What Can You Subtract?

Sometimes I think of myself as the “antiCoach”.

I’m supposed to always help my clients bring in more money and customers, right?

Not always.

This month, two of my clients who are psychotherapists met their goals for raising their fees and filling their practices, and both did so much sooner than expected. (Woohoo! -Beams with pride-)

If I were feeling super “coachy”, I’d push them on to the next level. “OK, when’s your next fee raise? You had that idea for a passive-income project, let’s get on it!”.

But that could create a problem.

Back when I was an adolescent, I was damn good at tennis. I remember one tournament, when I was playing another damn good player in the sweltering heat, and all the overzealous tennis-moms were staring from the sidelines as we battled it out over every. single. point.

The game went over by about an hour, which meant that as soon as I beat her (woohoo!) I was whisked off to another court to play my next opponent. Literally zero time between matches.

I remember seeing the ball glow extra bright yellow as it came towards me, while my peripheral vision faded inwards into speckled light, while I could barely hear my own muffled voice in my ears saying “I can’t see…”

Next thing I knew, I was lying on the court, having fainted from heat and exhaustion— and wondering how anyone thought it was okay for me to go out there again without a break.

Back to my clients. Will they take steps to increase their business income again at some point?

Of course.

But first: I coached both to just enjoy their success for a while. Get adjusted to their newly full practices, focus on doing good work, and take this time to subtract anything that’s unneccesarily sucking time or energy from their lives.

One decided to re-work her schedule so that she could have a leisurely morning routine, and still be home in time to hang out with her family. The other decided to put her active marketing schedule on pause so she could spend directed time delving into her creative side.

Are you taking time to pause and celebrate between “wins”? What if today, instead of focusing solely on what’s going to bring in money, you put energy into subtracting anything that’s using up extra energy? That’s a different kind of win.

Tell me what happens. Then rest on your laurels for a bit :)