Are You’re an Avoider When It Comes To Running Your Salon By David Watts

One of the most common things I find working with salon owners is avoidance. It shows up in different ways, although I can tell you that burying your head in the sand does not make your problems go away.

It doesn’t matter if you are avoiding a tough conversation with a team member, doing the bookkeeping, or reviewing your prices; dodging the inevitable generally leads to greater problems down the track and it will leave you feeling more overwhelmed.

Realistically avoidance is about changing your behaviours to escape thinking about something or to stop yourself from feeling a particular way, it is your mind trying to keep you from feeling uncomfortable. Sometimes you do this intentionally, however it can also happen unconsciously.

Unfortunately, it is detrimental to put things off. Often you will not stop thinking about what must be done, your stress levels will stay elevated until you get it done, this gives you the opposite feeling of what you were trying to achieve.

When your stress levels elevate your brain power decreases and it becomes even harder to tackle the tasks at hand. You start missing things, get frustrated and will generally struggle in other areas of your work too. The more you add to the list, the less time you will have to complete things, then you start to wonder if you will ever “see the light” again.

So how are you going to change your behaviours?

1. Just Do It

Easier said than done, but it is one of the best things you could do. If you bite the bullet and get it done straight away it is gone forever. You get to celebrate the win of completing the task and then you may also feel more confident to smash things out in the future. This is a courageous way to handle things. When it’s done you may realise the temporary discomfort you felt was not as bad as you predicted it would be. You cannot grow with getting uncomfortable and the more you practice pushing your boundaries the easier it becomes. You will be fine; your world will not collapse around you. If you are avoiding conversations, then it is important to recognise that you are significantly increasing the chance of making the situation worse over time. As the saying goes, “rip the band-aid off.”

2. Recognise your behaviours

If avoidance has been a feature of your life for a while, it will be a harder habit to break now. Look back and think of times when you have procrastinated or avoided a conversation in the past. Remember how you felt, take note of what was going on in your mind, the stories you were telling yourself. This will help you catch yourself out in the future. If you are conscious about what you have avoided in the past, you can catch yourself out in the future and take more direct action. Replacing your unhelpful behaviours with more positive ones will change your performance dramatically.

3. Make a Plan

Putting some structure around your tasks means you don’t have to rely as heavily on selfdiscipline to get it done! Get it in your calendar and respect the boundaries your calendar provides. Stop scheduling just the obvious things and start giving your tasks some dedicated time. Changing your behaviours cannot happen by hope, you need to give yourself a solid structure to succeed. When planning you can also look at breaking down your task into smaller more manageable pieces. Taking small steps will get you started and in time you will complete the entire task. Personally, I do this with most my work and it makes me feel extra efficient. The ideal time to work on a task is 20 – 30 minutes, most of us are looking for a distraction after this.

4. Learn to Feel Uncomfortable

You would have heard “get comfortable feeling uncomfortable” a thousand times before, because it is a cold hard fact. Pushing through the moment where you want to put something in the too hard basket is your first step to creating new healthier behaviours. Sitting in your discomfort and observing how you feel will help you understand it is not disastrous. Begin to take notice of your breath, your feelings, and your surroundings, with practice you will feel more in control and less likely to avoid those tasks you put off. Implementing some of the other strategies in this article together with embracing the discomfort you experience will be powerful. The other tip here is when you are feeling uncomfortable and wanting to jump away it is the perfect time to lean into your support networks.

5. Don’t Overthink It

Stop thinking and start doing is an awesome strategy to take control of your mind and stop putting things off. When you spend your time thinking about what needs to be done you can easily end up more lost than you were to begin with. You have more control over your thoughts than you give yourself credit for. Constantly predicting situations in your mind is a habit that you have fallen into that you can learn to change. This is about you taking charge and starting to live more in the moment. If you start living in the moment you will be happier, more efficient and be a more positive influence on those around you. You will not eliminate the negative emotions you experience but you will have more control of how they affect you day to day.

Something To Finish On

You are a powerful person, you have it within you to succeed, you must look beyond the things that are holding you back. Removing avoidance behaviours from your life will have a critical impact on you, your business, and your team. I have said on these pages before that business is an extreme sport and as such you need to train yourself constantly to keep up. A lifetime of habits will never disappear overnight, but continuously working on yourself will pay dividends a lot faster than you expect. Lifelong learning is a beautiful concept, and YOU are worthy of more.

David XoX

A salon owner and support coach on Team Chrissy – The ZING Project, David has a diverse background in sales, marketing and operations and is passionate about improving the professionalism of the industry. Contact David via email davidsc@zingcoach.com.au or DM on Instagram @davidwatts_zing