​Several years ago when I started this entrepreneurial journey, I was terrified.  I had asked the Universe for a job that would be flexible enough to allow me to work from home, that would make enough money to support my farming habit, and that would be about helping people directly.  I wanted to be able to see the transformation in my clients’ lives. 

A few months after I put that request out there I heard about health coaching for the first time.  It seemed like a perfect match for me so I signed up for a certification program.  I was hoping that the school would show me how to build a business that would support me both financially and spiritually, but I had no idea what that would actually look like or feel like in actual practice.

I was literally shaking, but I knew that I knew how to do school so I told myself to just read the intro materials.  Then do the first lesson.  Over the next year, I followed the instructions, successfully completed the program, and worked with my first client.  I loved it!  Health coaching really did seem like the business I wanted to be in.

Then I discovered that I had to market my business if I wanted to get more clients.  I had to put myself out there and be seen.  I had to take consistent actions to move towards my goals.  This was so different than anything that I had done before that I was almost paralyzed.  Almost.  But I’m very tenacious once I commit to something.  I realized I couldn’t do it on my own and had to find a lot of help.  I hired a business coach and joined an online community of entrepreneurs who were building service businesses based on more than just the financial bottom line.  And I recruited some partners.

 Today, it still requires taking some deep breaths to take some of the necessary actions to make the connections and move forward.  And I am still pushing my own boundaries. Constantly. But I’m no longer terrified of it.  Along the way I have heard that entrepreneurship is a great vehicle for personal growth.  That has certainly been my experience.  In small ways and big ways I’ve had to change almost everything I thought about my capacity to do things. 

Living a life dedicated to growth is almost always uncomfortable because I’m always doing new things, stepping out of my comfort zone to get to the next level.  I had a yoga teacher once who explained it like this: life is like a yoga stretch.  You want to go to the point of stretching yourself, to the point of discomfort but not pain.  Then you sit there in the stretch until it becomes something you’re easily able to do.
Some of the things I’ve learned on this journey: to be compassionate with myself and others; that mistakes are how we learn what doesn’t work; that if we approach any issue with curiosity instead of judgement it becomes an opportunity; to be willing to be vulnerable; to ask for lots of help.

An oft used metaphor says we should keep putting one foot in front of the other.  But that implies linear motion, as well as a certain tendency towards trudging.  I prefer to think of it as a dance.  Sometimes my feet go forward, sometimes they go sideways, sometimes backwards, but I’m always moving, changing my perspectives and improving my flexibility.
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I’m a romantic.  I want life to be magical.  And I’ve learned that that means I have to step outside my comfort zone and dance. 

Decision Making Process: Choices and Outcomes

It is important to recognize that there are consequences for taking too long to make decisions in today's business climate. Today the amount of time required to conduct business has accelerated to the point where, in order to remain effective and viable, leadership must be able to make decisions based on information at hand and past experience in a relatively rapid time period. This means that organization of resources and services is key. For relatively inexperienced entrepreneurs, decisions can seem fraught with challenge. It may often seem as if the weight of each decision may determine the course of your company. In some cases that may be true. But what is most true is the kind of indecision which paralyzes  - causing a business to stop in its tracks - might create a worse outcome than a decision that yields a dead-end.  

Some suggestions for making decision making seem less portentous:

1. Listen to your gut; your instinct is there to lead you in the right direction. 
An empirical study (Khatri and Ng, 2000) conducted on the role of intuition in strategic decision-making found support of the hypothesis that intuitive synthesis is greater in unstable than in a stable environment and that in an unstable environment intuitive synthesis is positively related with organisational performance. Furthermore, a study of entrepreneurial personality (Levander and Raccuia, 2001) found support that rationality has a lower priority than instinct in shaping entrepreneur’s behavior.

2. Know your strenths and capitalize on them . 
Learning how to identify your strengths and then capitalize on them by acknowledging the strengths of your partners and colleagues  can give your company the freedom to focus on its main challenges and opportunities, with people addressing the problems that require their strengths .

3) Remember that a decision may not result in a black or white answer but a shade of grey. Stay open to unforeseen outcomes.

4) Make an effort to embrace change; stay current within your field and society at large in order to have new ideas and information flowing in to help shape your decisions. 
Mintzberg and Westley (2001) advise simply to ‘jump into the pool,' hence, to undertake an action. The feedback of the action will direct the further steps. Thus, ‘doing first’ is a way to evaluate possible alternatives, to see which one suits best the organisation and to continue following it. This approach is advisable when the situation is novel and confusing, and things need to be worked out claim Mintzberg and Westley. 

Often our fear of decision making is that of making the wrong choice. If we learn from a choice we have made then it was a successful opportunity to fill in information gaps and react to them. 

How are you choosing to find ways to make decision-making less stressful? 

"If you put off everything 'til you're sure of it, you'll get nothing done."
Norman Vincent Peale