Taken from Day 4: Imagine & Invent (abridged)
See What ‘Can Be’
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| Gabriella Goddard |
Anita was frustrated in her job. She felt undervalued and unappreciated. And worse, she knew it wasn’t personal. ‘One day I was sitting in my cubicle and I remember thinking “This is not what I’m meant to be doing for the rest of my life,”’ recalls Anita. ‘It was clear to me that the morals and values of the company just weren’t the same as mine. And it got to the point where I couldn’t pretend any more.’
The big problem for Anita, though, was that she didn’t know what she did want to do for the rest of her life. That’s when she came to me for coaching. Through this, it became clear that Anita’s passion lay in retail and that she was really good at choosing gifts for people. So in the first few months we tried lots of things. We looked at what she was really good at, what she enjoyed doing and what she’d like to do if money was no object.
‘Every idea came back to the issue of money,’ remembers Anita. ‘I found that everything that I’d like to do would mean taking a pay cut. And I didn’t want to take the risk and drop in pay.’ Her light bulb moment came when I asked her to imagine she was driving down a road and there was a billboard with her very own message on it. Her reply flummoxed me, especially after all the fishing around we’d done. ‘That’s easy!’ said Anita, ‘it would be an ad for my shop.’ She proceeded to tell me about her long-standing dream to have a shop where she was selling her own range of home accessories and gifts. I made the suggestion that she could set up her own business. Anita’s response was “Could I?’
Anita’s biggest concern was money. How was she going to survive? She was earning a good salary and she didn’t want to give that up. Yet at the same time, going to work each day was becoming more and more painful. Then luck came her way. The company was going through a period of big change, and voluntary redundancy suddenly became available. What’s more, Anita quickly found some contract work, working three days a week and earning more than her full-time salary.
'If I had a motorway billboard that thousands of people would see, what would I have on it?' |
That’s when Anita kicked into action and set up ‘Heart and Home’. ‘But I couldn’t find the right shop’ said Anita, ‘I’d go to the point where I thought, “this is not happening for a reason”’. While she was on a short holiday with some friends and they were lying on the beach, Anita made the decision that the shop just wasn’t right for her at the time. That’s when ‘Heart and Home’ parties where born. ‘At the beginning, all I could see was a shop in the traditional sense, not a shop that was open 24/7 online. Before I knew it, though, I was doing Heart and Home parties and running a website’.
When I asked Anita what she’d learnt from the experience, she said, ‘In your gut you will know whether it’s right to make that leap of faith, but don’t let that little voice in your head stop you. And most of all have fun with it. It has been really hard work at times, and it’s easy to get too serious. But get excited about the little things and have fun.’
Wise words from someone who never dreamed she would run her own business.
Like Anita, the Gulp! that you’re facing is a call; a call for you to step to the next level of your life and your personal potential. But the fear that comes with moving into unfamiliar territory not only holds you back, it can also limit your vision of the options available to you.
Gulp! Reflection
Think about your Gulp! for a few moments and ask yourself:
* What ‘could be’?
* What am I not seeing?
* What if money wasn’t an issue?
* What if I had complete freedom?
* If I had a motorway billboard that thousands of people would see, what would I have on it?
Extracted from Gulp! The seven-day crash course to master fear and break through any challenge - Gabriella Goddard www.gulptime.com
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