life lessons

What do you love?

by Craig.
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It’s my belief that a lot of us drift through life not knowing exactly what we want out of it. We get caught up in the daily grind and eventually lose the appreciation for what really makes us happy. We lose touch with our innermost wants and desires so life becomes a struggle to survive rather than something we enjoy every day.

Personally I found myself following the “get a good job” mentality throughout high school and the first two years of university. Then that summer I found a book lying on a bedside table where I was housesitting called “Rich Dad’s Guide To Investing” by Robert Kiyosaki. This book changed my world view completely and I was set up the path of the entrepreneur who was going to make the big bucks.

Now I’ve thoroughly enjoyed this path and all that’s it taught me but a few years ago I discovered a new flaw in my plan. I was working so hard to “get rich” (and reinvesting most of my money into it as well) that I wasn’t really appreciating life. I was missing out on all the little things in life because of this big goal I had… I firmly believe in delayed gratification but I was taking it to the extreme.

Taking a look at what’s really important

Doing an exercise from one of my mentors made me realise just where I was going wrong. The exercise was to find out what I really loved and I now repeat it every year as I fine-tune my life. Basically it goes like this…

You ask yourself: “What do you love?” and write down the answer.

You ask that question over and over again until you get a list of things you love. You want to do it without filtering or thinking heavily about it and just get your thoughts on to the page. Then later you can refine your list and remove all the random thoughts that came into your head during the process.

The result

This year I have a list of 11 loves and I make sure that I’m spending a lot of time on those loves. In fact I’m doing most of them on a daily basis. What was interesting for me is that nearly all my loves are quite inexpensive and easy to do. In fact the only expensive one is travel and when I break that down into what I love about travelling (friends, food and culture) I can also achieve that through inexpensive means.

So now I have a life filled with things I love and life is a lot more fulfilling. My business is also more closely aligned to what I love doing as well and I get to focus even more on my loves as I grow my team and get rid of tasks I dislike (to other people who like them). Through this I’ve also been able to work less and earn more because I love my work on a daily basis.

Your homeplay

Take a moment to step back and look at what you really love about your life. Do the exercise above and then compare just how much time you’re devoting to things you love so you can do something about it. It can also help to make a list of what you hate doing so you can find other people to do that stuff for you.

And remember that awareness is the first step to solving a problem. By taking stock of your life more often you’ll be able to make the subtle changes that bring you more happiness and fulfilment. It’s not a quick fix however with a little action you’ll move yourself step-by-step towards living a life you love.

Bad beliefs can cost you dearly

by Craig.
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A few months ago I identified a belief within myself that work = bad. On reflection I realized that it came from all those Rich Dad Poor Dad books by Robert Kiyosaki and the belief they formed that I never wanted a job. Unfortunately I took this one step further where…

job = bad
job = work
therefore work = bad!

The truth is I’ve never been particularly good at maths so messing up this formula isn’t much of a surprise!

The belief runs deeper

Since I do internet marketing there’s been a lot of reinforcement of this belief by marketers trying to sell me products. While “sitting on the beach while you make money” sounds like a nice idea it really does a lot of damage to our lives. Because while you can make money while sitting on the beach or while you sleep… is that really how we want to live our lives?

I would say when it comes down to it most of us want more fulfilling lives… but that doesn’t necessarily mean doing less work. It’s a choice of how we spend or time and what “work” we actually apply ourselves too. It can come down to a simple definition of the word “work” which we’ll get to in a second.

Have you ever fought against yourself?

The frustrating thing about our beliefs are how they can block us from what we really want. Personally I’ve found that most of the battles I’ve fought in my life haven’t been with outside invaders… they’ve been with myself. I’m constantly amazed how I can reveal little blocks in my thinking that hold me back from the result I desire.

And – believe it or not – the result I desire is hardly ever sitting around doing nothing.

