Is this an aphrodisiac in your business too?

I love digging into the numbers in my business. Revenue. Expenses. The P&L. Marketing stats. Project stats. ALL OF IT! 😍

It shows me what’s working and what’s not.

It gives me the information I need to make great decisions.

Some of you will relate and think of course! 

Some of you will think… omg, numbers and metrics makes my mind go numb and my eyes roll into the back of my head.

I get it… 

I now find knowing my numbers super sexy. 

Sexy as in it turns me on and lights me up. 

There’s something magical about knowing exactly where I stand.
There’s knowledge, certainty and yes… accountability, which I now crave, but I didn’t always…

There was a time when I wanted to hide from the numbers because quite frankly I wasn’t living up to my own expectations. 

I didn’t want to look. I didn’t want to see what they had to say. I wanted to run and hide and work on things where I knew I would be successful, where I already had mastery… rather than confronting what the numbers were telling me about my business (and myself.)

Yet the numbers don’t lie. They tell you exactly where you stand in relation to the metric they are set to measure.

For instance, your P&L isn’t there to measure happiness, at least not directly. It measures profit. Could you be happy if you aren’t making the profit you desire? Absolutely, but not necessarily. But most importantly this isn’t what it’s set to measure and sometimes we confuse those things.

It’s also not there to measure your self-worth, or whether you’re smart or a good person.

Yet, often we hide out and don’t want to look at the numbers because we think they will be PROOF that we’re not enough, that we just don’t measure up.

Stop doing that. 🙂

Use the numbers to level up. If you’re ambitious and are game-on with your business, they simply indicate that you’re missing something… a skillset, a level of awareness, a belief, help, commitment, etc. They indicate that it’s time to grow.

And growth is enlivening. It can be an aphrodisiac if you let it. 😉 

Now I know that if I’m ever AVOIDING looking at the numbers, I’m in resistance to growth–to actually becoming the person who does the thing that is required for the next level of success. 

There’s both a big “Ugh!” and a big “Ahhh!” when I become aware of when I’m avoiding looking at some number.  

The “Ugh” is like a face palm… there I go again. The “Ahhh” is a relief, finally I see what’s causing me the frustration and I can do something about it.

I can take action. I can put a new Cause into Effect. I can take responsibility for my outcomes.

I can lean in and do the work.

This is how I use the numbers to live a lit up life.

So for you today…

What numbers do you need to track?
What numbers are you avoiding looking at?
If you looked at them, what would they tell you about yourself and your business?

Remember… “The degree to which a person can grow is in direct proportion to the amount of truth that he can accept about himself without running away.” – Leland Val Van De Wall

Enjoy!