Business owners deal with a daily barrage of tasks, stress, and challenges.

If it’s not managing your own time, it’s managing your employees. If not your employees, it’s fulfillment, sales, marketing, strategy, and financials. Plus, this time of year you’ve got taxes in there to boot. And that’s on a good day when you’re not putting out a fire for a client/customer. 

Then 2020 added a global pandemic and government restrictions so strict we’d never seen them in our lifetime. It shut down so many businesses.

I can’t think of a time I saw it more evident than in the faces of the Grow2021 attendees at the start of the event. They walked in feeling beaten to a pulp from the last year, some of them even considering closing their companies. You could see it in their faces: they walked with heads down, spines shrunken, and a face of utter exhaustion.

Even showing up was a challenge.

I know, because I’ve been there. As business owners, we often get to the cusp of an event and weigh whether or not we actually have time to go to this thing we’ve spent thousands of dollars on. I do it all the time.

Trust me, I get it.

But trust me when I also say that it’s not the end!

Those moments where you feel like you can barely lift your feet? They do not define you, and they are not the limit of your potential. After years studying psychology, I’ve finally realized that all those motivational speakers who get up on the stage and tell you about your potential are right.

If you’re anything like me, you’re reading this thinking “Sure, Steph. You’re speaking to the general population, you don’t know me or my potential.”

That’s exactly what I used to think. The truth is, every human being has incredible potential because of our capacity to think, reason, and feel hope. If you can or have done any of those things in your life (And I can promise you, you’ve done all three if you’re reading this!), your potential is practically unlimited.

Tap into it!

Right now you might be feeling beaten up. You might be wondering how in the world to tap into that potential that’s inside of you, or if it’s even there. So I’ll tell you the best way to do that: take time to breathe.

Step back: reconnect with the passion and drive for what you do.

For Example:

I take a 3 day weekend once a month. On this three day weekend, I reconnect with my mission and my inner creative person. It encourages me to keep moving forward and re-aligns my self-perception with reality.

Your breakthrough is waiting.

Yes, things are still crazy. Yes, it takes intentional action to step back and tap into your potential. But small business owners have the capacity and opportunity to make an impact unlike anyone else on this planet. It’s up to you to reach out and make your breakthrough happen.

Will you show up for it?

About the Author:

Stephanie Scheller is a TED speaker, a two-time best-selling author and the founder of Grow Disrupt. In just under a decade, Stephanie has been behind the scenes with more than 5,000 small businesses. She has worked in groups and one-on-one to create total business transformation & help business owners live the life they got into business to create!