Poking holes in the fantasy

I think most people have this fantasy of not having to work and having plenty of money to spend. But the reality of the situation is if we really spent all day sitting on our butts we’d get bored very quickly. I don’t know about you but I always find myself having to do something during holidays or I go a little crazy.

A month or so back my girlfriend and I went to the beach and I hadn’t bought a book or anything to do. I did my best to sit there quietly and “relax” but I got bored very quickly. I ended up exploring the beach and building a sandcastle to pass the time.

Because who says relaxing has to be sitting there doing absolutely nothing. Maybe relaxing for me is doing some activity that isn’t work related. But then if I enjoy my work activities who says I can’t be “relaxing” all the time?

An interesting viewpoint

A friend mentioned to be today a belief of one of New Zealand’s top NLP experts. He had said something to the effect of “NLP is my number one hobby.” Just by changing the language associated with his “work” he’s changed the game completely.

This leads back to doing what we’re passionate about… what excites us. If we really focus on the work (or hobby) we enjoy then we can’t help but be successful. Sure there’s going to be some icky tasks along the way but if we look at the big picture our working lives become a lot more pleasant.

How does this affect you?

I’m going to go out on a limb and say if you’re really honest with yourself you can find bad belief systems that are stopping you from attaining what you want in life. I know I’ve found them throughout my life (and continue to find them) even though I would be considered by many to be a fairly high achiever. The reality is that we’re constantly fighting these battles with ourselves no matter what level we’ve reached.

So I suggest looking at your life and what beliefs may be holding you back. Then try some different strategies for removing them. From my own experience having a coach (actually multiple) has helped me face my inner mind much more quickly and effectively and I would recommend the same to anyone reading this.

Anyway… hope this all makes sense as my chain of thought meandered a little in the process of writing this. Another helpful (and therapeutic) tip can be to get your thoughts out on paper. If you do it without the usual internal censoring you might find out some useful stuff about what your beliefs really are.

Hope you enjoyed reading my dear diary moment… please share your own thoughts and experiences in the comments.

Ask and you shall receive?

by Craig.
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I’ve taught many of my subscribers that most people start a business the wrong way round. Now I’m not pointing fingers as I’m guilty of it too but why do we insist on creating products and then finding a market for them? It’s much easier to find out what people want and then provide it to them.

Imagine if you could find out exactly what your clients wanted before you actually went through the trouble of creating it. And if you could do it with a simple survey. Now while this approach isn’t foolproof it’s a lot better than putting on a blindfold and throwing darts at the target.

So here’s a product idea that’s been rolling around in my head for a while. It would be great if you could answer these quick four questions about it and then we’ll see if it gets created:

The Quick Four Question Survey

Thanks in advance!

The 7 habits of highly ineffective people

by Craig.
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In the classic book “The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People” Stephen R. Covey lays down the groundwork for becoming a highly effective person. Funny how that works since it’s right there in the title. But let’s face it… some of us don’t really want to be effective!

There’s so much pressure of us from society now to be “successful…” whatever that means. We need to all makes tons of money, drive fancy cars and be beautiful just like in the magazines. Well what if that’s really too much work?

What if we’re happy with being ineffective?

Procratination - A critical tool of the ineffective person

So in case you’ve got swept up in the social craze of high achievement here are 7 habits to get you back to your old ineffective self.

Habit 1: Be Reactive

We all know there’s tons of stuff we could be doing to make our lives better. But let’s be honest… most of that stuff is scary and really, really hard! Whether it’s going to the gym every day or finding ways to make more money… sometimes it’s best just to sit back and let stuff happen to us.

After all if we never go out and try to accomplish anything then there’s no chance of failure – or success – so we eliminate those two big fears right out of the box. Plus when we’re reactive we can blame our circumstances for what happens to us. Everyone knows that if we’re poor it’s the governments fault and if we’re fat it’s all because of those evil fast food companies.

