These Three Stinking Traps Suck
Whoops, I did it again. (can you read that in the Britany Spears singing voice, please?)
I started creating a new offering, a 5-day challenge to help you build your fancy, schmancy email list to love on. And I got caught up in a thinking trap.
Three common ones will pop up whenever we start a new venture.
These traps can stop our momentum and have us take an off-ramp to a rest area that we never seem to get out of.
Once I learned about these traps, I recognized my go-to and started seeing them in a bunch of the coaching students I was working with too.
Now, let’s be real; there’s no shame in having any of these traps because it’s our ego’s way of trying to keep us safe. Stepping out into the unknown and starting a business can be scary AF.
But if we get into one of these traps and believe them to be true, we join a mental battle. We need to question the trap, not fight it.
Here are those traps:
· The Knowing Trap
· The Complexity Trap
· The Victim Trap
My brain is a big fan of The Knowing Trap.
This trap shows up when you think you know something, but it’s knowledge based on totally faulty assumptions.
It sounds like:
“There’s no way I could charge that much for coaching; people won’t pay it.”
“I can’t create enough clients to sustain a living.”
“I tried that once, and it didn’t work out.”
You think you know what your clients do or don’t want, but you’ve never actually asked them. If you fall into this trap for too long, you’ll wonder why no one is taking you up on your offerings or showing up for your workshops.
I see The Complexity Trap show up all the time with new coaching students.
You think you must have everything in place to start coaching, or you need to know everything.
It sounds like:
“I can’t launch my coaching business yet because I don’t have a website, business cards, email automations, social media following…etc.”
“I need to be an expert in my niche before I can feel confident coaching.”
“I haven’t yet figured out how much I’m going to charge, how people will pay, and what my three offerings are, and I still need to figure out SEO.”
People who get caught in this trap are focused on the wrong things. The only thing you need to start a coaching business is a client. Focus on creating that relationship; everything is done to support that.
The Victim Trap can come up in all areas of our life.
It’s the temptation to blame something or someone outside of yourself for a disappointing experience. Because they did that or that happened, you don’t have to take any further action.
It sounds like:
“We’re heading into a recession. I can’t start my business now.”
“No one has signed up for my workshop; I’m a terrible coach.”
“I get a client, and they don’t stick around; I can’t figure it out.”
Having something not turn out the way you wanted or were expecting doesn’t make you wrong or bad. It’s just information you can use to try again with a different approach.
Listen, we all fall into one or more of these traps as we start something new. It’s totally normal, but the better you get at recognizing when you’re in the trap, the easier it becomes to extract yourself from that type of thinking.
Next week I’ll give several questions you can ask to coach yourself into more accurate and helpful thinking.
It’s my first cliff hanger….
