Illustration by Michael Vittitow

Last night I submitted my application for the Telstra Business Women’s Awards with 9 minutes to spare. OK so I was nominated by the gorgeous Lenore Miller weeks ago but “diamonds are made under pressure” you know! As the dust settled from my screeching dash over the finish line I thought about why I left it to the last minute and the lessons I can share with you from this.

Entering Awards Challenges Your Self  Belief

What goes through your mind at the thought of entering an award? Especially a business award?

In theory you see it as an opportunity and you consciously visualise yourself walking up the stage on presentation night and accepting your winner’s trophy. There is an aura of success around you………….

Reality Check

Self doubt raises it’s ugly head. There are so many amazing people out there, how could you possibly win? You really should wait until next year or the year after or in 5 years time when you are sure you will be so much more competitive.

Admit it. Why bother?

Another Reality Check

The reality is, you will always be aiming for something more. It’s the nature of entrepreneurs to always see what is possible. I was nominated a few years ago for this same award and thought “I’ll wait until my business reaches 6 figures”. The following year I was nominated again and thought “I’ll wait until my business is mid six figures”. This year I thought “I’ll wait until my business reaches 7 figures”.

When is enough good enough? Do you postpone opportunities until you get things perfect?

The Ultimate Reality Check

Opportunities will not wait for you to take action. They’ll be taken by the person who believes in themselves enough to act.

That’s why I submitted my application with 9 minutes to spare.

That’s also why I entered the MCEI Women in Business awards last year, and sent in my application at the very, very last minute. I knew there were some amazing people entering but also knew that if I didn’t demonstrate belief in myself, then how can I expect others to believe in me too?

I won the MCEI award and then to my absolute shock, went on to win the overall prize of Australian Marketer of The Year!

My Challenge To You

I want you to be brutally honest with yourself. What opportunities are you ignoring because you have not achieved what you think  you MUST achieve before you can hold your head high?

Now write a list of all the achievements you have made, no matter how small they seem. Keep that list close by so you can refer back to it in times of self-doubt. To get you thinking, here’s an exercise my family and I do at the end of each year and hang in our living room to remind us.

Celebrate those achievements. You can see a clever way to make sure you celebrate in this short video I shared a while ago.

Ready? Now go get ‘em!

Janet

P.S. Over the rest of the week I’ll share some of the questions and answers from my application to give you an idea of what is involved and also what makes me tick. If you join my rss feed (top right) you’ll get notified when I add any new posts here.