So you’re a world-class procrastinator and think you might actually be suffering from a Visibility Wound™.
The questions below will help you determine whether your problem is simple procrastination, or something deeper. Plus we’ll get you on the path of healing if it turns out you are dealing with a Visibility Wound™.
The Visibility Wound™ is one of 6 Primary Sales Wounds™ described
in my upcoming book, Heal Your Sales Wounds™
Take the Quiz
Question #1:
Do you desire a much bigger audience?
The key ingredient in the Visibility Wound™ is a desire to be seen. And specifically, to be seen by a significantly larger (or more “important”) audience than you have now.
So if you answer no to this question, you definitely don’t have a Visibility Wound™ and you need to look elsewhere for the causes of your procrastination.
See Question #5 below: Why do you procrastinate?
But if you answered yes – you feel that you & your work should be reaching far more people than you are now – yep, that’s a good sign that you might have a Visibility Wound™.
Question #2:
Are you exceptionally talented or gifted?
If your answer is, “Yes, I’m fantastic!” then you probably don’t have a Visibility Wound™.
If on the other hand your answer is to hem and haw and backpedal and exhibit all kinds of false modesty – “Well I don’t know, I guess people tell me I’m pretty good, but who’s to say … I did win that incredibly prestigious award, but it was a fluke or I didn’t deserve it or it really doesn’t mean anything …” then this is another very strong indicator you might be suffering from a Visibility Wound™.
Question #3:
Is “putting yourself out there” incredibly difficult for you?
Do you cringe at the idea of blogging or tweeting on a regular basis? Do you suffer debilitating stage fright or writer’s block? Would you rather die than explicitly ask someone to support you, or hire you, or follow you, or promote you?
Do you even struggle to return messages from people who have reached out because they’re interested in you and your work?
These can all be symptoms of a Visibility Wound™.
However, they can also be symptoms of Sales Wound #4, The Anti-Selling Wound™ – especially if your struggle isn’t just with putting yourself out there but also with making sales or accepting money.
Click here to learn more about the Anti-Selling Wound™.
Question #4:
Is there a huge gap between what you want to be doing and what you’re actually doing?
This question is perhaps the biggest indicator of a Visibility Wound™, because:
The bigger the gap between what you’re actually doing and what you wish you were doing, the greater the likelihood you have a Visibility Wound™.
For example, you might be suffering from a Visibility Wound™ if …
… your goal is to publish a weekly newsletter but you typically only send out a newsletter every 3-4 weeks (or less)
… your goal is to make 20 sales calls this week but you’ve made only 2-3 per week for the last 3 months
… your goal is to launch a big promotional effort, but the only concrete action you’ve taken is to make plans
… you’re excitedly planning some NEW project (a manuscript, a marketing campaign, a grant proposal, a training program, a product idea) … and yet you’ve got a couple more just like it sitting unfinished on the shelf, gathering dust
… you’ve accomplished any huge milestone, but it was like a needle on a graph – a huge spike upwards, surrounded by low, wide plateaus on both sides.
In short, if you dreams are WAY bigger than your reality – you’re most likely suffering from a Visibility Wound™.
Question #5:
Why do you procrastinate?
If your procrastination is caused by a Visibility Wound™, your answers to the other questions have probably left no doubt in your mind: You procrastinate in order to hide.
The tasks you procrastinate on, or the big projects you never seem to complete, would all tend to shine a spotlight on you, if they got finished. But as long as you don’t finish them – nobody will see you. So by procrastinating, you conveniently get to keep on hiding.
If, on the other hand, your procrastination is around tasks like your bookkeeping, personnel issues, or even personal projects like cleaning out the garage, you need to look elsewhere for the cause of your productivity issues.
Related: Don’t Get Stuck Again: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Getting Stuff Done But Were Too Busy to Learn
Your Score
Question #1: Give yourself 1 point for “I like the current size of my audience” and 10 points for “I want to be reaching millions more people!”
Question #2: Give yourself 1 point for “I’m fantastic!” and 10 points for “Well, I don’t think I’m anything special but I guess I did win that Pulitzer.”
Question #3: Give yourself 1 point for “I blog and tweet and mail my list with ease” and 10 points for “God forbid I should ever tell anyone about my work!”
* Remember to check out The Anti-Selling Wound if you have any kind of resistance to self-promotion that involves making sales too
Question #4: Give yourself 1 point for “I accomplish all my stated goals every day” and 10 points for “I’m full of grandiose ideas, none of which I ever complete.”
Question #5: Give yourself 1 point for “My procrastination has nothing to do with a desire to hide,” and 10 points for “My procrastination has everything to do with a desire to hide.”
If you still aren’t sure if you have a Visibility Wound™ – or if you just want to see some examples of it in action – watch this live conversation with me, Christina Morassi, Donna Crovatta and several other guests as we discuss the different ways that a Visibility Wound™ can show up in the life of an entrepreneur.
Next Steps For You
If you scored:
1 to 15 points … The Visibility Wound™ isn’t the primary thing stopping you. You’ll want to explore other possible causes of your procrastination problem. Your next step is to check out Don’t Get Stuck Again: Everything You Ever Wanted to Know About Getting Stuff Done But Were Too Busy to Learn.
16 – 35 points … You probably have some significant Visibility issues going on, but Visibility might not be your primary Wound. Your next step is to read about the 5 other Primary Sales Wounds™ to see if one of the others resonates more strongly for you.
36 points or above … Your issues around Visibility are the #1 obstacle preventing you from getting you, your work or your message out into the world in a big way. Until you heal this Wound, you will continue to feel frustrated and thwarted in every attempt to succeed in your business and life.
Your next step is to read How to Heal the Visibility Wound. As you’ll see, this is a process that demands considerable time and effort to undergo, and virtually requires that you get the support of a professional – a coach, healer, psychologist, etc.
To get help from me with your Visibility Wound™ email my assistant Rosie@JuliaKline.com.
She'll send you my Coaching Brochure as well as a link to schedule a free 30-minute phone call with me.