06. Slow Success Framework

Are you tired of chasing the latest business strategies, AI tools, and marketing tactics, only to feel overwhelmed and burnt out? What if I told you that the secret to success isn't about doing more, but about doing less?

In this eye-opening episode, we challenge the conventional wisdom of setting big, audacious goals and introduce a revolutionary approach: the Slow Success Framework. This method isn't about slowing down your progress; it's about creating sustainable, meaningful growth that aligns with who you are and what truly matters to you.

We explore the pitfalls of setting unrealistic goals and how they can lead to:

• Overwhelming pressure and resistance
• Neglecting what's truly important in your business and life
• Losing sight of your authentic self and values

Discover how to:

• Set goals that are low enough to be achievable, yet high enough to matter
• Work with your subconscious mind instead of against it
• Create consistent, small wins that build unstoppable momentum

What if slowing down is the fastest way to where you want to be this year?

Join us as we redefine success and explore how intentional, consistent effort towards meaningful goals can transform your business and life. It's time to stop rushing and start building a sustainable journey that truly aligns with who you are.

Are you ready to embrace slow success and create lasting change in your business? Hit play and let's begin this transformative journey together.

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Transcript

 What if I told you the secret to success isn't you doing more, isn't you chasing the newest strategy, the newest  AI tool, the newest  tactic  in order to get ahead,  to survive,  to grow,  but you doing less of the things that no longer  fit. into your life. Welcome to the Courage to Success podcast. I want us to kick us off with  wishing you a happy new year. 

We wanted to do a lot  in the last year, but we didn't.  We made goals, and probably, like the majority  of us, new year's bring a A moment to reflect back on the past year, how it went,  what have we done, how we have lived it, how we have enjoyed it. And I ask you for a moment to just,  to look back and over and around the last year. 

If you can summarize it in a sentence.  How was the year for you?  Was it good? Was it bad? What have you learned? And what are you taking away into the new one?  Just think for a moment.  And as the new year has started, usually what we tend to do, we create  long lists of desires.  Desires of the things that we want to acquire.

Desires of the things that we want to change. Desires of the things that we think will make us happy.  We think only with that  my life will be improved. And  usually what happens, most of us,  Set big, audacious goals. Impossible goals.  And it feels good, that moment. Of thinking about it.  Desiring it. Like, oh yes, I want this. 

If I only could have it. I would feel like  I've conquered the world.  And as the weeks goes by, I Nothing much happens.  Those audacious goals  end up on the  graveyard of goals  because they have  overwhelmed you, overwhelmed your system,  and overwhelmed your life. It became too much to handle, too much to execute, too much to implement. 

And I want to introduce a concept that I call the Slow Success Framework.  And what does it mean  to use the Slow Success Framework?  Slow success doesn't mean no success. It means sustainable success.  Progress,  you can maintain.  So I'm inviting you on this year, on this journey with me, to go on the slow success  year. 

If you want to, of course. The problem, as I've mentioned, with these big audacious goals, they feel luring.  They feel exciting.  But most of us don't have any frameworks, don't have any tools. Any  backbone  in order to stick to it.  So we love the idea of it. But when life starts to happen,  when relationships starts to happen,  when your business starts to happen,  those things erode  quicker than the sunrise that you want to.

keep from not happening. You want to enjoy it.  So that rushing  of wanting that success, of wanting to create that success, it creates a huge resistance  within your internal system.  And your system, your internal system will sabotage you like No one else.  Like no one else.  It will  sabotage you  so sneakishly that you won't even notice it.

You won't even know the reason why you're doing it.  So,  what we can do here is we can explore where that is coming from.  And that is when we explore the subconscious mind to see how have we been trained  to operate or how our system has been trained to operate.  To give you an example with this is  when you were at school or when you were growing up you have observed people  And look how they are dealing with  creating success in their lives. 

And  unwillingly, you have taken on so many of different programs  that are no longer  relevant, no longer useful for you, but the only way that you could make it work. Work and understand was leaning on to the people around you, you know, who were there when you were growing up, which could be, you know, your parents, your grandparents, siblings, teachers, everybody that had an impact on you,  on forming into  the adult that you are today.

And  Often there is a price to pay  when certain things are not going the way they are. So how do we deal or how have we learned to deal when  things are not happening immediately?  There is often a punishment,  often an avoidance because of feelings like shame or guilt.  or embarrassment.  And your system, your subconscious mind, above all, wants to keep you safe and wants to protect you.

