Tag Archives: Distraction

Want To Have a Powerful 2016? Do This First.

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1.6.16All the resolutions, intentions, goals, and planning for your business will be diluted until you take the time to complete your 2015 business year.  This is serious.  You will suffer from a syndrome called: Rehearsal Exhaustion.  What is that you may be asking?  According to changingminds.org, Rehearsal Exhaustion is “constantly referring back to our past to make sure we don’t forget it, and to predict possible future outcomes.  As more and more things are left incomplete, we are more and more distracted and exhausted by the ever-increasing rehearsal.”

Yes, that’s right, without completing your 2015 business you will be destined to replay it and the more you do that, the more dispirited you will become about creating newly in 2016.

So what is the process of completion?  It is the conscious act of reviewing what we did or didn’t accomplish in 2015.  Declaring that it was in the past, that you are okay with what happened, and can give up the right to beat yourself up about it in the present.  By doing that, we are freed up to create a new future which is not bogged down by the past.

It makes sense, doesn’t it?  If something is incomplete, we do continue referring back to it to make sure we don’t forget it.  So to avoid that state of mind, let’s just complete 2015 and then be ready to move on to 2016.  This isn’t hard.  It does require some time and thought.  What are the working parts of your business that you may want to complete?  Here are some examples of questions to ask yourself.  This list certainly is not exhaustive so please add to it.

Regarding your Business in 2015:

  • Who were you being?
  • What did you accomplish?
  • What did you learn?
  • What do you need to improve?
  • What challenges did you have?
  • How were your relationships with your staff? Clients? Contractors?  What could change?
  • What new products did you offer?
  • How well did your marketing work?  What worked best about your marketing?
  • What new marketing ventures did you try?  How did they work?
  • What product did you sell the most?  The least?
  • What was your gross profit, expenses, net profit?
  • Overall what was the best thing about your business in 2015?
  • What was the worst thing about your business in 2015? What would you do differently if you could?

If you get stuck on doing this completion process alone, please contact me.  I am here for you.

 

Distracted? Why is that?

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Distracted 81314Does this ever happen to you?  You go into your office determined to accomplish something on your high priority project.  The day flies by, and when it’s over, you didn’t accomplish anything you had planned.  What did you do?  You answered emails, posted on Facebook, Twitter, and LinkedIn as well as read discussions and replied to the discussions.  The day is over; you feel tired, but not because you accomplished what you set out to do.  You were overtaken by the seemingly innocent actions of distracting yourself from working.

So, why is it that we get distracted?  There are a ton of books and articles written about how to organize your calendar and do list so that you get things done.  None of them actually address distraction, and what to do about it when it overtakes you.

Being distracted may be a positive signal to you that you are stuck in your project and really don’t know what to do next.  It may give you the relief that you want from facing the truth that you are stuck.  As entrepreneurs, we do not want to admit that we don’t know what to do.  We actually do think we are Mighty Mouse and will always show up to save the day.  And sometimes we do, and other times we don’t, because we are stuck.

The next time you are hit by the distraction bug, try this: say to yourself, “I am distracting myself instead of working.”  Ask the question, “Why is that?”  Then take some time to truly come up with some answers to the why question.  In fact, for every answer that you come up with, ask yourself, “Why?” as in “Why do I think that?”  After about 5 authentic whys and legitimate answers, you will come up with the root cause of the problem.  It is pretty clear that if you can recognize the root of the problem then you can address it, fix it, and move on.  You will actually work on resolving the roadblocks that are stopping you from completing your project.

In the comments below, please let me know how you avoid distracting yourself and when you are distracted, what you do about it.  I am looking forward to hearing from you.