How to know if it's working

A question that used to come up for me a lot (and sometimes still does) is "Is it working?"

When I started my first consulting business, I was desperate to feel that it was working.  That all my efforts were paying off.  

I was fine to not have massive success right away - after all, I believed that success takes time and I was willing to allow that time.  (I now know this is not necessarily true!)

But I was in no rush.  My kids were little, I was more a "mum" than business owner and I just wanted to feel like the business was "working" - that it had legs.

Know the feeling?

And so, like any other person out there, I looked around me for evidence that "it was working".

I looked at the hard metrics - my revenue figures, my audience size, the number of sales calls booked, the number of programmes sold, my conversion rates, etc.

I used engagement as a measure of, well, engagement.  How many people were commenting on my posts, how many email replies did I receive from my weekly emails?

I looked OUTSIDE of me - at the external world - to create my belief.

I looked at what had already happened and what was happening to give me evidence to support my thinking.

Instead of finding that belief internally.

You see, it's really easy to look outside of you and create belief when things are "going well". 

But what happens when things on the outside don't look the way you'd like?

Well, usually, we take that as evidence that it's not working. 

That we're rubbish. 

That what we're doing isn't resonating, isn't good enough or isn't "right". 

We start to think all sorts of not very useful thoughts about ourselves - we internalise the disappointment, we infer meaning where there isn't any - we start to doubt, lose motivation and confidence in what we're doing.

And from that place, things begin to feel hard, perhaps we take a break or stop even trying.

Which creates more external evidence that it really isn't working.

But what if it IS?

What if you could believe it's working EVEN WITHOUT the external evidence?

What if you just had to believe that it was in order to begin to SEE proof?

Belief starts with you.

It starts inside you.

It's something that you can cultivate, nurture and grow - no matter what is happening in the external world.

And when you choose to believe it's working, when that belief is there no matter what, you WILL begin to see the evidence.

Because you will FEEL different to how you are feeling right now.

Because you will be doing things differently to what you are doing now.

You will be speaking to your audience differently, marketing and selling differently and serving at a whole new level.  

And THAT will compel your audience to want to know more. 

To want to work with you.

So I invite you to stop asking yourself "is it working" and stop looking for proof to believe that it is.  

What if it IS working?

Start believing that it is without the need for external validation.

And if you're feeling resistant, ask yourself why.

Get curious and explore. 

There is no downside to curiosity - only growth.