Still thinking, researching and comparing rather than moving forward?

You've started building a business of your own. So why does everything feel like such hard work?

You wanted the freedom to do things differently. To make your own decisions, work in a way that suits you and create something that's yours.

But instead, you find yourself questioning your decisions, looking for answers, comparing yourself with others and wondering why progress feels so slow.

You thought working for yourself would mean doing things your way. So why is it proving so difficult?

Perhaps it's time to stop looking for all the answers outside yourself and start exploring what's getting in the way.

[Find out what's getting in your way]

Why does it feel so difficult to find your own way?

You know what it's like to work within a structure. You've probably spent years building a career, developing expertise and learning how to get things done.

There were expectations, processes, objectives and often a fairly clear idea of what was expected of you.

Now you're working for yourself. You're making the decisions, setting the direction and working out what comes next. And that's not always as straightforward as it sounds.

Perhaps you recognise some of these:

• You spend hours researching and looking for the right answer before making a decision.

• You question whether you're doing things properly or whether there's a better way.

• You look at what other people are doing and wonder if you should be doing the same.

• You have plenty of ideas, but struggle to decide which ones to pursue.

• You find yourself going round in circles rather than moving forward.

• You feel you should be further ahead by now, but can't quite work out why things aren't progressing.

You might have expected to feel more confident by now. After all, you've made the decision to do something different. You've taken the leap.

So why does it sometimes feel as though you're still waiting for someone to tell you what to do?

You've changed your circumstances. But have you questioned the rules you've been living by?

We spend much of our lives learning how we're supposed to behave, what we're supposed to achieve and what constitutes the right way to do things. These expectations come from all sorts of places: our upbringing, family, education, society, culture, relationships and work.

We're taught to be sensible, responsible, successful, hardworking and to make the right choices. Over time, these expectations become so familiar that we stop recognising them as expectations. They simply become how we see the world and how we believe things should be done.

And even when we consciously decide to do things differently, those old ways of thinking can continue to influence us.

We might find ourselves:

• Looking for approval before trusting our own decisions.

• Believing there's a right way to do things and feeling uncomfortable when we can't find it.

• Measuring ourselves against other people's achievements.

• Feeling we should be further ahead, doing more or achieving more.

• Prioritising what we think we ought to do over what we actually want.

• Dismissing ideas because they don't fit with what we believe is sensible or realistic.

It's not necessarily that we don't know what we want or what we're capable of. It's that the way we've learnt to think and make decisions can make it difficult to see beyond what we've always known.

And changing your circumstances doesn't automatically change the thinking that got you there.

The opportunity is to recognise what's influencing you, question whether it still belongs in your life and decide what you want to do differently.

What if you stopped following the script and started writing your own?

Imagine being able to make decisions without constantly wondering whether you're getting things right.

• To trust your own judgement rather than looking to other people for reassurance.

• To recognise when you're following expectations rather than making a conscious choice.

• To explore possibilities without immediately dismissing them because they don't fit with what you've always believed was possible.

• And to feel comfortable doing things differently, even when other people are taking a completely different approach.

This isn't about having all the answers or suddenly becoming confident about everything.

It's about learning to question what you've previously taken for granted, deciding what matters to you and giving yourself permission to do things your way. Working for yourself gives you the opportunity to create something different, but so does the rest of your life - you get to decide what that looks like.

Find your own way forward

Coaching gives you the space to step back, look at what's going on and explore what's influencing the way you think, make decisions and approach your life.

Rather than giving you another set of rules to follow, I'll help you question the ones you're already living by.

Together, we'll explore:

Understand what's influencing you

Recognise the expectations, assumptions and patterns of thinking that are shaping your decisions. Explore where they come from, how they influence you and whether they're still serving you.

Explore what's possible

Challenge the things you've taken for granted, look at situations from different perspectives and open up possibilities you might not previously have considered.

Make your own choices

Get clearer about what matters to you, what you want to do differently and how you can start moving towards it. Develop the confidence to make decisions based on what feels right for you, rather than what you think you should be doing.

This is your opportunity to stop looking for someone else's answers and start finding your own. There's no prescribed path, no one-size-fits-all formula and no expectation that you should do things a particular way. It's about working out what works for you.