Habit 2: Begin with Nothing in Mind

Think about all those plans you’ve made in your life and how none of them really seem to work out. After all you’ve been planning to be a millionaire and sleep with movie stars your entire life and what has it gotten you? It’s much better if you have no plan or direction in your life at all.

When we focus on goals we end up trying to achieve them and develop as people. This is obviously a lot less fun than meandering hopelessly through life in a haze brought on by excessive drugs and alcohol. Plus this method works for the rock stars so why can’t it work for you?

Habit 3: Put First Things Last

We all have really important things we know we should do. But those things are often a lot more boring than the really fun stuff we can do instead. So it’s a lot healthier if we focus on those fun things and put off the big scary important things till later.

If you’re really creative you can probably find enough fun stuff to do so that you never even have to worry about the scary stuff. After all… look how many TV channels we have today filled with exciting and dynamic programming. With a bit of practice it’s easy to find new distractions to occupy our time.

Habit 4: Think Lose/Lose

Let’s face it… to get ahead in life you have to take advantage of other people and generally be an evil person. There is definitely no way to create a win/win situation for anyone so why even bother? You also don’t want to let others get the best of you so it’s always better to focus on getting lose/lose outcome for every situation you face.

If you really want to go to a movie but your friend really wants to go to a different (read: bad) movie then make sure you both come out of this situation both as miserable as each other. This is easily achieved by picking another movie that you’ll both hate equally as much.

Habit 5: Seek First to Be Understood, Then to Understand

If you’re reading this then you probably realize you’re smarter than 99% of the population… if not everyone. That’s why whenever you have an opinion or idea you should always try to carefully explain (using small words helps) why you’re right to others who are less intelligent than you. And if that doesn’t work you might as well mock and ridicule them.

We both know that if more people were like us the world would be a much better place. So it’s our responsibility to try and change as many people as possible. In fact it’s likely that you’re wasting your precious time even trying to understand other people’s inferior point of view.

Habit 6: Antagonize

People are much more productive when they work alone in competition with each other. Therefore you should try to foster an air of no holds barred competitive brutality with any team or organisation you come into contact with. If you celebrate your star performers achievements while berating the losers sooner or later everyone will lift their game to your high standards.

But don’t forget that this habit also applies to other organizations like your church or even your own family. If your children are constantly pitted against each other in competition for your love then they’ll soon realize winning is everything.  Once you’ve created this competitive environment you can then shape and mold them to fulfil your own childhood dreams.

Habit 7: Dull the Saw

Since the dawn of the self-help movement people have been mislead into thinking that in order to have a fulfilling life we have to constantly be improving and evolving. However the proponents of this new philosophy obviously never met us and realized that there are some people who are simply already perfect. After all it helps everyone else to have role models to aspire to and although it’s a big burden it’s one we’re more than happy to take on.

If they want to waste time reflecting on life and meditating then good luck to them. While they’re out there singing songs and holding hands trying to rejuvenate their lives we’ve already got it mastered. After all what kind of rest is better than sitting in front of the TV eating anyway?

A call to inaction

Too long have we been told that we have to “make” something or ourselves or lead a good life. What’s wrong with just getting by and taking up space? At the end of the day we all end up in the same box under the ground anyway.

Just face the fact that life is life and there’s nothing we can ever do to change our circumstances. Accept that if we’re fat, poor, lonely and miserable there’s nothing we could ever do to change this. Just remember to plaster on fake smile and stumble through the mindless boredom of another day.

¡Viva la Revolución!

The fatal flaw of most business owners

by Craig.
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Recently I discovered a fatal flaw in myself that I believe applies to most business owners. Yet when this barrier is removed it’s amazing how our productivity increases. I believe the scientific term is “I can do anything better than you…”

[We will return after this short musical interlude]

Sorry… I was getting feedback that this blog didn’t contain enough musical numbers. Back to the point… if I had one.

