Why Being Apologetic is Crimping Your Growth & Creativity

Being apologetic and making ourselves wrong doesn't help us step up to live our awesomeness.
Drawing conclusions about our wrongness closes the door to unseen opportunities.
Unfortunately, we’ve been conditioned into being apologetic…
I hear it so often when people tell me what’s happening in their businesses:
An owner of a wellness center with a loyal local clientele sounded apologetic about how she’s not doing the “Facebook thing” like those Internet marketers.
I asked her, what if she doesn’t have to do everything those Facebook gurus are telling you to do?
What if she only focuses on using online tools to grow her local presence and ditches what doesn’t serve that end?
What if she stops feeling bad about not getting 10,000 fans from all over the world (who probably won’t visit her center anyway) and uses the time and energy to hone in on growing and nurturing her supportive local community?
What if she stops wasting her energy on beating herself up and uses it to figure out why clients flock to her center so she can do more of what works?
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A client launched her beta detox program and got 50+ participants. Not too shabby by any stretch for a pilot.
I asked her what she could leverage from this round for the next launch.
She immediately went into how she could have invested more in backend technology so fewer tasks needed to be done manually.
It’s interesting… because I didn’t ask what she thought she could’ve done better. I asked, what success she could leverage for more wins! (Funny where our brains are programmed to go…)
Before she went down the rabbit hole of yakking what it could look like, I stopped her dead in her track.
What if she considers the fact that she didn’t have all the bells & whistles in place means she can now invest in the right kind of technology based on what she learned from her beta launch? (Instead of banging her head on the wall because she flushed a load of money down the drain for some software she doesn’t need.)
What if instead of jamming up her mental space with coulda shoulda she uses that room to strategize how to leverage the success of having 50+ clients loving the program?
What if she steps up to own the success and ride the momentum of awesomeness?
The change in perspective triggered a flood of brilliant ideas. Within 30 minutes, we mapped out a solid plan to make this successful launch keep on giving.
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Many people I talk to get really apologetic about not coughing up a 2,000-word blog post every week.
They were told they have to publish frequently (and the trend of long-form epic content really upped the ante and the stress) to get Google to like their sites.
Yes, there’s truth to that. But if you force yourself to squeeze out 2,000-word every week and it takes the joy out of you being YOU in business, hmm, is it worth it? And would it be sustainable?
You readers can probably smell the misaligned energy from miles away.
What do you want your content to do for you?
IMHO, your content's biggest mission is to communicate your brand – who you are, what you stand for, and how you serve.
If that’s true, then the question to ask is how can you express your value, conviction and brand essence through content? What format can best support this expression?
If writing isn’t your thing, or is supportive of expressing your message…
Keep It Simple, Sunshine!
Shoot a video, show your beautiful mug and connect with your peeps.
Go outside take a picture, add a quote and share out the inspiration.
Turn on the mic and record an audio… get a couple of experts on the phone, do some interviews and who knows, you may be up to a #1 podcast!
What’s on brand? What’s your way of expressing YOU?
If you’re like me and actually love coughing up 2,000-word posts… fist bump! Nothing apologetic about not hopping onto Periscope every 3 hours either ;)
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This being-apologetic-ness causes us to make ourselves wrong, box us into conclusion, instead of seeing what’s right in the situation and leverage our genius for opportunities to grow and evolve.
Is being apologetic for not fitting into “what you *think* is supposed to be” crimping your CREATIVITY and POSSIBILITIES?