How are external conditions affecting your business?

I was struck with how down I felt yesterday. I could not explain why, but felt like I wanted to cry. I ploughed on through the day, working with clients, agreeing a new mentoring program with one and helping another to restructure their relationship with money to create the life they want.?

It was not until last night when I switched to the news for a final check on the world before bed, that I realised what had been wrong. I picked up, maybe in the morning, that COVID cases are rising again and now there’s talk of a new virus. I had heard this in the background and taken it in unconsciously allowing it to affect my mood. I was sad all day remembering back when I couldn’t see my grandchildren for Christmas in 2020, and all the other losses brought about by news like what I had heard that morning.?

Okay so maybe I should not watch the news – but occasionally there is business news that is not COVID or virus-related, and watching interest rates and unemployment figures is important to understand and adapt to the new shape of 2022.?

I want to ask you whether you are unconsciously letting the external environment that you have NO CONTROL over to shape your day or your business decisions - whether consciously or unconsciously.??

3 external factors that will result in your business failure?

I want to ask you whether you are unconsciously letting the external environment, that you have NO CONTROL OVER, to shape your day or your business decisions, whether consciously or unconsciously.??

During a mentoring call last week, one client allowed all their fears to bubble to the surface. It was all intangible, nothing fact-based. It was triggered first by health fears and then rippled into wealth and financial stresses, and finally it was affecting their ability to plan strategically for the coming year.??

At this time of year, a lot of businesses turn to planning for the next year, well hopefully reviewing and adapting the three plans they already have in place! If you are allowing negative energy, or circumstances beyond your control to affect you, then how will you be able to create a business plan that is positive, adaptive, focused on new opportunities and ready to make 2021 your most phenomenal year yet.?

There are three reasons businesses (and the people in them) will fail next year: poor planning, lack of opportunity, and stress.?

1. You can’t plan when your headspace is negative?

You cannot successfully and creatively plan your business, or your life, from a position of fear. And we need to be creative to adapt to the changes that we need to make to succeed during the next 6-12 months. My suggestion is to reflect back over the last ten years and not just 12 months. To look at the journey you have taken. Note your achievements and success and then work out the best way to move forward. This holds true for business owners, employees, people that are facing redundancy, or even for those evaluating their role as a family member.??

2. You can’t create new opportunities from a place of fear?

I keep hearing people say “2022 has been an awful year” (a bit like the previous two years). The year is not a bad, the impact of the pandemic and inflation and conflict has been awful. These challenges have shown us that our lives, businesses and society were not prepared for the unexpected. The positive insight to come out of all this doom and disaster is to show us that we had become complacent and that changes were and are necessary. We thought we were fine. We had settled for a “norm”. Now we can choose to shake things up, do things differently, stop what we don’t like and do more of what makes us happy, more of what makes us truly wealthy. This is necessary to create financially secure businesses and families that can focus on supporting one another, as that is the only way to survive all this – to support one another.?

And that brings us to stress; there is no denying that this year has been more stressful. Remember it’s stress that causes diamonds. From the pressure you will find new opportunities.?

3. You can’t be truly wealthy when you are stressed?

From personal and client experience, I know that you cannot be creative, happy or even healthy when you are stressed. I also know and can prove to you that, much like fear and excitement are two sides of the same coin, so are opportunities and stress.??

You can choose to experience this year as stressful and take that forward for the next 12 months or you can choose to take action; to identify logically what is causing your emotional stress response and then to do something about it. To find the opportunity to change. To decide to create the life and the business you want.?

We are already over halfway through 2022. Take this time to look back over the last decade 2012 to 2022 and notice how much better your life is, how your relationships have improved and your business or career developed. If nothing changed, and I don’t believe that is true for anyone, then that’s down to you - not the decade. If nothing changes in the next 12 months or decade, that’s also down to the decisions you make and the actions you take.??

Don’t be a passenger in your own life story – you can make your year (or your decade) phenomenal; you just need to write your part in the script.?

If you want to refocus your perspective – you are already working on it by reading this article, hopefully listening to my podcast A Wealthy Life, and checking out the free resources I offer like the Readiness to Retire Wealthy Audit.??

It might not always be easy and straightforward, but that is precisely why I am here. For more actionable wealthy life tips, please visit my website www.vickiwusche.com, listen to my podcast here and here, or schedule a free call with me. Let’s do our best to sit in the driver’s seat of our own lives.?