Being a business owner means a huge responsibility. Not only do we need to ensure our business is successful to support ourselves and our families but we have countless other people relying on us from clients to suppliers and all the stakeholders in between. This can create a little pressure to get things right all the time.

The problem with being the best

We get into trouble when our business starts growing and suddenly we’re overwhelmed with more and more work. So we hire people to help us out but we don’t make (notice I didn’t say “have”) the time to train them properly. The new employees make mistakes… we take back the work and say “if you want it done right you have to do it yourself!”

And so our business reaches a level where we’re constantly stressed out and working ridiculous hours. Luckily growth stops because we definitely don’t have time for (or need) marketing. But we’re now trapped in a prison of our own creation.

Systems are the answer

We’ve all been told that to have a successful business we need systems. These systems allow us to hand over work to other people and focus on the really important work in the business. But the hard part is making the time to create the systems.

But we choose how we spend our time so we need to put aside that time for systematizing our business. We have to decide that training our staff is more important than fighting the latest fire. And we have to embrace the fact that time spent well now will lead to greater productivity down the line.

How to systematize your business

Take some time to write down everything you do in your business. First take some time to eliminate things you’re doing that aren’t really helping your business at all (there are usually a few) and then divide the task into things you must do and what staff could handle. You need to be ruthless here as you’ll probably try to hold onto tasks that aren’t mission critical in the process.

The important thing is to take the first step and start entrusting tasks to other people. Personally I think you’ll be amazed at what they can do… I know I have been for my business. An added tip is to put your ego aside and try to hire people who are better than you!

What you do next

If you’re like most business owners you probably feel overworked and underpaid for what you’re doing. So follow the steps above to systematize your business and start to remove yourself from as much as possible. This way you can focus on the bigger picture items and get a lot more leverage… which means more income at the end of the day.

Improve productivity 145.749% in just a few days

by Craig.
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Ok so maybe I can’t quite measure my productivity that accurately but I’m recently discovered a highly effective yet totally counter intuitive way to improve productivity. Over the current week I’ve gotten so much more done and actually ticked about twice as many things off my todo list as normal. I’m even about to tick off those important business building items that usually get buried by urgent problems and fire fighting.

Before I start a lot has to be credited to Simpleology and how it’s helped organise my life. I started using it about 6 months ago and haven’t looked back. You can read my previous Simpleology review here if you want to find out more.

The new technique that sounds stupid till you try it

I got this nugget from Eben Pagan of Get Altitude and Wake Up Productive fame. If anyone knows about productivity it’s a guy who built a 20+ million a year company starting in his bedroom on a laptop. He surprisingly also has some good ideas about making money as well but we won’t go into that.

Anyway… the technique. It’s based on working within what’s called your ultradian rhythm. This is a natural rhythm that determines how long your brain can stay active without rest (at least in my layman’s understanding).

Basically it insists you have to take regular breaks from your work to be more productive. Now it may sound stupid… work less to achieve more? But after trying it this week (and then not doing it properly) I’ve found it’s incredibly powerful.

Here’s how you do it

You work for 2 hours and then take a 30 minute break. In that break you eat a small meal and totally switch off from work. That means no checking email, reading, studying marketing materials :o or anything.

This gives your body and mind time to recharge so you’re much more productive during those 2 hours. Of course you also have to choose the right tasks to complete during the 2 hours and ensure you stay focused on them (turn your email and phones off!). This is where I find Simpleology comes in useful and these systems work well together.

Get hydrated

Something Eben also talks about is how dehydrated most people are. He suggests drinking 2 glasses of water immediately after you wake up to rehydrate yourself and start the day off well. I’ve found this has got me through the “OMG I want to go back to bed I’m so tired!” phase and I assure you I’m not a morning person.

I’ve also been drinking a glass of water at every break and sometimes more in between. I kept notes in my diary to make sure I got up to 8 glasses of water a day which is the suggested amount (generally). It’ll send you to the bathroom a lot in the beginning but your body will adjust quickly.

