I'm a big fan of oracle cards for awareness in the present moment. Some of my mentoring program graduates were posting in our private facebook group the other day that they were feeling stuck, overwhelmed, etc . (a typical day in the life of being self-employed…) and so I went LIVE, and pulled a card for them. We pulled the MOUSE card (from my Animal Spirit Deck from The Wild Unknown).
MOUSE is all about getting so hyper focused on the little things that you lose sight of the big picture.
You are in Mouse energy when you are focusing on every tiny crumb instead of your PASSION.
Don't get me wrong – the details are important. But it's easy to get lost in the teeny tiny details.
In fact–
It can suck the momentum right out of you.
Have you ever had a big goal but didn't go for it because the details overwhelmed you?
When I was younger, I wanted to be a physician.
I started at the University of Utah in 1996 after I'd graduated from the Myotherapy College of Utah, and lasted about ONE semester because I was too afraid of taking all the wrong classes in the wrong order and messing things up. But pre-med, meetings, orientation, advisors, planning the next 4+years when I couldn't even see past the end of my nose at the time….yikes. No way. I froze just thinking about it.
Registration alone overwhelmed me, and that overwhelm and fear of messing up stopped me until I finally got me a damn Liberal Arts degree in 2008. I graduated at age 31, literally a few weeks after giving birth to my second child. (Not ideal. Not an MD either. )
Some of you are stuck in your massage practices because you are afraid to confront the nitty gritty, such as:
- zoning
- pricing
- business licenses
- taxes
- accounting
- social media
- wtf to do with my website/facebook page/instagram
- online booking
- how to talk about what you do
- sales/marketing of your services
I totally get it you guys. We are usually right brained healers, not left brained business people. That's why I do what I do – I help massage therapists navigate the wilderness of business. You likely didn't learn how to run a business in massage school.
Look, if you want to succeed in business for yourself as a massage therapist, you have to learn what to do, how to manage the details, and how to do all that without getting completely overwhelmed. Right?
So here's your coaching for today if you are overwhelmed by the details:
- Step back. Look at the bigger picture. Get connected to your bigger purpose and why on earth you became a bodyworker in the first place.
- If you're super overwhelmed, like on the brink of an anxiety attack or depressive episode or something similar, STOP, get up and move and go do something creative for a bit. Whatever your outlet is, just go do THAT.
- And on a very practical level, I'm a huge fan of doing a brain dump. That means, get a piece of paper, write down everything on your mind, and I mean everything. All the stuffs. Your to-do. Your dentist appt. Your home stuff. Work stuff. Client stuff. And then, pick the ONE thing that you absolutely MUST do today, that if you don't do it, you'll be in trouble. Then go do that one thing. When you're done, look at your list again and pick the next thing.
Does that help?
My next 8-week mentoring program starts Monday June 11. It would be really sad if it was a perfect solution for your practice building problems and you didn' t.even.know about it. I help massage therapists grow businesses of their own way faster and with much less struggle. Here's the information on how to apply.
