Do you underestimate yourself? Do you lack giving yourself credit for how awesome you really are?
Of course you do! We all know how awesome you really are!
Or do you sometimes overestimate yourself? Do you set some really high expectation for yourself only to fall flat on your face.
We’ve all done it.
Estimating is a unique science and most of all what we need to remember about it is that it is only an estimation. By definition, to estimate means to “roughly calculate or judge the value, number, quantity or extent of” something. This means you are not “tied” to your estimation which means there is never a reason you can’t exceed your best estimate. That said, my advice I’d like to share with you today is to stop underestimating yourself.
Just last month, on June 1st, I hit what I will call a milestone: “one year in business” with the Sledge Hockey Experience. I had, in the May previous, piloted this project with RBC, but June 1st marked the day I said to myself “Ok, it’s official. Let’s do this!”
June 1st, 2016 was the day I started writing my business plan and I went “all in” with both feet! The last 12 months have been pretty amazing I think, going from what was “just” an idea, to obtaining funding, to purchasing the equipment I needed to succeed, followed by the theft of that equipment just five weeks later. No amount of “estimating” could have prepared me for this kind of roller-coaster ride but what I have learned, most importantly, is to never underestimate!
This spring gave me and my team the opportunity to run some really amazing events again with RBC and followed soon after by the team at Walker Aggregates. Now we are gearing up for the honour and challenge of hosting the sledge hockey event at the upcoming Invictus Games. If I had underestimated my ability to meet these challenges, I know I would not be where I am today.
Recently, I spoke with one of my mentors about this topic and asked “What questions would you ask yourself if you were reflecting back over the past year?”.
In response I was suggested that we should ask ourselves these key questions:
- Where did I think I would be one year ago from today?
- Where am I now?
- Is it where I planned to be?
- Am I ok with where I am now?
As I thought about those questions I came up with answers such as:
- Where did I think I would be one year ago from today?
- I planned to have sold and hosted more of my signature SHE events.
- I assumed I could manage more of the workload involved on my own.
- I believed I would understand things faster.
2. Where am I?
- Once we got up and running, my team helped successfully run two amazing paid events and we now have many more lined up for the fall!
- In one weekend we ran two community-based events and have raised $6000 of our $10,000 fundraising goal to provide sleds for kids.
- I have realized I cannot work alone and now have an assistant helping me with many of the day to day tasks and managing my social media accounts.
3. Is it where I planned to be?
- No and Yes.
- According to my business plan I should be raking in the cash by now. HA!!!
- I thought I would have sold a bit more, but the truth is that things just take time. It takes a long time to build a real business and you have to be committed to both the long and short term goals. When you have things come up day to day that you don’t plan on and couldn’t possibly anticipate, it helped me realize that I might have overestimated my ability to conquer so much in year one.
4. Am I ok with that?
- Absolutely. I have come to believe it is better to have overestimated what I could achieve than to underestimate and have nothing to strive for.
I definitely overestimated myself in year one – something that many of us will do. I’m not the first business owner to think this was going to be easy, only to find out it’s pretty damn hard!
But here’s the second part.
These questions also made me think about the fact that I haven’t really stopped too many times to do a reflection on the last decade or more of my life. Plenty has happened in that decade and the reality is, upon reflection I would have realized that I have underestimated where I would be in at the end of that decade.
If you know my story (and I encourage you to read past blogs) when my dad fell from that tree or later, when I was in the Lyndhurst Rehabilitation Centre in Toronto, ON, I could never have imagined this life I live now or how I would even work towards achieving anything like it.
I would have completely underestimated my ability to become a member of Team Canada, to travel the world, to have become a real estate investor, an author even a public speaker. The simple fact that I now live in Toronto is something that I’m proud of. I used to hate the city, now I am proud to call it home.
My point is this. When you “estimate” what your future might look like you may under or overestimate. But always remember, they are just estimates. A “rough approximation” of what your life might look like, something to hold up as a road map – not a book “written in stone.” When asking yourself the key questions like those already written here, think about these too”
- What does your life look like if you pause and think back over the last ten years?
- Where were you in July of 2007? What were you doing that summer?
- Look at how much has changed or how much you have accomplished since then.
- What do you think you can accomplish in the next ten years?
Ten years is a long time – one year is a short amount of time. I overestimated my one year goals but I know now from experience that I have a crazy long way to go. I know that if I can make as much happen in one year as I did, I can only imagine what could actually be accomplished in NINE MORE YEARS! I’ve learned I will always strive for my best estimate but never settle for underestimating my abilities and you shouldn’t either!
You’re just getting started. You have a long way to go. Good Luck!
Remps
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If you’d like to learn more about how Kevin Rempel and the Sledge Hockey Experience can enhance your corporate culture and provide you with a unique team building experience, please visit www.kevinrempel.com or www.playsledgehockey.com.
