As a business owner, odds are you want to improve.
You want more clients or more income or a more flexible schedule. For most of us entrepreneurs, we’re just wired to keep pursuing improvement.
But sometimes we get stuck.
So, if you’re not improving…it usually comes back to one of these two things:
Fear / A Lack Of Confidence – maybe it’s a fear that we’re not up to the task or that the goal is just too big for us to tackle.
Maybe it’s the fear of change…as different is often scary.
Or it could be a fear of how others will react.
For this one…the first step is to identify why we’re fearful or lack confidence.
Once we know, we can work through it.
We can ask ourselves ‘what’s the worst thing that can happen?’…and realize that it’s usually not that bad.
We can also accept that about 90% of the things we worry about never really materialize.
We can simplify the goal…and make it feel more manageable (this is my go-to strategy.)
We can refocus on why we’re doing it in the first place…and remind ourselves that the why is bigger than the worry.
We can look back on our previous successes and draw confidence from them…as well as reminding ourselves of the strengths we used to succeed.
And finally…we can look ahead and think about what it will feel like to achieve the goal.
Look, fear is a good thing. It forces us to take stock of situations and make better decisions.
But it shouldn’t paralyze us or derail us from pursuing our goals.
Lack of Focus – focus embodies a few things to me.
Clarity.
Prioritization.
Immediacy.
We often procrastinate.
We get overwhelmed with options and information overload.
We get distracted.
We’re short on time.
Focus is the ability to cut through all that and take decisive, consistent action.
So how do we get it?
Well, we start with eliminating the fear we just discussed.
Then we have to get decisive.
We’re never going to have certainty as to what the perfect plan is…so we have to let go of that and, instead, get clarity on what plan we’re going to use.
We can’t get bogged down with all the things we could do…we have to decide what we should do now.
Sure, there are all these different things that seem like they could help us reach our goals…so we fear that if we choose one path, we’re missing out on the others.
But the reality is that by not acting…we miss out on them all.
So, the way I’ve found to best approach this is to recognize that ‘no’ is really just ‘not right now.’
We can always come back to something later…but to succeed we need to get enough information to make a choice and then act.
By doing this, we can prioritize what we’re doing…and we can also free up the time we spent researching and the mental energy we wasted on indecision.
The beauty of this approach, at least in my experience, is that with clarity, everything else becomes easier.
You know what to do so you don’t procrastinate.
You have defined action steps so you don’t need as much time…and you know how much time you do need.
And, what I think is the best part, is that action creates momentum…and momentum produces both more action, more confidence…and ultimately – results.
In my own experience...when I’ve had a simple plan I could focus on executing, the ultimate result usually far exceeded my more complex plans that were harder to put into action.
So, if you are stalled…it usually comes down to one of these two.
Hopefully those insights can help you get moving and seeing the progress you want and deserve.
Pat Rigsby is a father, husband, entrepreneur, coach and author. He has built over a dozen businesses as a CEO and Co-Owner, with five becoming million dollar or multi-million dollar ventures.
