WARNING - Upper Limit Problem Ahead
As a business coach focused on cash flow, my role is to continue to move clients along their path. Introducing, tools, techniques and strategies so they achieve their desired levels of success.
Much of this work is what I refer to as the grind. It’s the daily actions over time that achieve results. A drip of water consistently over time will carve the stone it hits. A sudden rush of water, a strong force let’s say, may move the rock but it won’t change its face.
Your business is the same. You can go ALL out and move an aspect of your business with sudden fierceness. And yet in time things will calm and you will return to where you were in the beginning.
Sustained change leading to growth takes consistent effort over time.
Growth will take you to new levels.
New levels activate one of your greatest critics – the itty bitty part of your brain that when good things happen for you, is sitting there in the corner with her arms crossed, tapping her toe and saying, “….ohhhh really? Well, that’s all fine and good, but you just wait. It won’t last.”
Charming isn’t she?
When things are going well, you are experiencing success you’ve never known, client roster is full, cash flow is FLOWing, you may hear her say, “Just wait, it won’t last.”
Or you could be hearing this message (direct from a client), “Holy balls - recovering from the business trip - inbox is nonstop exploding. Let’s review my cash flow projections cuz I’m **$!!** killing it - but also terrified it’s going to all crumble.”
When you go through major growth and change, personally or professionally these are the messages you start to receive before you hit what’s known as an Upper Limit Problem.
They are little warning signals…PAY ATTENTION.
Without proper tools and techniques things can begin to happen that that sabotage the greatness you are in and that is all around you.
Many of you have heard of an Upper Limit Problem, it’s an idea heavily discussed through one of my favorite books, The Big Leap. The idea for those who may not fully have their arms around it is that each of us has an internal thermometer for how much success, love, happiness, and intimacy we will let ourselves experience. That’s the Upper Limit. It’s where we are comfortable. It’s what we know.
When you go to the other side of this comfort zone, you can begin to unconsciously sabotage yourself and your new level of success, joy, love wealth – pick your category.
You know what I am talking about, it’s the unfortunate thing that happens when the stakes are high, it’s the traffic jam that leaves you late to the meeting, missing the BIG opportunity, it’s the lost packet of papers prior to the pitch to the unicorn of a client that would land you the deal of the decade, it’s the laryngitis that leaves you silent, right before the speaking gig that puts you in front of hundreds of your perfect clients.
You know it. It’s happened to you.
Fortunately there are ways to navigate your ULPs. Let’s start here:
You DESERVE it! I don’t know what your IT is. Trust me though, you deserve it. Wealth, fame, love, success, happiness. You deserve it ALL.
It happens to EVERYONE. Some people choose not to create the tools to move through their ULPs, they are victims, you know, the ones clamoring ALL the time, “Why does this ALWAYS happen to ME?!” That’s not you though, you wouldn’t be reading this if you were the victim. When you are committed to new levels and are continually looking to expand your capacity for all the things I’ve mentioned. The ULP will appear. Each time you will know the warning signs “the voices” and will start to put your tools in place.
Begin increasing your capacity for how great your business/life is today. Huh? Start by being grateful for everything you have. The imperfect partner, tell him you love and appreciate him. Be grateful for ALL the money in your life, every ….. single ….. penny. Care for the space around you, respect it. Put your dishes away. Make your bed. Hang your wet towel from the morning shower back on the rack. Thank your amazing clients for their business. And nourish your physical self the best way you can. Drink an extra glass of water. Get the salad on the side today instead of the fries. (Ok, I know this is a little WOO for some of you…..but stay with me. The proof is in YOUR results). I’m here to tell you the “the struggle” doesn’t have to be your reality.
Finally, when good things are happening, go on an ULP Alert. Listen to how you are talking to yourself. When you hear yourself say, “I’m just waiting for it all to collapse.” Stop. Ask yourself, “How much, success, joy, love wealth do I desire in my life.” If your answer is somewhere near ‘crapton’ (that is an official unit of measurement by the way) then get your thoughts and actions lined up with that. Reframe and say instead, “what additional steps can I make to sustain this success?”
You see what happened there? You just nudged your Upper Limit – stopping it from becoming a problem and opening the path for possibility.
Always know anytime you move to a new level the discomfort will appear, and it’s kinda scary. You’ll want to pull back, slow down, step aside or stop.
Don’t do any of that. Talk a walk, a deep breath, call your best business buddy or gal pal and talk it out. Your Upper Limit was just nudged again.
I spend all day every day nudging Upper Limits with clients. They don’t make quantum leaps, they take consistent action, with dedicated intention to reach their outcomes.
You get to do the same.
Want to talk over a Business Upper Limit? I have opened time on my calendar in the next few weeks to have some complimentary conversation sessions with dedicated business owners who want to get out of their own way. Is one for you? If so, you can schedule yours today.
Listen to yourself today and catch yourself hitting your Upper Limits, pause, reframe and move forward. You nudged an Upper Limit. Congratulations.
Debbie Page Whitlock is a business coach and leading authority on cash flow for women entrepreneurs, and writes on all things related to creating sustainable, scalable and potentially salable businesses and other useful bits of business wisdom she’s acquired on her 20 year entrepreneurial odyssey.