That is the only goal. It wants to keep you alive as long as it can and protect you. But it doesn't work well  with creating success.  So with working With clients, I've created the Slow Success  Framework.  Where we are working with our system, with our subconscious mind, and not against it.  So we are befriending it,  rather than forcing it to do certain things. 

And I'll tell you why I think this is a different way of looking at success. Especially in this time, digital age, where everything is instant. We can get everything,  you know, quote unquote everything, in a moment. We can watch our favorite series, we can binge seasons  of episodes. And we have just  gotten used to it.

You order something, you know, on Amazon, you  You can expect it tomorrow. There is food delivery, instant gratification,  and  success  is not built in an instant.  It's a lie.  It's a lie that we buy into,  and it's a lie  that we want to keep believing it.  But I'm inviting you on this,  to listen.  And to really think about, do you really need that instant success?

And if you need it so much, what does it say about you? What does it mean about you?  How will your life will be different?  That's the first type of questions that I have. And the other one,  can you sustain it? Can your business sustain it? And can you as a person sustain it? Because when success comes,  Other things come,  so if certain things  are working or not working, they might not work when your business grows. 

And is your business ready to  facilitate what it needs to facilitate, to bring the value to your clients? And are you able to operate on that level where you can be a useful?  to your clients. Valuable. So create value.  Still be able to maintain the success  and grow and to enjoy yourself in your business because you have created your business for specific reasons.

Only you know what they are.  So really think about that.  Because often that resistance  That rushing, that needing it, needing it to be there, needing the client to sign the deal, needing you to have the most successful launch that you have ever had.  And if that is not happening, that resistance  leads  to a crash,  can lead to a burnout,  can lead into  an inconsistent life. 

That no longer is joyful.  So I want you to reflect  on this question a little bit. When was the last time you truly enjoyed working  in your business?  And what would it feel like to remove the rush, to remove the need,  so that things  feel  easier?  Because let's not lie to ourselves.  Why do we want to rush?

Because we are avoiding something. We are avoiding a certain type of feeling. We are chasing a feeling.  And I said no more.  No more chasing.  No more running.  No more hiding. No more hiding from yourself.  If that means you being visible. Visible in the sense of Saying what you truly mean,  being, having a clear vision,  or creating a clearer vision  for your business and yourself. 

So the Slow Success Framework is about  you  picking a goal, picking a task, and you  low  So that it is achievable,  but high enough that it matters.  And think about what does this mean for you.  So while you are lowing, while you are aiming low enough of your goal,  your system  won't be fighting you. It might be even,  you know, smiling at you and say,  That's not high enough.

I don't want to do this.  But how many of things,  if we would just aim low enough  and actually achieve them,  would move our business forward?  Would move our happiness forward? Would move our joy  forward? Because  The slow  or the low  goal  is not sexy,  is not audacious,  it's not impossible,  so I'm not doing it. 

I want to share an example here.  One of my clients  was struggling with  growing her business.  And she was a successful business owner  in the sense she had an established business, but she wanted to grow it.  And while looking at what her peers were doing and what is the newest trend in marketing, the newest trend, especially today is using AI in what form?

Um,  you like. Some people hate it. Some people love it. Some people are afraid of it. Some people are leaning into it. There is a big discussion around it and  she wanted to grow her business, but she has created  such  a big goal for her  for a long period of time, we were just working on her resistance.  on going after this goal. 

And that goal started actually last year at the beginning of last year was like, okay, this year I'm going to go full in all in on my business. I'm going to do more of this. I'm going to do this and I'm going to have multiple launches. And  we created that plan, you know, her vision, but then when it came down to the execution of it, She was faced with so much resistance  that  she missed the work that she usually would do.

She didn't like going to work. She didn't like creating content. She didn't like working with people. She wasn't working on her business or in her business. She was looking to avoided. One time she got sick, other times certain things in a family setting pulled her out of the business. And yet she still wanted to go after this goal and was constantly the goal, the goal, the goal.

And the thing was what she associated that goal  with a certain vision of herself,  of her future self. That she has lost who she is today,  of what she's able to create today,  of what are the changes, the transformation, the life changing moments and conversations and the impact that her work has on her clients.