Ensure you’re in a peak physical state

At the end of the day our businesses rely on one person for their results… us! If we’re not performing at our peak then no one else is going to either. So we need to focus on increasing our effectiveness.

I’ve heard for years I should exercise in the morning and have done it in little spurts. However I’ve never really committed to it… until now (at least exercising every day at this point). By exercising in the morning we let out those natural happy drugs and ensure we can reach our peak state.

It doesn’t have to be hard exercise either… a simple walk around block is a good start. My goal has been to go to the gym in my building every day. Note I didn’t say work out every day… I said go to it :)

Because I know once I put my foot inside the door I’ll at least do something. And if I start doing something then I’ll probably do more. Just take it in baby steps and you’ll naturally grow to love your exercise time (take your iPod and make it fun).

The results

On Monday and Tuesday I followed my schedule exactly and felt great. On Tuesday I actually ticked every single thing off my todo list which never EVER happens. I so greatly improved productivity and was sold on the system.

On Wednesday and Thursday I had some phone calls I needed to make in the morning to the US which threw me off my schedule. I also didn’t go to the gym in the morning and decided to go later while also skipping breaks. The results showed in my todo list at the end of the day.

Late on Thursday afternoon I realised what had happened and how I’d been skipping my breaks. Feeling fatigued I made myself take a 30 minute break. After 10 minutes I was feeling much better but held out for the full 30. I ended up leaping back into work and getting a lot more tasks ticked off.

But don’t take my results for it. Try it for yourself and see what happens. I think you’ll be pleasantly surprised.

What you do next

Break your work day into 3 or 4 blocks of 2 hours each with a 30 minute rest in between. Spend your rest period relaxing, eat a little bit and drink some water. Also start your day with 2 glasses of water and see how you feel.

Once you’ve set this part up consider adding exercise. But the important thing is to make some positive changes and not to overwhelm yourself. Also don’t beat yourself up if you miss a break… just try to remember next time.

Why New Year’s resolutions always fail

by Craig.
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I think we’ve all had the experience of making New Year’s resolutions only to break them in just a few short weeks. So why does this happen? And how can we see our goals through to completion?

Personally I don’t make New Year’s resolutions due to the stigma of having them fail. Instead I set goals that I intend to work towards all year. I choose things that will really make my year incredible and that I’m determined to achieve.

Why New Year’s resolutions always fail

Most New Year’s resolutions are made on the spur of the moment or treated as something we’d like to do. I hate to be the bearer of bad news but having a goal of winning the lottery isn’t that effective as there’s little you can do to help you achieve it. But it’s still the same with the classic goal of losing weight (or more correctly fat) if you’re not prepared to put in any effort.

As I’ve talked about before we’re responsible for our own lives. We can’t expect our mummies and daddies, our partners, the government or the lottery people to swoop in and give us the lives we want. If we want a change then it’s up to us to do it.

Do you have a big enough reason why?

So if you want to achieve a goal you first have to ask yourself how badly you want it. If losing fat or becoming a millionaire would be nice then you’re on the wrong track. You have to realize why you want these goals and what they mean to you.

But if you want to lose weight because you want to date someone who’s fit and healthy and realize that they’re unlikely to even look twice at you unless you’re the same… well that might give you some motivation. As would having everyone point and laugh when you go to the beach. It helps to keep in mind that in most cases the more pain you experience around your goal the more motivated you’ll be.

Keeping the momentum

Staying with the losing weight goal most of us start out with the best intentions and then it sinks in just how long it’ll take to reach our goal. It’s obvious that if having our ideal body was easy we’d all be fabulous looking so it shouldn’t come as a surprise that there might be a little work involved. However it’s not as hard as it seems.

What I now like to do is set little goals on the way to the big goal. So this month’s goal might be just to simply go for a walk every day for 30 minutes. Now this won’t transform my body overnight but it’s a good start before increasing the intensity of the exercise.

