So often as a business owner you try to grow your business as fast as possible. You work crazy hours and push yourself hard in the hopes of rapid success. But more often that not, without a clear vision and strategy, without defined systems and project things begin to get dropped.  If you are working alone it means a growing pile of unfinished tasks, projects and objectives that can become overwhelming and lead to self defeat.   If you are working with a team, letting things slip away from you can have two.  One you show that you are a leader that does not follow through on your commitments to the business. Two, your employees can develop negative habits that can impact the forward movement in your business.  For example.  If you make a rule that all calls are responded to within 24 hrs and then you don’t respond to your teams or a customers call within that time frame you send the message that you don’t really believe that rule is important.  Or if your employee does not return a customers call within 24hrs and you don’t say anything about it, your message in their mind is that its really not so important to you and soon your customers with be going days and weeks without being replied to, and then your competitors with pick them up because of a higher level of customer service.

Don’t Let Things Slip Away From You.

When you make a rule or set a standard for your business make sure you show your commitment to it.  When an employee drops the ball make sure you pick it up and hand it back to them.  Let them know you care about the rule and you are going to ensure it is followed.

Remember as the Captain of your ship.  If you let things slip away sooner or later your business will smash into the rocks and sink into the abyss of failed businesses.

A rocket will never be able to leave the Earth’s atmosphere.” —NY Times, 1936  – Wrong

Fruit Flies have a life span of 24hrs – Wrong

The moon is made from green cheese –

There was a time that many people believed that the world was flat. And if you sailed past the horizon you would fall off the world.  Looking back its almost laughable.  People actually living their lives thinking this way.

There are tons of misconceptions. You can see a whole bunch here .

The interesting thing is that at one point a misconception was a reality for someone.  As far as they were concerned it was the absolute truth.  A truth that would be defended with every ounce of strength.

So what is reality?   We take all the information we have available and create a logical assumption out of it.  At one point we looked up and saw the sun, moon and stars moving across the sky.  We made the assumption that the universe revolved around the earth.   We made our truth based on the information we believed in.  Galileo’s improvement to the telescope and insights into what was happening in the heavens showed that truth to be in error and brought us to a new reality.

Back To You

You have created a number of limiting realities for yourself but they are not necessarliy the truth.  You might have had an experience in your life where something didn’t go well and you decided to create the reality that you Just Can’t.

Here are some popular ones.

I cant remember names.
I’m not good with numbers.
I can’t lose weight.
I’m not creative.
I’m a failure.
I’m not good with finances.
I’m a horrible parent/spouse/friend.
What are some of yours?

But the real truth is that you can change your reality at anytime.  You just have to bring new insights, awareness and beleif.

Pick a small limiting beleif that you currently have. Maybe you have the belief that you are not creative.

Try this:

1.  Take as much time as you would like and draw a face.

2. On a scale of 1-10 evaluate you work.

3. go to http://www.videojug.com/film/how-to-draw-a-face

4. Take 20-30 min to work through the 5 min video

5. On a scale of 1-10 evaluate you second face.

If you thought you are not artistic you will now see a measurable improvement.  Your previous reality is now false and you have a new reality that shows you can be artistic.

Many of your limiting realities just need the right tools and insights to take you toward empowering realities that lead to the realization of your full potential.

Pick something that is holding you back and find the tools and insight that will help you move forward.

One of the areas that we spend time with our clients on is creating a solid action plan for them to create a successful and growing business.

Below is my equation for success.  It’s a bit convoluted and my friend Ari who is a PHD in math would see it more as kindergarten scribbles, but you will get the point by the end of the post

5y[ 1d(5d x 12w) ] = $,$$$,$$$

5y = Seeing The Future

Have you ever gone on a trip without having a destination in mind?  You get in the car and just start driving.  You didn’t take any food, clothing, or money, you just get on the highway and start driving.  What will happen?  Eventually you will be stranded in the middle of nowhere.   What you normally do is decide where you want to go and then make all the plans necessary to arrive at you destination for maximum enjoyment.

For many of us this is obvious when we go on a Trip.  But when it comes to our businesses we often take the Destinationless Road Trip approach.

When looking at your business you need to see what you want it to become, not just where it is now.   Without a vision you will be randomly picking strategies to build and as a result your business will not achieve any sustainable growth.   You will eventually wake up to a business that is stranded in the middle of nowhere, without resources, customers or money.

take some time to answer these questions.

Where would your business need to be in five years for you to consider it successful?

• When answering this be as specific as possible.
• Where will it be? (online, bricks and mortar)
• How many staff will you have?
• What will you product line look like?
• What will your level of service be?
• How much time will you be spending each week in the office?
• How will your time be spent?
• What will be in place in you business to ensure further growth beyond the five year mark.

Once you have created your vision.  Review it every day for the next week.  When you review it ask your self the question “Where can I improve this vision?”

Put your vision in a place where you see it regularly, to constantly remind you of where you want to go with your business.

1d = The Optimal Work Day

Without a vision for your business you will spend you day in one of three ways.

• An occasionally productive day, which you happen upon by fluke or becuase you had a luck few days of sucess
• A busy day, where you seem to be doing a lot in your business, but much of it has little impact on your business growth.
• An off day.  You sleep late, get distracted constantly, stop every 10 minutes to eat… (this is a popular day)

But now that you have a vision you can begin to experience day after day of productivity.  Regardless of whether sales are up or down on a given day, you know where your business is going and you will know what needs to be done.  You wont be guiding your day to day buisness by your current mood, but you will be guiding by your vision.

Take our you vision.  Read it.   Imagine having a conversation with your future self, and your future self is telling you how he was able to realize the success.

The question that you want your future self to answer is:

What actions did you take every day that helped you achieve your vision?

When you have the answer you have the key to attaining your vision.  You know what you need to do Today, Tomorrow and every day to carry you towards success.

5d x 12w = Commitment. Habit. Results.
I realize that asking you to make a commitment to the next 5 years is overwhelming and unrealistic.

Success comes from creating the habits of success.

Creating the habits of success comes from committing to bite size actions and repeating them until they become a habit.

I would like to challenge you to make a small commitment.

You know have a vision of what your business it to become.
You know what daily action is required to achieve that vision.

I would like you to commit to taking those daily actions for the next 5 days.

Over the next 5 years you will spend 1200 days working towards your vision, but I only want you to commit to the next 5 days. 

When you accomplish this goal two things will happen.  One you will feel great for accomplishing your goal.  Two, you will already begin to see what the potential of days of productivity will do for your business.

When you have accomplished your 5 day commitment,  I ask you to re-commit to the 5 days every week for another 11 weeks.

What will happen over the next 12 weeks.

After 6 weeks ( 30 days of work) you will have created a Success Habit.

After 12 Weeks you will have re-enforced the Success Habit, created the momentum towards your achieving your vision, as well you will already begin to see the amazing results of 12 weeks of sustained productive daily effort.

$,$$$,$$$

I’m sure this last part of the equation is obvious.

When you have a vision.  Know what your daily action is to attain that vision.  Commit to it for 5 days.  Develop and re-enforce the habit over 12 weeks. You will see the magic of the equation and as time passes you will begin to see how easy your success will be.