Since I’ve been solo in my practice and I’ve broken through some personal ceilings I’ve had around the number of my clients and my earnings, I’ve been thinking about how fast can a business grow, and what’s healthy. I’ve been helped along by a chapter in Paul Hawken’s Growing a Business called “The Art of the Incremental” I was re-reading recently.
So many times in business we are constantly urging ourselves forward, listening to the voices in the media, in advertising, in our heads, saying “More and more! Bigger, better, faster!”
This unhealthy focus on growing quickly, instead of growing organically, can ruin your taste for what you do. It’s not to say that growth can’t happen quickly; it can, and blindingly fast. But the real measure of whether the rate of growth you are experiencing is healthy or not is your heart.
If your business is growing more slowly than you want it to, it’s time to look first at why you want it to grow more quickly. Is it because you are in fear about money? Is it because you think others won’t perceive you as successful? Is it because you want to be somewhere other than where you want to be? These are all symptoms of fear and contraction, and tell you that you have a focus on what you are getting, rather than what you are giving. You won’t grow your business that way, and you probably won’t be enjoying the business you do have already.
If your business is growing very quickly, are you inclined to push it along even faster? Sometimes you have a period of growing quickly because you have been doing all the right things- you’ve been giving from a place in your heart, you’ve been marketing from a place of giving consistently, you are being responsible and delivering goods or services of the highest quality and integrity, etc. And then it starts to slow down a little, or you feel the need to push it even faster. That’s when healthy growth can turn cancerous and knock you over.
How can you tell the difference between healthy and unhealthy growth? It’s in your heart- you’re having fun, you are being carried, you are meeting your responsibilities, and you are inspired, and your customers/clients are grateful. Doing business from a holy place, the Divine spirit moves you at different speeds at different times. Remember to check with your heart and see where you really are.
Instead of worrying about where you are going, just right now, come into a place of gratitude for all you’ve been given. And then, from that place, move forward.
