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.

The easy answer is money.  A if you have a billion dollar franchise you try to keep it going for as long as humanly possible.

But I want to go deeper here.  In all the stories where you have the wet behind the ears hero,  it is rarely some new skill that he learned that helps him defeat the enemy.  What often happens is that the hero comes to that critical moment where he either loses it all or gives it his all.   At that point the hero accesses every fiber of his being and conquers the enemy, often using abilities that before that moment he didn’t even realize he had, but the truth is that they were there all along.

I’m sure in your own life you have had these experiences as well, though I hope your enemies have not be evil sorcerers and the like.  Your enemies might be; laziness, bad eating, smoking, drinking, failed relationships, low ambition, financial waste or your own limiting beliefs about yourself.  But there are times when without any other resources you manage to dig deep and overcome.

Three weeks ago after a five weeks sick leave (pneumonia) from playing squash, I got back on the court.  The first few games I was getting winded easily, and I could barely get any points off my opponent.  By the end of the second week my game was still lousy, part of me wanted to give up.  I could not seem to get past this wall of lousy playing,  what was all the more frustrating was that I wasn’t even getting tired during the games. I couldn’t get my legs to move, and my arms had no push.  On Monday after losing five three games in a row I reached the enough is enough point. It was either give up or break the wall.  The fourth game was an improvement and the fifth game I won.  Yesterday and today when I got off the court I had won a number of games and as well was thoroughly drenched with sweat from going all out. I broke through the wall.

I didn’t learn any new skills that Monday, I didn’t use any energy drinks,  I just accessed what I knew was within me.

I was speaking to a client today discussing the importance of clarifying her long term vision.  I asked her to write what she would like her life to look like five years from now.  I asked that she write it in the present tense as if it was already her reality.  I explained to her that when she is totally clear on her vision then she will unleash the gifts and talents that are sleeping inside to rapidly move towards the realization of that vision.  I shared with her that I believed that she was creative, resourceful and whole, and that her success in life is already loaded up onto the projector inside of her, she just needs to shine it out into the world.

Know that you have the ability to overcome your inner enemies.  You have the tools inside of you.  Your success in life is already loaded up on the projector inside of you,  turn the switch and let it shine into the world.

Clarify your vision and activate yourself towards success.  Sign up for a free ($250 value) Performance Coaching session.  You deserve to live your best life.

It’s truly facinating the way we are created.  On the one hand we are able to change and adapt to the world around us, and on the other hand we are highly resistant and fearful of change.

It would seem that when change is forced upon us we change and adapt, but if it is optional we avoid.

Why?

Because a body at rest stays at rest.

When we are comfortable where we are we resist change. Even being unhappy or in pain isn’t enough.  Have you ever had a headache but are too resistant to get out of bed to take a Tylenol?  How about that relationship that you are in that you should have ended months or years ago?

Growth comes through change, but we fear the change because we don’t know what will be when the change has taken place.

In previous posts I have spoken about the importance of having a vision.  When you are clear on your vision you can then evaluate where you are and then what action is required to close the gap.

When you begin to think about what actions will help you get from where you are to where you want to be, notice what thoughts make you feel a bit fearful and resistant. When you get that feeling it is a strong sign that taking action in those areas will lead you rapidly to your success.

And with your vision strongly etched in your mind you have a sense of what will be on the other side of change.  The stronger your vision the easier it will be to break through your wall of fear.

Need some help breaking through your fear.  Sign up for a free 30 min session.