Plus it’s achievable and I can get instant feedback on my progress (am I walking each day or not?). It shows I can commit the time and my body isn’t going to rebel with huge amounts of pain like suddenly going to the gym can. So I take the first step towards my goal and feel good about myself.

The biggest mindset shift of all

A recent discovery I’ve made is to stop focusing on the goal so much and start to focus on the process of achieving the goal. This means you fall in love with what you do every day rather than waiting for a big payoff when you finally reach your goal. Because if you wait for the payoff you’ll find it short-lived and you might even revert to your previous lifestyle and lose all your hard work.

So if you want to lose weight you have to fall in love with being a fit and healthy person. You’ll want to find exercise you enjoy doing and want to do long after you’ve achieved your goal. The same with eating well… it’s no good going on a diet you hate because you’ll be constantly fighting your self-control.

That’s why I hate the word diet as it’s a temporary solution… and why so many people balloon out when they finally stop doing their diet. The people who succeed find healthy foods they enjoy eating and start to associate massive pain with the junk foods of the past. This is the only way to sustain a fit and healthy lifestyle.

How does this apply to your business?

I’ve talked a lot about health and fitness here when I could of used a business goal setting example instead. The same rules still apply to your business and you have to find a sustainable way of growing your business. You simply discover the actions that lead you towards your goal and keep doing them over and over again.

But every business owner should also try to be as fit and healthy as possible… why? Because you’re the one person that your business’ success relies on. If you’re tired and rundown then you’ll hold your business back.

But don’t beat yourself up!

If you fail to do something or reach a goal don’t be too hard on yourself. We’re all human and there are so many factors within ourselves that will hold us back. But if you consistently work towards your goals then you’ll break down those barriers one by one and get there in the end.

What we don’t want to do is get discouraged and give up as that’s the only real way to fail. If we work long enough and hard enough on a goal while being flexible in our approach we’re going to get there one day. When the going gets tough we need to take a step back… breathe deeply… and decide how we’re going to tackle the next obstacle.

What you do next

Decide what you’d like to accomplish over the next year and write it down. Then break down the goal into smaller steps that build on the last. Finally… commit yourself to the goal by signing the piece and paper and putting it on the wall.

Then just get to work and let me know how it goes!

My choice to be broke and miserable

by Craig.
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For the last few years I chose to be broke and miserable. After all… isn’t that what struggling entrepreneurs are meant to be? At least the broke part with a sprinkling of overworked and exhausted.

The truth is success is not as easy as everyone makes out. Well – to be accurate – I would say the principles are easy but the hard part is following through. It’s getting ourselves to do what has to be done to achieve our dreams.

Most people give up on their dreams at the slightest setback. Things get a little bit too hard or a little bit too real and suddenly settling for mediocrity doesn’t sound so bad. For myself it was asking the question “What’s so bad about having a job anyway?”

What habits do you have?

I’ve recently started reading The 7 Habits Of Highly Effective People by Stephen R Covey (thanks again Linda) and I must say I wish I’d read it a long time ago. Whether my head would have been in the right place to understand it is another thing but it definitely contains valuable insights and I’ve only just finished the first habit!

The first habit is all about being proactive and not reactive. It points out that we have a choice of how we behave in all circumstances. Whether we choose to focus on what we can control or what we can’t.

What being proactive means to me

Being proactive means deciding what you want in your life and making it happen. We can’t just sit back and let life happen to us. We can’t complain about the economy or other people getting in the way of what we really want.

Now I could write a big book of excuses for why my life isn’t perfect but I have to accept that no one else is to blame. It’s all on me to get what I want and be the person I want to be.

Being vs having

Another point is effective people choose to focus on being the person they want to be rather than having the things they want to have. Rather than wanting to have a million dollars they ask themselves what kind of person would they need to be to become a millionaire. Again they focus on what they can do internally rather than trying to change things happening externally.

