Imagine having three business opportunities lined up. They all have the potential for a huge payoff. You get excited, you work hard to make them happen. Then one doesn’t eventuate, one shrinks disappointingly and one works successfully but doesn’t get the results you had expected. And suddenly you feel like your business is a house of cards that is so fragile that it can fall down any time.

Has this ever happened to you? It has happened more than once for me, let me tell you. It takes me a bit of courage to talk about this so openly but I think it’s important.

It’s those times that my inner critic comes out to play and tells me this isn’t going to work, I’m wasting my time, I’ve missed the bus when it comes to opportunities, and maybe I wasn’t cut out to run a big business in the end anyway. See, I know my pattern, this is it.

What don’t see in these moments are the other opportunities that came seemingly out of nowhere. That were completely unexpected, are a perfect fit and while not as huge as the others I feel I just lost (and even that’s debatable), they quickly add up to something really solid. So in other words, my perspective on what is going on is heavily skewed and it’s really not serving me.

The truth is, this is the kind of dance that happens for me every time I take a significant step to grow my business and I feel out of my comfort zone.

Luckily I have ways to recover from this very quickly these days. The three tips I’ll share with you here are my safety net. These things keep me sane, get me focused again and have kept me from quitting more than once.

Get a reality check

The voice that comes through in these times is your inner critic who is NOT rational, often not caring and wants to drag you back to the safest path (which is certainly not running a business). This voice is often very dominant and loud. What you need is a reality check. I use my mastermind network and my mentor to do this for me. Whenever I feel this kind of stressful state come on I reach out to them and ask them for their perspective. I don’t know how many times I have blessed my Mentor for finding just the right words or my mastermind network for just being there, giving me a new perspective or cheering me on when I needed it most. Make sure you have a support network of like minded people preferably those that have walked the path before you.

Change your state

It’s almost impossible to find a new perspective or a sensible solution when in an unresourceful state, when you feel down, depressed or stressed. My way out of it is to put my favourite pieces of uplifting music on before I even attempt to shift my perspective. And it works wonders. I feel better, and I see new options. I know this sounds so simple but doing this takes some discipline as it often is tempting to wallow in your depressed mood. So the important thing is to nip this in the butt as soon as possible.

Commit to a bigger game

When you stress about things it is often because you are playing too small. If you fret about losing a client then what does that say about your prospect pipeline? And what does it say about your efforts you put into growing your business to a certain level? What if: What if instead of three big opportunities I had six lined up? How big a deal would it be if one or two didn’t turn out? Not as big. I think one of the biggest dangers is that people underestimate what it takes to get the results they want. So commit to playing big and stop sweating the small things.

What do you think? What do you do to get yourself back on track? And how is that working for you?