Seeing and hearing about the exploits of successful people can in one sense be inspiring but when you are at the other end of the spectrum it can also highlight the fact that you aren’t there. I remember early in my practice career looking up at the greats who came before me. Naturally there was an aspiration to be like them but there was also that element of terror that maybe I just wasn’t good enough, maybe I wasn’t smart enough and maybe this whole career move was a just bad idea. You look at your life in these times and highlight all of the mistakes you have made, the failures, the gargantuan cock-ups. Add these to a present state of a struggling practice and it can be a huge psychological hole you dig for yourself. It’s easy to quote the idea that every success is built on failure……but when you are seemingly bumbling around in the latter it’s hard to be inspired. I know because I have been there too. I spent my first 5 years in practice wandering round in the wasteland of failure struggling to make the money I needed to pay the bills. Yes I am a slow learner and some people have said I am tenacious or committed to have held out for so long. To be honest that’s not really the case. I didn’t really feel I had a choice. I’m not going to say something schmaltzy like ‘it was my calling’ etc, for me I just couldn’t see myself doing a job that I felt didn’t make a difference. I’d done that for many years prior. I had worked in banks, hospitality, landscaping and had spent a number of years travelling trying to figure out what I wanted from my work. When I made the decision to come back from overseas and study massage I found home. Admittedly it was a ramshackle place that had poor plumbing, electrics and no roof but it was mine. In my enthusiasm I underestimated how long this career would take to renovate and the lack of skills I had at the time. That was the first mistake of many. Boy did I make some doozies. Here are just some of them for you to chuckle at:
Now this is just a small list of my professional mistakes. My personal life was a whole other world of carnage. I sometimes wonder looking back how I managed to get out of bed in the mornings. But I did. That was the first step toward success. Despite the fact I had many doubts during those years and almost gave up numerous times I kept getting up in the morning and trying again. That is the one thing you need to do to be successful. If you keep trying again you will eventually figure it out. To save you time and from the pain of my mistakes here are my tips to achieving practice success:
Building your practice doesn’t have to be like it was for me and is for so many practitioners. Practice can be an amazing career with benefits way beyond making money (but you can have that too). I know, because that is where my practice is now.I now help thousands of people every year to better health and happiness. Because I am not perfect I still make mistakes but now I learn from them a lot faster. I am also constantly educating myself to prevent them before they happen and to help practitioners do the same. All of my success stems from repeated epic failures so if you are struggling to find your way you are not alone and if you need some support we are here to help you every step of the way.
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