How to Stop Sabotaging Your Success

What’s the most significant factor in your financial success as a business owner? It’s not necessarily the market, the industry, or even your clientele. For many entrepreneurs, especially women, the biggest limiting factor is negative internal beliefs. 

In other words, what’s probably holding you back is your own mindset. So, how do you know if you’re sabotaging your success? And what can you do to stop limiting yourself and your business?

As in most cases, the first step is recognizing the problem. Once you can identify the beliefs that are holding you back, you can take action to overcome them. So let’s look at some of the most common self-sabotaging beliefs and how you can develop a mindset that supports success.

External factors that sabotage women in business

Before we dive into your internal beliefs and self-sabotaging behaviors, let’s take a brief look at some of the outside factors that have limited women’s success throughout history. We’ve made progress in overcoming many of these societal and cultural limitations, but women still face many challenges, like the pay gap.

And even if you don’t agree with the values and beliefs that have historically limited women’s success, they might still be influencing your business. Why? Because so much of what we believe is based on how we’re raised — and we’re barely a generation away from when a woman had to have a man’s signature to get a loan or a credit card. So it’s important to recognize that parts of society (past and present) can impact our success.

Here are some of the challenges women entrepreneurs face today:

• Pay gap (women vs. men, and minority women vs. white women)
• Underrepresentation in C-suite roles
• Workplace harassment
• Workforce culture/biases (e.g., women are expected to plan parties, provide food, and maintain office morale)
• Unequal expectations relating to housework and childcare

Cultural trends are moving in a positive direction for many of these issues. But it’s crucial to understand how these external factors may be affecting your business. Believing they exist is the first step toward changing them.

Find your inspiration

One of the things that affects many women entrepreneurs (myself included!) is the idea that making a lot of money simply isn’t in the cards for us. For me, the internal monologue was, “I’ve never seen anyone earn a million dollars, so what makes me think I could?”

It might not seem like this mindset matters, but it can be so powerful. If you don’t have any real-life examples of success that you can look up to, it’s hard to believe that you can achieve your goals. 

But it’s absolutely possible to make a million dollars — even in the fitness industry. And one of the best things you can do for yourself is to seek out high-achieving women. Read their stories. Learn how they think. Put yourself in the room with them. Prove to yourself that your financial goals are achievable — if she did it, you can too!

Value yourself and your services

Another financial mindset that negatively affects women entrepreneurs is the idea that money is finite. And typical follow-up to this is that it’s greedy to charge for your services. Do you feel guilty for asking someone to pay for your services because you feel like you’re “taking money away” from them?

The first step to overcoming this is realizing that money is not finite. People exchange money for goods and services all the time. When someone pays you for your work, they’ll eventually get that money back when someone pays them for their work. This is an abundance mindset, and it enables success far better than a scarcity mindset.

Another thing to remember is that you deserve to be paid for your time and expertise. Most of us in health and wellness started our careers because we wanted to help people. But charging for our services doesn’t mean we aren’t helping. 

In fact, financial success often allows you to help more people. When your business makes money, you can contribute to charities and/or bring on more team members to serve more clients. You are not taking from your clients, you’re giving to them!

Believe that you are worthy

Do you believe that you are worthy of success? That you deserve to make money? Or do you feel like you’re unworthy of a financially successful business?

If that describes how you feel, you’re not alone. So many people (business owners and otherwise) believe that they’re not worthy of success.

But you have to overcome this mindset if you want to make progress in your business (and in life). So figure out the underlying cause, and deal with it. Re-evaluate your upbringing and the messages you heard growing up. Celebrate your wins. Go to therapy. Do whatever it takes to help yourself believe that you are worthy of success.

Surround yourself with the right people

The people in your life and work have a significant impact on your self-confidence and belief system. Are you surrounding yourself with people who support you and your goals? Are you interacting with people who inspire you? 

If not, find ways to make that happen. Set healthy boundaries with toxic friends or family members. Hire people who believe in you and your mission. Join a mentorship group with people who will encourage you — and hold you accountable to your goals.

Improve your self-talk

Finally, consider trying some positive self-talk. I’ve started using mantras to improve my mindset, and it’s been an extremely beneficial practice for me (despite my initial skepticism). Here are some of the mantras that I use to develop a better mindset:

• I work hard and take my reward for it. 
• I will never feel guilty for paying myself.
• My worth is not determined by my bank account but by the value I bring.
• I deserve abundance and prosperity.
• Every day, I grow closer to my financial goals.
• Money and service can be friends.
• I am capable, competent, and deserving of my success.
• My success is inevitable.
• My past doesn’t define my future financial success.

Of course, you don’t have to use these exact phrases. But maybe they’ll inspire you to come up with some mantras or affirmations that are meaningful to you.

Even if you are skeptical about self-affirmation, I’d encourage you to give it a try. Otherwise, you’ll never know if these practices could help you!

Stop limiting yourself

There are so many challenges that we have to overcome as business owners. Let’s not set up extra barriers to our success. Take a minute to really focus on your mindset and beliefs — are any of them hindering your potential success and financial prosperity? 

If so, it’s time to do something about it. Find others who inspire you, do the hard work on yourself (e.g., therapy), and stop the negative self-talk. 

Are you looking for that community of like-minded women who will inspire, encourage, and support you and your business? That’s exactly what we do in the Inner Circle, my high-touch small-group mentorship program. You’ll get the chance to work with me and be in the room with other female fit biz owners who understand your experience. Get on the waitlist today!