Self Honesty Assessment in Business (so you can make better progress on your solopreneur goals)

A lack of self honesty is one of the BIGGEST downfalls for solopreneurs (at ALL levels of business)! That’s where doing a self honesty assessment in business AND in life can come in handy.

What’s that? You’ve never done a self honesty assessment in business? That’s okay — most solopreneurs don’t realize how helpful this can be! And in fact, most solopreneurs don’t even realize how much a lack of self honesty is costing them in achieving their solopreneur goals.

We'll get into that in this article...

Topics we're addressing: 

• How to know that you LACK self honesty in your business.
  • 3 examples for what this may look like as a solopreneur.
• Why a lack of self honesty is a HUGE problem.
  • Self honesty as a SKILL.
• 6-question self honesty assessment in business.
  • Your next step!

Who am I to speak on this subject?

As a Life Coach for Solopreneurs, I specialize in developing your intrapersonal skills, creating customized anti-hustle productivity strategies, and improving personal fulfillment in your business and life.

...Basically, I guide and support you in living your best life and being your best self! We work to improve your relationship with yourself, increase your work/life balance, find joy in all aspects of your business, and live your own life the way you actually WANT to live it.

There's a lot of personal development and self improvement inherent in the work we do together — which means that building intrapersonal skills is extremely important.

Self honesty is an important aspect of your intrapersonal intelligence, and I've helped many solopreneurs increase their self honesty in life and business.

I typically work with self aware individuals, but don't be fooled — just because you're already a self aware solopreneur, that doesn't mean you're necessarily always being honest with yourself!

This article is for you, too 🙂

How do you know whether you LACK self honesty in your business?

It's tricky to know for yourself, because you are often "too close" to be able to see this clearly. It's a conundrum!

Here are a few signs that you LACK self honesty in business...

• You make automatic assumptions about why this vs that is working or not working — and you have a hard time recognizing your own biases and assumptions.
• You're quick to lay blame (on yourself and/or on others) when things go wrong.
• There are always more reasons why you "can't" do this vs that — you're able to identify obstacles in your path very easily, but you struggle to figure out how to OVERCOME those obstacles.

So...

Do you assume you know WHY a thing is working or not working in your business? Are you hard on yourself and/or on others (AKA are your standards extremely high)? Do you often find reasons/excuses for why you "need" to stay where you are, rather than moving forward?

Those are all indicators that your self honesty is a little wobbly and there's definitely room for building that skill!

By the way, one of my superpowers is being able to identify this for other people... so if you're not sure whether you lack self honesty, I'm here for you!

We can do life coaching for intrapersonal skills.

Examples of what a lack of self honesty in business can look like

You tell me if it sounds familiar...

1. Neglecting to do audits or assessments of your business.

• E.g. Checking back on the solopreneur business goals you previously set.
  • Remember those? Oops — You totally forgot about them, didn't you!
• E.g. Identifying what solopreneur mistakes you’re making — AND what can be done to fix those business mistakes.
  • It can be uncomfortable to do this, but the more you get used to it, the more comfy it'll become.
• E.g. Admitting it to yourself when you’re stuck. 
  • Truly, the only way to get UNSTUCK is to recognize when it's happening — so you can DO something about it!

2. Difficulties in differentiating between different parts of yourself.

• E.g. Struggling to know whether you’re making a business decision based out of fear vs intuition.
  • This is where you'll need to learn how to activate your intuition.
• E.g. Not knowing whether to trust negative self-talk.
  • Sometimes it can be worth listening to — do you know when to trust it?
• E.g. Not having distinct departments or "hats" that you wear as a solopreneur — so it feels like you constantly need to do all the things, all at the same time.
  • Your priorities will get very messy, very quickly! Learn how to create this distinction in Productivity Powerhouse.

3. Murky perspective and scattered approach.

• E.g. Challenges with getting clarity on where you are going and/or how you intend to achieve your solopreneur goals. 
  • This can also indicate a lack of TRUST in yourself.
• E.g. Getting distracted by shiny objects.
  • You get too excited about the next new thing and it veers you off your path.
• E.g. Self-sabotage because you're scared about the current thing you're working on, so you switch to something different.
  • This can be a tough one to admit, but it's very common!

Why lacking self honesty is such a big problem for solopreneurs

This is a BIG problem in your solopreneur business, because:

a) you aren’t being true to yourself (which will detract from your fulfillment and satisfaction),

b) it’ll dramatically affect the strategies you choose and the tasks you work on (by overworking on the wrong things), and

c) it hinders your self leadership, motivation, accountability, drive, flexibility, freedom… the list goes on.

…But we don’t always KNOW when we aren’t being honest with ourselves, do we?

You might be thinking, “I’m totally honest with myself. This doesn’t pertain to me.”

I believe you when you say that you think you are being honest with yourself — AND ALSO: There is ALWAYS room for more depth and fine-tuning. 

Self honesty is a skill and a practice. Self honesty is multi-layered. There’s often more work to be done with it, and more ways in which we can help ourselves by being more honest with ourselves.