Ideas to Inspire Your EXTRAORDINARY hi
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 Late 2017 I accepted the guidance of mentors and started a blog on my website. I resisted this advice for years because it seemed daunting to come up with ideas every week, and I thought that I didn't have that much of interest to say. Even though I take a break for a few months each year, I have kept my commitment and have never struggled to find a topic that sparked my passion for sharing with you.
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 | The first few years of business ownership is a steady diet of learning and adaptation. Unfortunately, unless you have access to unlimited start-up funding, you spend less and less time immersed in what you love, and more and more time getting up to speed on the essential knowledge that you can't afford to hire experts to provide. Suddenly learning consumes your time and attention. |
Learning is a tentative state. It requires acknowledgment of our current limitations and a willingness to open ourselves up to the acquisition of new skills and information, and this process is imperfect. If you are one of those gifted individuals who need only read to gain understanding and apply the principles to your work, then you are lucky. For the rest of us, avoiding the pitfalls of trial and error requires access to an expert who shares their knowledge and teaches us how to apply it to our situation.
Want to accelerate your success?
Get honest with yourself about your limitations and seek guidance from someone who knows more.
Get honest with yourself about your limitations and seek guidance from someone who knows more.
Asking for help is a valuable skill that you can quickly master. Sometimes that help is available freely. Look for free training programs offered by your local business associations or reach out to your network to find a colleague who is willing to help you. Sometimes you can trade your product or service for help from someone whose expertise you need.
And sometimes, purchasing is required. I know that as a small business owner, cash flow can make decisions to spend money difficult. I remind you, however, that we are talking about asking for help in service of our goal to achieve success faster. When learning diverts your attention from money-making activities, spending money to power through the knowledge acquisition process is a smart investment that nets a better return in the long-run. [see math examples]
Becoming comfortable with asking for help serves you through every stage of your business growth. Anytime you struggle, lose confidence, or suffer indecisiveness, your ability and willingness to ask for help from someone with an outside perspective is the catalyst you need to get unstuck.
And sometimes, purchasing is required. I know that as a small business owner, cash flow can make decisions to spend money difficult. I remind you, however, that we are talking about asking for help in service of our goal to achieve success faster. When learning diverts your attention from money-making activities, spending money to power through the knowledge acquisition process is a smart investment that nets a better return in the long-run. [see math examples]
Becoming comfortable with asking for help serves you through every stage of your business growth. Anytime you struggle, lose confidence, or suffer indecisiveness, your ability and willingness to ask for help from someone with an outside perspective is the catalyst you need to get unstuck.
| So go ahead, permit yourself to drop the armor of the all-knowing expert, and proudly wear the mantle of a learner. The value of this choice will positively show up in your bottom line. |  |
Are you a "To-Do List" junkie? Go ahead, no judgment here. You can admit it. Whether you use Post-it® notes or a sheet of paper, if you are writing down your to-dos, I applaud you. Why? Holding information in your short-term memory taxes your mental capacity. It is always better to capture your thinking for quick reference and free up your brain to focus on completing tasks. The problem with long to-do lists or a desktop covered in Post-it® notes is that it overwhelms your mind and creates stress.
The human brain optimally functions when presented with no more than three inputs. As a result, selecting up to three priorities each day is cited as increasing productivity and outcomes achievement. Responding daily to the question, "What are the most important things I can do today to move my business forward?" and limiting your efforts to three essential tasks, is a powerful success habit to adopt.
The human brain optimally functions when presented with no more than three inputs. As a result, selecting up to three priorities each day is cited as increasing productivity and outcomes achievement. Responding daily to the question, "What are the most important things I can do today to move my business forward?" and limiting your efforts to three essential tasks, is a powerful success habit to adopt.
Here's my process. I use a virtual Post-it® note app to keep track of my action items, which is pictured here.
With a little bit of thought, I created categories with my notes (sales, marketing, financials). I also capture thinking about more extensive projects such as Website/SEO that have no urgency, but need my attention when I have available time. Using this system releases me from the stress and anxiety of staring down a big to-do list. I know what is important at this moment and focus on those limited things. Everything else is just a mental placeholder until I move it to my priorities list.
One more tip. Decision fatigue is real - decision fatigue refers to the deteriorating quality of decisions made by an individual after a long session of decision making. It is now understood as one of the causes of irrational trade-offs in decision making (Wikipedia). Thinking about your priorities when you are mentally fresh, typically the beginning of the day, significantly reduces the potential for erroneous thinking.
If you do not practice this prioritization process, I invite you to try it for the next three weeks and then let me know what differences you experience.
If you are newly finding this series, click the links below to catch up on the first two installments.
For an overview of the entire series, watch this short video.
If you do not practice this prioritization process, I invite you to try it for the next three weeks and then let me know what differences you experience.
If you are newly finding this series, click the links below to catch up on the first two installments.
For an overview of the entire series, watch this short video.
