Do you ever find yourself focusing on all the reasons your business isn’t going to work and you aren’t going to succeed?

Perhaps you think you are too young or too old.

Your mind might try to convince you “no one” wants what you are offering.

You might get stuck thinking, “who am I to do this? I don’t have the skills or background.”

Or it could be as simple as thinking, “this isn’t working” or “this will never work.”

I used to get caught up in this thinking A LOT (as in … my entire first year of business was a masterclass in shitty thoughts I had about myself and my business).

It’s a very normal thing our brains do. So, if you find yourself doing this, I want you to know nothing is going wrong.

Let’s normalize these shitty thoughts, shall we?

Here’s a short list of things my brain tried to convince were true, legitimate problems that would hold me back from running a successful business:

• No one is going to hire me.
• My business is failing.
• I’m not good at this.
• I’m not cut out for this.
• I’m too anxious to be a life coach.
• I’m too chunky to be a life coach.
• What I’m saying isn’t as good as what others are saying.
• I don’t know what I’m doing.
• I’m going to fail and be totally humiliated.

I had all these thoughts – often – and I had many others.

My brain presented these thoughts to me as if reporting the weather:

“It’s cloudy with a high of 71 today, and Erin is a chunky, failure that no one will hire.”

Oh, the thoughts felt SO TRUE. ????

But they weren’t.

And, your shitty thoughts about yourself and your business aren’t true either.

Here’s what I want you to do.

1. Grab a notebook and write down 5 of the worst thoughts you have about yourself and your business right now.

   (Don’t be afraid of this … once you acknowledge having the thoughts, you’ve already started overcoming them).

2. Under each thought, write at least two pieces of evidence that show thought isn’t actually true.

   (If you can’t find two pieces of evidence, simply write this: It is possible this thought is untrue. In fact, it is possible [insert more helpful thought here].

If you get in the habit of acknowledging the shitty thoughts, looking for proof they might not be true, and holding room for the possibility something more loving and helpful is true, I promise you will experience more joy and success in life and work.