things to align, for things to get back on track, for the Universe to send you ideas…

Capture Your J.S.T. Ideas

My biggest tip to you is to have some way to capture your thoughts when you are in J.S.T. Particularly if you're in an active J.S.T., outside in nature or walking on the beach, I’d recommend having some type of voice recording app on your phone so you don't miss any of the awesomesauce coming your way!

I was using Voxer to record notes that I would send to myself. That is, until my amazing friend Gary suggested this other app called Otter.ai. Otter not only gives you 600 minutes FREE a month, but you can have your recordings transcribed as you're talking… 

It's actually very accurate, even for me with my accent. Typically most of these voice apps are programmed to recognize the American accent. Otter learns your voice and the feedback I’ve been giving them is four and five star ratings. There was one day when I used it where it got every single word correct!

I now record all the things that come to me, and so many things come to me now. 

When I go for my walks, I don't set out with any intention to ask a whole bunch of questions, other than how does it get any better than this? That is constantly running through my head.

I’ve said so many times that I want my business to be easy and fun, so that’s the other question I might ask, what is easy and fun? What does that look like, what is easy and fun, how can I make things easy and fun, or what are the steps I need to take to make things easy and fun? 

Cultivate Your Mindset

I really wanted to share this with you so that you are purposely cultivating your mindset and that you are aware of your mindset. Otherwise, it will sabotage you if you don't self reflect or check in daily.

The other piece that I do every Friday is sit down to review the plans that I have for my business for the upcoming week. I'm asking myself Do I feel aligned? Am I excited? Because if you're not excited–if I’m not excited, if I’m not aligned, what is the point? 

Let’s be honest. Sometimes it just might be that it's that time of the month, ladies, amiright?!  When it’s that time of the month for me, sometimes I just need to check out for a couple of days and not speak to anybody. 

I'm not gonna launch anything during that time because I'm not excited. My energy is not good. So you have flexibility. And the only way you get flexibility is if you yourself know what you want your business to look like and what is easy and fun. 

What is easy and fun for you? What are you excited about? What are you aligned with?

Let It All Out

So what happened is, rather than letting my guard down in front of my husband, I instead tried to pick a fight with him. Thankfully he knows me so well and asked what the hell is going on?  I was able to melt down and let it all out. I cried my eyes out and felt an incredible release of pent-up emotions.

As I'm saying this, my inner Neville is telling me that this is such a weakness, Lise. We don't want to admit that.  But you know what, Neville? It’s ok to have a meltdown. It's okay to cry and just be like Holy crap! What the heck am I doing? 

It's okay to do that and when I did I felt such a sense of relief. I then also had the ability to just go and focus on what I needed to do because I had clarity. I had dropped the drama.

You know what, I don't need to do a thing for two weeks straight. I don't need to launch anything, or go live in my Facebook group. I can literally step back and take the time to just ask What does Lise want? 

Do It!

If you're not engaged in self reflection like this for yourself, do it! Carve out time to do this this week. Whether that means going for a walk in nature or on the beach like I do. 

Where is your happy place? Where do you go to feel connected to the Universe or to God or whatever your spiritual piece is? Go there. That is where you will get the most out of doing an active J.S.T. 

Honestly, I used to practice J.S.T out on the balcony where I could see the ocean. But as soon as I started walking on the beach and combining it with J.S.T. —Wow. Wow! 

So many amazing things have happened and life has realigned. You guys who are in my community are going to reap the rewards of those in the next few weeks. I have some inspired and amazing things coming your way and I'm pivoting in my business again! I love change ? 

It’s so awesome that I get to do things that I am excited about and aligned with. 

I want to share with you that you can do that too. I want to #empower you to be able to just go, you know what? I can do what I actually want to do! 

You can. 

I want you to know that you can pivot. You can change. 

Throwing In The Towel

And you know what, if you want to throw in the towel, you get to choose that too.

If you just aren't jelling with your business, throw the towel in for a time-out. Just step back and choose to revisit things in another 2 weeks or 2 months. 

You get to decide. 

This time of year seems especially emotionally charged for me. It’s hard to tell if I’m getting all the feels because of what’s going on in the world or if it’s because my birthday is just around the corner. 

But I always seem to go through a realignment around this time every year. I feel like it's because everything's realigning based on when I was born. But it also brings in a lot of retrospection and a lot of things… that if I miss the cues will trip me up. 

That's exactly what happened in October. I missed (or ignored) the cues.

So, I just wanted to let you know that you are amazing. You, the person that is reading this right here and now! You are amazing. And you can do/be/have whatever you want. I promise you ?. 

Action Step

Consistently book time into your calendar for self-reflection and ask questions like this: 

How does it get any better than this?

What is easy and fun? 

You will get the answers. The answers come, they always do. Whether they’re coming from the Universe, from God, or the Divine, whatever that is for you.

Trust that it is steering you in the right direction.