It must be a joke. I’m trying to tweak my LinkedIn account in order to initiate an advertising campaign to generate more leads for my leadership coaching business. Like many entrepreneurs, I’m working over-time trying to keep the client flow coming through what is the roughest period most of us have ever experienced either personally or professionally.
I change some account settings and update an email address and then, “click”. Without fully understanding what I’m doing, I watch my career profile, including 20 years plus experience, many glowing client recommendations and all my posts get zapped in an instant. This can’t be happening.
I call my IT guy who helps me as best he can but soon confirms the worst. My identity has gone to some irretrievable social media grave. It can’t be restored. And, in that moment, all the sadness of the pandemic, the months of social unrest, the ongoing economic turmoil and financial instability, the social isolation and many personal challenges I’ve experienced (like so many others), seem simply insurmountable. It’s like, “Really? Now this… too?” I mean, what’s the point of trying to create business success in this dark, overwhelming time? It’s just too much. This is the universe telling me I should just give up.
And so, I did. For the last two days, I have been totally miserable, dejected, defeated and feeling sorry for myself (including taking it out on the people I love most - sorry guys). I know it’s just a social media profile (albeit a very important one that is essential to support my consulting business) but somehow – this hiccup - seems like the icing on this rotten cake we’ve all been served in 2020.
Then I remember three powerful questions that I’ve been asking clients to help them manage their mindset and build resiliency through this period:
Question 1: How do I want to show up in the face of this challenge? I call this a “north-star” question that can help us navigate through adversity. My personal answer to this one that I identified for myself at the start of the pandemic was that I want to be highly supportive and inspiring to my clients (and others), and to find a way to be successful no matter how challenging the current environment.
Question 2: Based on how I want to show up, what could I do now to move forward purposefully? I could choose to throw in the towel and give up on my dreams, but that would definitely not be living up to the commitment I made to myself. The answer that rings true would be for me to, first, be nicer to the people around me who I want to support, and then to learn from my mistake (yes I know I often move to fast – I need to “pause” before pressing “click”!)
Question 3: What is the one step I will take now? Fix the problem – one step a time (do the work to rebuild my profile as best I can, and forgive myself for a making a mistake by letting it go). After all, who said being successful – in any time – let alone these days would be easy? I know better.
I think we’re hitting the “dig deep” stage. I’m sensing it’s going to take more perseverance than ever before to survive and thrive as professionals in this time. The answer to how we do this isn’t complicated, but it does take ongoing discipline and commitment. It’s about showing up to ourselves, to our people, to our businesses day after day, and consistently working to move ourselves forward, even in the face of ongoing setbacks. So lick your wounds when you need to (goodness knows, we’re allowed off days), and then think about your answers to the powerful momentum-building questions.