What to do if you feel stuck in your business
Ever feel absolutely stuck in your business? Like you’ll never have another good idea again, you have zero creativity, you don’t know what to do next, you feel like you’ll never make any money, you don’t have any paying clients, your social media posts don’t get any good engagement, and you should just pack it in and quit? Phew, I thought I was the only one.
But I know with 100% certainty that I’m not. I have a deep conversation with at least one person a week who feels the same way. They’re in an old fashioned slump and they don’t know if they’ll ever get out of it!
It’s not like I have “5 steps to get off your butt and start feeling like a million bucks again” that you can follow if you’re feeling stuck, but I’ve been through these feelings enough times to give you some guidance on how to navigate these choppy waters. Let’s dive in.
Are you stuck or do you need to rest?
The first thing you need to understand, and I mean at a soul level, is that feeling “stuck” is completely normal. In fact, it’s expected.
If freaking Mother Earth can’t produce a harvest 24/7, 365 days a year, why are you expecting yourself to?
It’s unnatural to be productive and creative all the time. It’s impossible, really. Why? Because you’re not a fucking machine, you’re a human being.
You don’t have infinite energy for your business, and it’s used up by different physical, mental, and emotional events. Some days your energy will get used up on things that it has to go to first instead of being used in your business. Things like the kids (or you) being sick, taking care of aging parents, a global pandemic, or something as simple as not enough sleep.
Even your computer needs regular updates and usually works better if you turn it off every now and then.
If you’re spending more energy than you’re taking in, you might be able to produce something today, and maybe again tomorrow, but you won’t be able to do that indefinitely. Just ask our planets’ oil reserves.
Eventually you’re going to run out of energy, and one of the best ways to tell if you have is if you feel stuck.
So it’s not a matter of if you’re going to feel stuck, but when and how often.
Next time you’re feeling stuck and like a general piece of human garbage who isn’t being productive, instead ask yourself if you’re just tired and need to rest.
It’s hard to feel stuck after a nap or a weekend off. I know I’ve had enough rest if by the middle of the weekend I’m bored with reading and want to open my laptop to work.
And if you’re a menstruating woman reading this, where you are in your cycle absolutely affects your productivity and creativity. No one is expecting you to write a Pulitzer Prize winning blog post (IS THAT A THING?!) on the first day of your period … except you.
Give yourself a few days to rest, and you might be surprised by how quickly you bounce back and are ready to tackle your to-do list!
Are you stuck or are you growing deeper roots?
When we feel stuck, it can be because something deeper is going on. Maybe there’s change happening in your life, or routines aren’t what they used to be. Maybe you started therapy and are looking at life long habits or relationships that aren’t serving you anymore.
You can sometimes walk around for weeks or months feeling like you have too many thoughts swirling around in your head, and at the same time none of those thoughts are being put into action.
You might feel like you’ve got a ton of energy stuck in your body with nowhere to go … but is it really going nowhere, or is it growing deeper roots so you can support your next stage of growth?
It’s like roots on a plant. When you put a seed in the ground, it doesn’t look like it’s doing anything for days, weeks, or sometimes months. Nothing breaks the surface, and there are definitely no new leaves, flowers, or fruits. You have to keep watering it and giving it sunshine with the faith that it’ll sprout.
One magical day, the seed finally breaks the ground with one promising green shoot, and then it takes off and doubles its size every day. It’s not that the seed was doing nothing, it’s just that it was growing its roots deep enough to support the next stage of growth.
You’re no different.
If it looks like nothing is happening on the surface, maybe you’re growing deeper roots.
What got you to the level you’re at isn’t going to get you to the next level, and the next level is going to need deeper roots. The frustrating part to our capitalist thinking is it takes the amount of time it takes, and you can’t control it.
You don’t want to rush through this stage or your roots won’t be strong enough, and as you grow taller, you’ll topple over.
In a nutshell, growing deeper roots means growing a sustainable business. It look like:
building a website, which will house all your most important, long-term business building assets, like blog posts, quizzes, webinars, and other opt-ins.
going to therapy to work through all the mindset and belief issues that are holding you back (like not setting boundaries, your self work, or beliefs about productivity).
pivoting your business so it feels more aligned with where you’re at in your life. You might need to change your ideal client or paid offerings, which will take time for you to sit and reflect on what worked, what didn’t, and where you want to go next.
hiring a team or investing in paid ads, both of which will reduce your cash flow in the short-term, but over the next months or years will help you grow your business faster.
