This month I am hosting a Lunch & Learn titled “How to Pay Business Debts You Can’t Afford” and when I read this Fences in Your Mind Excerpt it made me wonder how many small business owners are right there; strangling in debt and fighting mental fences that say there is nothing to do about it.
Here is what Betty Mahalik has to say in the excerpt I read:
Fences in Your Mind
Excerpt from Five Star Life
By Betty Mahalik
I’ve watched the movie Chicken Run at least a half-dozen times. Just beneath the surface of its simplistic look and story line lie a number of wonderful messages told by a bunch of Claymation chickens trying to break out of their chicken-wire world to escape their fate at the chopping block. Their freedom leader, a feisty little hen named Ginger, comments profoundly in one scene: “The fences are all in your mind.” She reminds her fellow chickens (and us), that bigger than the physical fences they’re surrounded by are the mental fences that hold them captive.
It’s been a good reminder for me on those occasions when I’ve been dealing with my own mental fences…those created by self-doubt, uncertainty, fear. Can you relate? Where have you fenced yourself in mentally in recent days or weeks? Perhaps your mental fence is procrastination, a deadening habit that keeps you stuck. Maybe yours, like mine, is related to self-doubt, and the on-going internal noise it produces that keeps you immobilized. Perhaps yours is the belief that you don’t deserve success, so you sabotage yourself to avoid having to find out how successful you could be. There are a million variations of the theme, but the result is still the same: we stay stuck like the chickens in the movie.
Last fall at our ASBDC national conference in Chicago Corporate Turnaround made a presentation on this subject. They have since made their simple do it yourself guide available to SBDC’s across the nation so that we can help our clients manage debt. I found their guide easy to understand and follow, with specific calculation guides. The Arizona SBDC has posted on their blog with links that include the guide and video tutorial.
I KNOW I have clients who need this help. I just hope I can reach them.
I can definately relate to the mental fence Betty talks about. It’s tough to overcome, but as a leader, small business owners should learn how to persevere.