All of that was ignored. All of that was missed.  So, I challenged her  to slow down  and we were on the verge of stopping our  collaboration of working together because she didn't felt that it is a fit for her. But what I invited her  and asked her. to give me the chance or to give us a chance but most of all her a chance  to see her  to see her where she is  and then to start growing  and then to start building  to start really to look at things and not for the sake of aiming for the highest possible goal that you can  but why why do you want this goal  What would change?

What would it mean about you? What would you tell yourself when you look in the mirror  and think that you have achieved that goal?  And these goals  can create huge problems within us because the subconscious mind  is.  the protector of our system, of your life,  and we did some deep work  where she learned  why that is not the right approach to her. 

She discovered  what was happening  and remembered  where she had learned.  to cope this way, to behave this way, when there is a big goal  attachment  there.  So, I started to put together the Slow Success Framework, where we are starting  to build,  build  low enough so that her system  would want to do things, things that are achievable, things that are manageable, but they're high enough that they are creating an impact. 

And what we all forget, it's that one thing that you do when you're alive that will change everything.  And it's  one of the biggest lies that I've heard or told myself.  It's about those consistent small wins that you built  throughout the journey that builds the momentum because it's a layer upon layer upon layer upon layer where you are creating your version of success. 

Who cares what somebody thinks about success?  And why do you even care what anybody else thinks about success?  Let's create a success  that truly benefits you, that benefits  your clients, that benefits your business, and that benefits you the person,  so that everyone is benefiting  and not being there  on the expense of someone. 

So,  how do we identify  when might it be the right time  to switch  from the fast aiming, high aiming success goal?  I want you to think about  the moment when you feel stuck in your business, in your life, at home, in relationships. stuck in creating goals, stuck in not knowing what to do, you're doing too many things  but feel like nothing is truly moving you forward,  I would say that's, that is the moment to be really asking yourself, to really pause and inquire of, do you want to Keep doing it,  or do you want to  stop and course correct? 

You're not stopping  and not going after, but you're meeting yourself where you are. You're meeting your business where it's at. You're meeting your life where it's at.  And then  you focus.  You focus  on a low enough. but achievable goal,  but high enough that it matters.  So what would happen if you choose one thing  to focus? 

Just one,  for one week.  Can you commit to that?  And a new way of looking at success  is about, success isn't about taking off a massive to do list.  It's about intentional and consistent effort towards truly meaningful  goals  that mean something to you.  And what if success isn't about how fast you go?  What if success isn't about how fast you go, but how sustainable your journey is? 

Because how long are you planning to have your business?  The rush.  Because the rush is about needing it now,  needing it immediately.  As if you would leave your business in a month,  would you?  I don't think you would.  So what if success isn't about how fast you go, but how sustainable your business journey is  and how can you redefine your goals?

To truly align with who you are right now, as a human, with the human conditions that you have.  One thing that I can share,  I set audacious goals,  and last year my mother passed away, so my audacious goals were  irrelevant. I didn't give a fuck about them.  For a whole year.  So you don't know what life will bring you.

And I want you to truly ask yourself, where are you right now in your business? Where are you right now in your life?  And what are those goals? What are some of the things that you need to let go? Let go? Because they were ideas of the past, ideas of Ines.  that you have created for yourself or thought, oh, I need this, I want this, everybody has it.

Who cares?  What do you care?  So I want you to give some practical steps to think for yourself and embrace the  slow success framework. So pick one  manageable goal for the week.  Start small. Don't rush. In slow  is spaciousness.  In slow is openness. In slow is curiosity.  And you need curiosity. I want you to reflect on the progress.

Low, aim enough,  but significant enough that it matters.  And celebrate  yourself,  your small wins.  What does celebration mean? I don't have a clue. You tell me. How do you want to celebrate? Define what it means to you.  Set boundaries.  What does that look like?  Say no  to tasks  that don't serve your bigger vision. 

You don't need to do everything by yourself.  It's also a learned, a learned way of operating in this life. It's like a survival mechanism  that you have learned from your parents or somebody else close to you.  The Slow Success Framework  is a framework  that works.  It works for you, it works for your business. 

It works. The way you want to  work in partnership  with yourself.  If you want to push,  force,  this is not the right approach for you.  But if you want to slow it down,  slowly create the success that truly moves the needle for you  to build.  An intentional, sustainable business, then this is the right approach. 

And on the last note, what if slowing down is the fastest way to where you want to be this year?