An easy way to know if you’re in need of growing deeper roots is to look at your recent business results. Did you just go through a period of increased revenue and are now at a new stage in your business? You might need to take the time to develop new systems and assets to help you maintain this new level, and to help you prepare for the next one.
Are you stuck or are you going through changes?
Change takes an incredible amount of mental energy. Need a reminder just how much? Move into a new house, where you have to remember where the light switches are every time you enter a new room.
When we moved into our new house 3 years ago, it caught me off guard just how much energy such a simple task used. And when I go back to my parents house for a visit, the house that I lived in for 10 years, I’m surprised when I don’t automatically know which light switch does what anymore.
Our brains use up more energy than any other organ in our body, about 20% of our daily total. You bet that your brain is going to try and be more efficient by creating shortcuts, which is what habits and routines help you with.
Want to try and easily learn a new habit? Pair it with something you’re already used to doing everyday and hardly think about, like brushing your teeth.
So when you have changes, any changes (including good ones), don’t be surprised if you feel stuck in your business, because more of your energy will be used by your brain to navigate the newness.
Have an amazing new day job? You might feel stuck in your business.
Child moved out for post secondary education? You might feel stuck in your business.
Moved to your dream house? You might feel stuck in your business.
Don’t worry, change doesn’t last forever. Eventually your brain will get used to it and can go back to giving more energy to your business. For now, just hunker down and ride the wave.
Are you stuck or are you just overwhelmed?
We’ve all been there, at the beginning of something new. At first, there’s adrenaline and hope and rose coloured glasses. That time is amazing. I love that time.
And then comes the paralyzing fear and the overwhelm from knowing where you want to go but having no fucking clue where to start or how to get there.
Someone might as well put you in front of a graduate level calculus problem and told you to solve it:
I know this feeling well, in fact I’m going through it right now, and I’m 12 years into my business! It never goes away if you’re always trying to grow and evolve and keep up with the times.
For me, the best thing to do when I’m feeling overwhelmed is to break down a big goal into smaller tasks. For example, my goal by the end of this year is to have 22 clients in one of my coaching programs, and right now I’m at 8.
To hit my goal, I’ve broken down how many people I’m aiming to add to the program for each month, planned a special event in August to push for applications, have mapped out my launch closer to the end of the year, and am spending the next 2 months creating new assets to start running ads to.
What if you don’t even know where to start?
This is where coaching and mentoring has become an invaluable resource for me.
I only know what my plan is above because I invested in high level coaching to give me those ideas and the steps to take to complete them. I’ve witnessed other people in the program do the same things as I’m planning above, and were successful in growing their own programs, so I know it works.
I’ve joined the coaching program to give me the map, and I’ve invested in courses to teach me the skills I need (like starting ads! I’m so scared to start ads).
In general, here’s how my “I’m stuck because I’m overwhelmed” cycle goes:
Freak out for a few days, and sit on the couch watching 30 Rock and Sex and the City reruns, sometimes while hyperventilating a little.
Get sick of feeling stuck, get the urge to plan out the tasks I know I need to do but have been putting off.
Map out all the tasks in my calendar (in a general way, I do these as major monthly projects).
Feel like a million bucks and like I can take on the world for about half a day!
Get to work and realize this shit is hard, but at least I know what direction I’m going in.
Rinse and repeat to infinity and beyond.
Breaking down huge goals into doable tasks is my zone of genius. I love doing it, and I’m damn good at it. While it comes naturally to me, I realize it doesn’t feel that way to everyone.
If you’re totally stuck with anything to do with growing your business, send me a DM on Instagram. I’m serious! I’ll walk you through the steps with all my 12 years of business experience behind me, and I’ll refer you to any of my blogs that would help.
If it feels like you’re the only one who is stuck on a regular basis, you’re not.
Social media is a highlight reel, and everyone shows the fun, exciting, positive side of things 99.9% of the time. It’s easy to feel like you’re the only one who is stuck, but chances are those perfect people are just as stuck as you … but the truth doesn’t get the engagement they so desperately need.
Like I said above, it’s not a question of if you’re going to feel stuck, but when and how often. Learning how to navigate challenging times is what takes years as an entrepreneur to master, and there’s no way to pre-learn it from a book or a blog post.
The only way to to learn how to deal with feeling stuck is to go through it again and again, each time feeling your way through it a little easier.
And easier doesn’t always mean easy or fast, just easier and with less resistance from you fighting it every step of the way. Kind of like the way to escape an undertow is not to swim against it (where you’ll tire yourself out and be more likely to drown), but to go with the current until it naturally weakens, after which you can swim out of it much easier.
Turns out Dory from Finding Nemo was right:
