If you own your own business, it’s important to keep your eyes on the whole timeline – learn lessons from the past, make plans and goals for the future, and work hard in the present.
How are you keeping track of time in YOUR business? Tweet the image below and share a lesson from the past or a goal for the future.
Consistency has been a struggle for me over the years. Creating and maintaining habits has never been a strong suit. Trying to post consistently to a blog has had periods of brief success followed by long spans of randomness. This blog has been just another example of inconsistency ruling my behavior. Even so, I still strive to improve. I know consistent behavior creates a sense of dependability and that is important to me. But even when consistency was not happening in this part of my business life, it was happening elsewhere.
For the past three years I have been participating in Michael Hyatt’s Best Year Ever (BYE) program (registration is only open until January 7th). One of the things that I have appreciated about his approach is that it centers around identifying and acknowledging the positive without ignoring the challenges. I cannot with all honesty say that 2015 was, in fact, my best year ever (but I think without BYE it would have been even less so). Even so, there were some serious successes along the way that I might have otherwise missed had I not intentionally reflected on 2015.
Between now and the middle of the month I am booked almost solid with appointments, trips and meetings. But I have also set a goal to be more consistent in both my blog posting as well developing a new weekly newsletter, the Weekly Course of Action. So instead of just relaxing as I would normally have chosen to do, I got ahead of the curve.
The trick is to be able to take all of that information and transform it into usable, workable knowledge. For most people this is easier said than done. Good intentions are replaced with the urgency of items waiting for your return followed by the daily work of your usual routine. And before you know it, the inspirational energy of the conference has waned, leaving you with some thoughts of “what could have been,” but few or no new results from the investment. But there is an alternative scenario: review, plan, and act.
I am Gwen Bortner, COO and consultant. I help stuck entrepreneurs get unstuck. And in the process reenergize you, curate solutions, and become your business confidant.
