If you are growing a business or changing the direction of your business, you will almost certainly experience Carol Roth’s Business Rule of 3: Everything takes 3 times longer, is 3 times as costly, and is 3 times more difficult than you expect it to be.

Boom!

Are you currently in the pulling-your-hair-out frustration phase of business growth? You may start beating yourself up and saying really mean things to yourself.

You may say things like I’ll never make any money, nobody is going to buy this, or this business is never going to take off!

Ugh. I feel your pain. I have been there at least 20 times over the past eight years.

However, as I was on the phone with a client recently listening to her beat herself up verbally, I remembered something that helped me when I was incredibly frustrated with my financial situation due to a cash flow crunch.

I’ll confess that I spend quality time in the “woo-woo” side of the world. I once read a commentary on why Law of Attraction thinking doesn’t work for a lot of people that has stuck with me.

If your business is barely making any money, you will feel like Pinocchio with his nose growing every time you start saying the affirmation “I have a thriving business!”

Frequently, your conscious mind will snap at you saying something like Um…dude…have you looked at your bank balance recently?

However, a small shift in your language can open the door a crack, shedding some light and ushering in a feeling of possibility. That shift is adding “yet” at the end.

It doesn’t feel like a big, fat lie or trigger your BS meter if you say, “My business isn’t thriving – yet.”

Your business isn’t thriving, but it could be thriving at some point in the future.

Feel the energetic shift when you modify “I’m not making any money” to “I’m not making any money – yet.”

One word can make a huge difference.

You can use this practice in times of frustration to calm yourself down and clear space to see things differently.

If you can pull up and look at the objective facts, you may find that you had unrealistic expectations, or had no way of knowing there was an obstacle until you started down the path.

Even on your darkest days, you may be able practice self-awareness, monitor your negative self-talk, and add a “yet” where it’s appropriate.

I highly recommend that you try to be gentle with yourself as you grow or pivot your business.

Try to find some humor in the situation, and know that Carol’s Business Rule of 3 is pretty much as close to a universal truth as you’ll get in business.