The beauty of being in business for ourselves is that we get to keep an eye out for evolving needs and make change.

The challenge? We must make change.

For most of us, change is a tricky thing. It is something uncertain, something that is not part of our business or culture or role or offering. It might be out of our comfort zones. It might not go well. It might upset our staff or customers/clients or other stakeholders.

When we consider venturing into the unknown, even when we think it will make our business more successful or our work more satisfying, we often choose to stay right where we are. Because, if nothing else, right where we are is certain. And we like our certainty.

And how do we feel okay about ourselves when we choose to stay stuck? We pretend it’s not a choice by telling ourselves bogus stories.

We can pull out an amazing inner storyteller when the time comes to truly consider changing things up, quickly finding excellent-sounding reasons as to why changing our businesses (and other parts of our lives, by the way) is simply not possible at the moment. And we believe these reasons with all that we are.

I’ve had dissatisfied business colleagues make strong cases as to why they are willing to stay stuck for years. They can’t restructure and evolve their staff because this or that person will freak out. They can’t change an irrelevant product because they might lose their most loyal customers. They can’t end things with a frustrating vendor because “we’ve just been through so much together”.

These stories are designed to be untouchable…to us and to everyone else. Because we are so invested in keeping things the same. Because change is that hard.

But.

The question must be asked...isn’t being as successful and satisfied in our businesses what we’re in it for?  If not, why are we doing this? (And don’t say to make the world a better place, because even though it might be true, we can still make change that grows our business in a meaningful way.)

Efforts must be made to stop the mythical storytelling in our brains. To keep ourselves from believing and embracing those stories about why we must stay stuck in our businesses. To know that, even if the new thing doesn’t work out, we are at least moving forward and can continue evolving as needed.

How? It starts with good, old-fashioned awareness. Poking holes in our own bogus stories means paying attention to them the second they start to form in our minds. To call ourselves out on our own myths.  (You can also recruit people you trust to become official hole-pokers and help you in this fight.)

Another strategy is to stop thinking only about the cost of taking a new action, and to start thinking about the cost of inaction. Of doing nothing differently. What is the cost to the business? To work satisfaction? To everyone else?

Choices are between things...in this case, between the same business choice and the new, evolving thing. So evaluate them both carefully. 

Then choose accordingly, give it some time, and recognize how much evolving your business matters.

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Deirdre Maloney is a published author, international speaker and president of Momentum LLC, her facilitation and training company. Her writings have been featured in Forbes, Inc. and Entrepreneur, and her books include Bogus Balance, The Mission Myth and the Tough Truths series. For more information visit www.makemomentum.com