'Help!' doesn't have to mean a white flag...
You’re not waving a white flag, you’re just ready for your next clue.
White flags mean surrender. Almost ‘enough is enough’ so to speak, and you’re ready to call it quits.
So often, in the online world, I see white flags of what looks like helplessness cropping up everywhere. It’s almost as if people are ready to give up, but just hoping someone sees them in time to pick them back up and put them back on the right path.
I think the white flags are coming out a little too early. Almost as if you’re saying you’re incapable of moving forward without someone pulling you up and giving you what you need to put you back on the path you’re meant to be on.
Perhaps some people have genuinely reached this point. Burn out can be real. But actually, there are often a few too many premature white flags.
What if, really, you were just looking for your next clue. Imagine if you building or scaling your business is part of a big treasure map and you’re simply on your journey for the ‘treasure’ (in your case, the business you truly desire). You’re not going to give up because the path gets rocky, or it gets a bit dark, are you? Of course not! You’ll try again, you’ll go again, you’ll grow some more.
I honestly think that, for some at least, the idea of being capable to change behaviour, ways in which people process information and beyond is bewildering. So bewildering, in fact, that you stop.
Ask yourself today what dipping your toe in the pool would look like.
Some of you reading this are saying you’ve already gone SO much further than dipping your toe in the pool, you’ve dived all the way in, fully clothed in fact, and all you’ve emerged as, is waterlogged. You feel as though you’re carrying a whole load more, but that doesn’t exactly mean that you’re in any way, shape, or form, any more effective. Some of you have taken massive leaps, only to be stung by the water as you land. And who wants to go through an ordeal like that again? No one, of course.
But what if there was another way of doing things?
What if we understood that even the most capable, world-changing leaders don’t do it all on their own.
I remember thinking (in all honesty, I can still find myself grappling with this) that in order to show myself and those around me that I knew what I was doing, I just had to ‘figure it out myself’. And yes, an element of that is true. I again know only too well what it is to be so insecure that I’d ask for help (see permission) with almost every decision I made.
That side of me was the damsel in distress, waving the white flag with reckless abandon and everyone knew it. I was that girl.
And then something shifted, I started doing things without feeling the need to have 800 people approve my every move. And then I did it again, and again, and again.
And soon I wore my independence like a badge of honour. The thing is, I wore it so proudly that when I actually needed help, it was almost like I’d forgotten what that kind of support looked like. Fear of becoming that girl again – becoming who I once was, kept me bound to my own answers to my own questions.
But God is gracious. God saw that I was treading water in the deep end of the pool without a life jacket or any arm bands. And the lifeguard that He is, sent some people into the pool to help me out, because my stubbornness was going to have me drown if I wasn’t careful.
Perhaps you can relate to this? Getting to a point where you’re in almost way too deep, only for God to have to send some people your way to lift your arms for you because you’ve been too prideful to tell anyone that you’re struggling to hold them up on your own anymore.
Don’t allow yourself to get there. Don’t automatically assume that you asking a question counts you out of competency. The answer might simply hold your next clue. And if you, like me, are someone who does enjoy flying solo, that’s okay. Needing support isn’t defeat. It’s necessary. No white flags required.
“For as in one body we have many members, and the members do not all have the same function, so we, though many, are one body in Christ, and individually members one of another.” (Romans 12:4-5)
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HEY! I’m Naomi, Business Coach for High-Level Female Entrepreneurs & Founder of Living Word League.
I coach, write, teach and run programs which infuse practical strategies with Biblical principles (which I personally think is the best rule of thumb for success.) I moved from a 7-year High School teaching career, to building and scaling my business after starting out as a hobby-status blogger in 2011. Within months, I was able to go totally full time and haven't looked back. My success, as someone who previously would have never seen myself as an entrepreneur means that I'm now beyond passionate about business being an expression of Kingdom-building here on earth. Hobby status and inconsistent feast to famine months aren't cutting it for you anymore right? You're meant for a business which has faith as your foundation AND soars with success. That's where I come in.
Click HERE to learn more about working with me.