How much control do you really have in your business? Do you know what to do with it? Does having it help you or hold you back in your business? What about when you want to change something? Does control help you then?
Growing a business is one of the most life changing experiences on which you will embark. It's challenging, exhilarating, exhausting, scary, fun and my goodness, some days it can be downright hard.
Why is it hard?
Because it involves change, trust and letting go of control.
Surrendering to change means letting go of being in control. Yet, as much as we want our lives to be different the truth is, we don't like it much when our illusion of being in control is challenged. The feeling that we are in charge of our lives gives us leverage in our attempts to avoid the experience of loss. Yet, these efforts to circumvent loss are the very foundation of our excessive anxiety and worry. - Katherine Woodward Thomas (Calling In The One).
One of the biggest challenges (and thus the biggest gifts) business will give you is the ability to give up control.
It sounds counterintuitive, right? In business, you need to have a lot of control to make profits, right? From my point of view, the answer is a little "yes" but mostly "no". Surprised?
- Yes, you need to make the best decisions you can today with the information at hand.
- Yes, you need to take action and ensure you and your team are getting things done.
- Yes, you need to follow through and be accountable.
But the "no" part is more important:
- No, you don't control what your customers think, want or need and thus spend their money on.
- No, you don't know the bigger picture or what is around the corner.
- No, you don't know that the big loss you just took was the best thing that ever happened to you (if you could just get out of your funk and start seeing opportunities again).
- No, you don't know that the next person you meet might be your best customer, a new JV partner or the head of a big company that wants to partner with you.
- No, you don't control Google and yes, they regularly change how to get to the top of their list.
- No, you don't know that Richard Branson is going to be sitting next to one of your customers while they are using your product and then the world's coolest entrepreneur (Branson) calls you to become your next investor; like what happened for, Jamie Siminoff.
I could go on, but I think you get my drift.
What I've learned about control on my journey is that the only true control any of us have is the power over how we feel. How we feel dictates what we attract and what we attract is what we have to work with in terms of creating our reality with what is.
When you learn how to control how you feel, regardless of the circumstances, then life gets really, really good.
When your emotions are not conditional and since the universe brings us more experiences of what we are feeling, it can bring you more external circumstances to continue your chosen emotions. This is the classic, 'You must believe it before you see it.'
So, should you stop planning and taking action in your business? Of course not. But, I believe it would be wise to begin the journey of being okay with, or, in fact, maybe even being super excited about not having to control how everything is going to work out all of the time. Feeling a bit relieved already?
Letting go of control will free up so much energy that you will feel lighter and more aligned which will allow creative flow to come back to you and somewhere in there, you will discover your next brilliant idea (heck, maybe Richard Branson will want to invest in you, too)! Ready to let go now?