This is why so many lotto winners have millions of dollars yet manage to lose it in record time. They were not ready to be millionaires. They continued to focus on having more stuff until the money was gone.

Empowering or scary?

To be honest it’s a little scary when we realize we have this complete power over our lives. We suddenly become aware that everything we’ve achieved (or not achieved) up until this point is a result of the choices we’ve made. Or maybe our choice to procrastinate over doing what we know we really should be.

But then when we take this on board and really internalize the fact that our choices shape our destiny it should be incredibly empowering. To know that we’ve responsable for our own success. And that no one else can ever hold us back.

What you do next

Have a look at the choices you are making in your life and whether they’re really going to lead you to your dreams. Are you letting excuses hold you back? Are you doing what really needs to be done?

And paint a picture of your ideal life and what it would be like. Are you being the person that deserves this life? What kind of changes do you have to make to become this person?

It may not be easy (I certainly don’t find it easy) but accepting you are responsible for you life is what gives you the life you want. So what’s really holding you back? I think you’ll find the answer is “me!” *gulp*

You can grab the book from Amazon here

Happy Thanksgiving – Nick Vujicic: No arms, no legs

by Craig.
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Even though I’m not from the US I don’t think it’s a bad idea to spend at least one day being thankful for what we have. Because as Tony Robbins would say what we focus on determines our reality. So do you want a reality of gratitude and happiness… or something else?

Nick Vujicic had a choice… he could use having no arms and no legs as an excuse to be miserable in life and I don’t think many of us would judge him for that. But we could see Nick’s plight as a gift… it’s not easy getting your message across in this day and age but having no arms and no legs sure makes one interesting speaker. It all depends on what you focus on.

So today let’s take a moment to feel sorry for ourselves for having all our limbs and knowing we’ll never be famous because of it… I guess we’ll have to find our own unique gift to share with the world instead.

My crippling business disease

by Craig.
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Many of you don’t know that I actually suffer from a crippling disease that affects my business rather dramatically. Without realizing it my symptoms can strike without warning and I end up getting absolutely nothing done. I believe this disease strikes many business owners but not many are willing to admit it.

I’m referring to the disease called entrepreneurship.

Being an entrepreneur is not an easy thing to live with. It doesn’t strike everyone in business but instead focuses on a particular type of person.

The secret is out

As an entrepreneur I find myself excited by the new and challenging areas of my business. I love to dream and plan for the future… my notebook is constantly filled with new ideas. I’m always looking to improve and innovate in my business.

But there’s a dark side. I get bored by the mundane tasks in my business. I love designing the new strategy for my business but have lost interest about 5 minutes into implementing it.

Symptoms can include…

  • Constantly having millions of new ideas for your business
  • Feeling distracted from important tasks
  • Focusing on the future rather than the present
  • Multiple projects always on the go
  • Always looking for the next great challenge
  • Finding it hard to finish required tasks

So is there a cure?

We all perform at our best when we focus on our strengths but still ensure our weaknesses are covered. This is why having a team in business can be so important to success. You need someone to fill in your weaknesses.

Personally I’ve struggled for years being a lone wolf entrepreneur. Having a bad experience with my first business partner (one day he just up and quit) I decided this business would be different. Hence I’ve avoided partners and this has really restricted my growth.

My own personal answer

Now I’m focusing on building the team around me so all the plans get done. I’ve finally realized that the key to my own personal success is coming up with new ideas and having others implement them. This realization unlocks a lot of potential in my business.

However everyone is different and maybe your answer is different. Maybe you need someone to come up for the crazy dreams for you because you love doing the day-to-day work. It’s working out how you can thrive and then filling in the gaps around you.

What you do next

I suggest taking an honest look at your strengths and weaknesses. Then work out what parts of your business supports your strengths and how others can cover your weaknesses. Not only will you be more productive but by focusing on the stuff you enjoy your life will be a lot more fulfilling as well.

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