Help me I’m falling!

Each morning I take my dogs, Harry the German Shepherd and Hugo the West Highland Terrier for a walk.

In summer we run along the beach and Harry has a swim but in the winter months, we settle for a brisk walk around sunrise.

I remember a morning in winter, I got up early and was getting their leads together while it was still dark.

Hugo, who sleeps upstairs (often at the foot of our bed), must have heard the jangle of the leads.

Within seconds I could hear him tearing across the carpet upstairs and starting down the stairway.

Suddenly, I stopped hearing his paws on the timber steps and instead heard a series of thumps and bumps.

I raced to the bottom of the staircase as Hugo tumbled down 13 steps and I caught him just in time before he crashed at the bottom.

When I first saw him, he had a look of sheer terror on his little face but as I caught him and broke the rest of his tumbling fall, I could see the release. He knew I had him.

We often feel in business that knowing someone has you and can stop that tumbling freefall is invaluable.

In fact, the relieved look on Hugo’s face was almost the same as the relieved look I see on my Mastermind clients (except of course they don’t look like a dog!)

If you don’t belong to a Mastermind group there are still things that you can do to make sure that any freefall into overwhelming can be caught.

Here are three things you can do:

Join a Chamber of Commerce

Lots of business owners see a Chamber of Commerce as a networking opportunity. You can, however, see them as a great support opportunity.

Remember the other business owners belonging to the Chamber are probably going through the same issues as you or they have been through them and have discovered a solution.

Simply having a group of like-minded business people around you will give you the opportunity to share overwhelm as it’s happening and to learn some of the strategies that others have used to arrest it.

Find an industry group

We often see other people in our industry as competition and fail to see that they can perform a really important role of support and camaraderie.

One of the issues I have with industry groups is that often there is a lack of real honesty in those groups.

You know when you go along to an industry group meeting and everybody’s killing it. Nobody has any problems, and everybody is making a fortune. You and I both know it’s all bullshit but somehow a few people feel that the purpose of the group is to “talk it up”.

If you can find a group of people in the same industry as you and you are clear that the purpose of getting together is to share some war stories, share some wins and lessons, and help each other move past some of the struggles, then you will find that a worthwhile exercise.

Join a mastermind group

One of the things that we do in Business Accelerator Mastermind is to spend some time each week looking at what the wins and lessons are from the week.

By hearing other people’s wins and lessons, it enables you to take the lesson and work out how you can apply it to your circumstances.

That’s what we do in Mastermind and it’s surprising how people from different industries can learn from each other.

It’s what we call the perfect mix between collective momentum and shared wisdom.

There is a saying along the lines of –

‘If you want to go faster travel alone; if you want to go further travel together. That’s the power of having a group around you.’ 

That’s how you save yourself from overwhelm, that awful feeling like you’re tumbling down the stairs.

Hugo was fine by the way, and we had a great walk, but it was just a timely reminder of how imperative it is to know that there is always someone there to catch you.