When Business Feels Too Hard: Why Struggling Is Really A Growth Signal

When my kids were training as high-performance swimmers, I used to sit poolside and watch the rhythm of their weeks. 

Some days were endurance sets: Lap after lap to build stamina. 
Other days were form drills: Stripping everything back to focus on precision. 
Then there were recovery days, competitions, taper, and even scheduled breaks where they stepped away completely. 

It wasn’t random. It was deliberate. Every piece had a purpose. 

And one day it hit me: this is exactly what running a business feels like. 

We’re training too, only most of us don’t know it. We think we’re “just working,” when really, we’re playing in the high-performance space. And because we don’t see it that way, we don’t give ourselves the same recovery, perspective, or support. 

No wonder it feels so hard. 

Now, here’s something most people don’t realise: only around 13% of Australians are self-employed. That’s it. Just 13%. 

This number is about the same as the percentage of people who go from casually playing a sport to competing at a high level. Not everyone has the stamina, the drive, or the appetite for risk to go high-performance, but you do. 

So, if running your business feels harder than you expected, that doesn’t mean you’re not capable. It just means you’ve stepped into a higher performance space.  A space most people will never experience. 

You’re not average. You’re not “just working.” You’re an outlier and that comes with a different kind of pressure. 

Think about how an athlete trains. They know the difference between comfort and stretch. 

• Comfort feels easy, but it doesn’t build strength. 

• Stretch feels clunky, uncomfortable, sometimes even painful but it’s where growth happens. 

That’s why swimmers don’t panic when their shoulders ache. They don’t see the soreness as weakness. They see it as a sign they’re levelling up. 

Business is the same. That foggy, stretched-out feeling you’ve been carrying? That’s not proof you’re failing. It’s just proof you’re in the stretch zone. 

But of course, you don’t feel it in your muscles, you feel it in your business…and sanity. 

It shows up as systems that suddenly wobble, even though they worked fine six months ago. 
It’s a team that needs more from you than you have to give. 
It’s cash flow that feels tighter, even while you’re busier than ever. 
It’s the hum of responsibility that never quite switches off, even at 2am. 

Sound familiar? 

From the outside, people probably think you’ve got it all together. But from the inside, it feels like everything is teetering. And that wobble can feel so personal, like maybe you’re not cut out for this. 

But that’s not what’s really happening. What you’re experiencing is growth. You’ve outgrown the old way of doing things, and the stretch is showing up as struggle. 

The hardest part is that nobody claps for these milestones. 

They don’t look shiny. They don’t look like success. 

They look like late nights, missed deadlines, half-used notebooks. They look like snapping at your partner when you’re tired or lying awake wondering if you’ve made a mistake. 

And because no one else sees it, you end up judging yourself. You think: “I should have this sorted by now. Why is this still so hard?” 

But here’s what I need you to hear: struggling doesn’t mean you’re behind.  

Struggling defiantly doesn’t mean you’re not good enough.  

Struggling is what happens when you’re in high performance.  It’s called the Stretch Zone.  The Zone of achievement.  Or just getting outside your comfort zone. 

And although it feels hard, there should still be an intention when you are here.  This is so your stretch doesn’t become your new comfort zone…or tip over into the burnout zone. 

That lesson became crystal clear for me watching my kids swim. 

Their coaches never expected them to do one type of training forever. They rotated endurance, form, recovery, competition, reflection. Everything worked together. 

Business owners need the same. Different types of “training” for different needs: 

• General fitness: the day-to-day work: clients, staff, cash flow, suppliers.  This is the running a business stuff that never goes away, we just get stronger, more experienced and more skilled at dealing with so it doesn’t derail us like it used to. 

• Form training: honing your unique strengths: your sales process, your signature service, the thing only you do.  This is how you make your mark on your market, the bit that you need to make repeatable to be profitable. 

• Passive recovery: calming your nervous system: walking, cooking, meditating, resting.  The bit that refills your emotional bucket so you can keep giving in your business. 

• Active recovery: energising and re-engaging yourself: conferences, networking, new ideas.  The bit that keeps the passion and love of the business alive. 

• Off-season: real time away: switching off completely so the business runs without you.  The bit that allows you to enjoy the journey and the fruits of your labour. 

When you only ever push through the grind of general fitness, no wonder you’re exhausted. Athletes wouldn’t dream of training that way. Neither should you. 

So let’s reframe this together. 

Systems straining? That’s proof your business has grown. 
A team stretching you? Evidence you’ve built something bigger than yourself, and you need more structure. 
Brain that won’t switch off? A reminder you’re carrying a high-performance role. 

None of those things are signs of weakness. They’re signs of stretch. And stretch is where capability is built. 

When I lived in NZ I studied Maori Arts and as I struggled with my learning, my teacher shared with me this beautiful truth: chaos isn’t destruction, it’s creation. Papatūānuku, the earth mother, births life through rupture and movement. 

And I think about that often when I hear business owners say, “It just feels so hard.” 

That heaviness you’re carrying? It’s not a breakdown. It’s something new pushing to be born. 

You’re not falling apart. You’re breaking through. 

So what do you do when it feels impossibly hard? 

First, pause before you judge yourself. Hard doesn’t mean you’re failing, it means you’ve hit the edge of your old way of working. 

Second, name the milestone. Call out what’s really happening: your systems are wobbling, your team needs more, money feels tight. Those aren’t flaws, they’re growth markers. 

And third, let yourself recover. Rest isn’t a luxury, it’s part of your training. Just like athletes know recovery is as important as the work, your business needs you to reset so you can keep going. 

Here’s the final thought I want to leave you with. 

If running your business feels harder than you imagined, that doesn’t mean you’re not cut out for it. It means you’re in the middle of the stretch. And on the other side of this stretch is the stronger, more capable version of you that your business is asking for. 

Keep going, you’ve got this.