There often comes a time in when you are growing your business when an overwhelming feeling begins to penetrate your mind. A feeling that sometimes isn't easily identified. A feeling of dread that nothing seems to be working. What do you do when it just doesn't seem to be working? And "it" is a vague word. It can be your marketing, networking, planning or client retention.



In the movie "Meet the Parents", Ben Stiller's character just couldn't do the right thing in the eyes of his girlfriend's father. He didn't know why things weren't working out; he just knew that it all seemed to be going against him. No matter what he did, everything he tried seemed to backfire on him. Even the idea of spray painting the cat's tail got him into deeper trouble. Finally near the end of the movie something really crazy happened.

That's what sometimes happens with your business growth. It's a scatter approach that many people undertake. "This month I'll put an ad in the paper", "Next month I'll try to go to that networking meeting", "Maybe I'll try to pass out some fliers and put them on some cars". All in all, this scatter approach is hit or miss. Kind of like that commercial on television with the one guy working with all the monkeys in a fictional business who decide that buying lottery tickets is a great idea to increase their company's revenue. It might work and it probably won't work.

During times like these, it's time to begin to diagnose what exactly you need to find a solution. A formula that works is A3. That's A three times. Each A stands for a step to a solution that helps stimulate people to change and succeed. This formula helps raise the conscious awareness and helps inspire change toward a desired result. That result is more inspired business planning and soul satisfying lifestyle.

The first A is Acknowledge. Take time to acknowledge things aren't working. Identify where you feel things aren't being realized in your business growth. Be realistic. This isn't a time to sugar coat things. Just as adjustments are continually made to an unmanned spacecraft heading to Mars, your business growth must implement adjustments along the way to success also. By defining what needs and wants are going unfulfilled, you are taking a step that a majority of people never do. When you try to sidestep around issues that are uncomfortable, you are just delaying the success you desire in your business growth.

Accept is the second A. Accepting your not too favorable assessment of things brings you much closer to a solution. It's like trying to find your way around an unknown dark room. When the light switch is finally turned on you feel much better about where you are and you can understand with more clarity where you can move forward to. This is where you can accept and connect to your fear. Accepting a certain fear about calling people and following up simplifies the solution. This is where you can learn to accept what kind of help is available to you. By just saying "I'm not really sure how to do this, who specializes in helping holistic businesses grow and when can I implement what they know?" will give you a better clarity of how to succeed.

The third A is to be Action oriented. Decide that a certain course of action is necessary to move forward in your business growth. When you understand that a simple action will increase your growth, this response will stimulate further gains in your business. An action can be something as simple as signing up for an eCourse to participating in a full fledged coaching program. What you resist persists. You've invested too much time and money in obtaining your certifications to not take some action. When you invest further in your education by implementing something different in your business growth by taking action or getting help from a mentor, you'll implement new strategies and improve your overall satisfaction of what you're doing as a healer to many more people.

Towards the end of the "Meet the Parents" movie there came a point where Ben Stiller had to have a serious discussion with his future father-in-law, Robert De Niro. They both acknowledged that they had differences. They then accepted that they must make changes to their relationship in order to get the things they both wanted in their lives. Next, they decided to take action by establishing ground rules on how they would interact with each other and what they would both do in the future to make sure their relationship moved forward.

It's a classic example of A3 in action.

Here's your assignment: Take some time this week to acknowledge what's not working right now in your business growth or in your life in general. Now decide if you are willing to accept that it's not working and where there is help available to help you implement new strategies to move forward. Finally, take some action. Decide to overcome any doubts that you have about getting and accepting help. Some of the greatest success stories have happened because people took action in getting help for their challenge.