It Takes a Strong Woman....

We all have them -- the weeks with the empty schedule, the weeks no one seems to want or need a massage, the weeks when everyone cancels. I think this kind of week throws everyone's confidence into a tailspin.

(Has everyone discovered I'm a fraud? Has everyone decided they don't need me? Has everyone found a better MT? Will I ever have another client? Will my schedule ever be full again?)

It really takes nerves of steel some days to be self employed.

I'm having that kind of week. One appointment for the whole week (and, boy, am I grateful for that one appointment!). When it's happened in the past (and it has, plenty of times) I could always look back at the healthy plump weeks for encouragement. Now, since I'm re-starting my practice, I've got nothing to look back at for encouragement.

So, I'm feeling very discouraged and blue and maybe just the tiniest bit panicky this week. I'm giving myself a "buck up" talking to, falling back on the advice I give other MTs when they have this kind of week:

* One bad week doesn't equal a dead practice. It's just one week. Heck, I've already got two clients schedule for next week!

* I'm working on some plans to market my practice. I realize I haven't done any serious marketing in years because I didn't have to. I'm a little rusty.

* If there's no work, then I might as well play. Museums, rivers, trails, and I've never been up in the Washington Monument. I also have a large address book of people I haven't seen in more than a year.

* As that crazy King Louie sings in the movie "Madagascar" -- I like to move it move it move it...as hard as it is to do, movement can have a powerful effect on the "veins full of sand" blues. Might as well walk over to Fragers Hardware and pick up a few things the house needs. At least it's a day full of sunshine!

I'm choosing not to give up and not to give in. I'm choosing to believe in me and my work. Nerves of steel...

Procrastination -- An Early Warning System?

I had a great conversation with my friend Jill Foster, owner of Live Your Talk, today. Like me, she is a micro business owner (translation: she works for herself and by herself). She asked me if I'd ever gotten stuck in a procrastination groove and what I did about it.

I told her my #1 response to the procrastination groove was to Step Away. That is, take a day or two off of work and go listen to my heart, go play, go nap, go relax but GO! Why?

When I look back at the times I've really been plagued by procrastination, it's been an (unconscious) act of self-protection. Procrastination often comes to me because I'm depleted. I'm worn out. I'm trying to work out of my reserves rather than my main energy source. I'm drawing from energy I need for other things. Some deep part of me -- Mind? Spirit? Heart? -- recognizes that and takes steps to protect me and care for me. Procrastination is one of the tools that deep part of me chooses.

For us micro-biz types we have only one real asset in our business -- us. As a massage therapist I also have two massage tables, a massage chair, a couple of thousand dollars in reference books, sheets, music and all that other happy stuff that helps me deliver massage therapy. But those things don't actually do the rubbing. That's done by yours truly.

And I can replace all of those things. I absolutely positively cannot replace me. Anything happens to me and BowersHours closes. Permanently.

So I have a strong motivation to take care of me. When something like procrastination strikes, I accept it as a warning that I am running low (sort of like that "time to buy gas" light in my car) and I Step Away From The Massage Table (and laptop and desk and big pile of massage laundry) and start exploring where I'm depleted and focus on re-filling myself.

If you look back at your life you can probably identify the warning signs from your mind/heart/soul that things aren't right, that you're depleted, that you're drawing down your reserves. What are your signs?