SUCCESS DOESN’T NECESSARILY COME FROM DOING THINGS “MORE RIGHT” …SUCCESS COMES FROM DOING “MORE OF THE RIGHT THINGS”
I watch a lot of really great people beat themselves up daily over all of the things that they feel they are doing wrong. It’s a pretty easy trap to fall into, especially if you focus most of your time worrying about what other people may think of you instead of creating a successful business.
Heck, none of us want to appear lazy, dumb, out of touch, or even stupid to our peers, friends, and family.
One of the biggest reasons for feeling bad about ourselves, our businesses, or even our lives is that from outward appearances everyone else seems to have everything dialed in perfectly…
it’s only you and I that don’t quite have it all together.
You know this is true if you spend any time at all around groups of other people. Whether it’s at a business event, an association meeting, or even on Facebook or some other social media site all you see is the good stuff. Very few people share their failures, challenges, issues, and things they are doing wrong in these settings when sharing their road to a successful business.
The natural inclination is to try to live up to the standard we perceive that everyone is living or working at…and we wind up spending most of our time trying to fix the things we are doing wrong so we can be or live just like them.
So in this INSIDER Letter, I’m going to ask you to do something a little different…and the cool thing is it should be pain-free and maybe even a little liberating for you.
Make a few “doing right” lists.
First, make a list of all of the things you are doing right
– both at the personal and at the business level. And here is a secret – put things on your list that YOU know and feel you are doing right… not what you think other people would consider “right”.
It’s your list…not theirs.
Do your best to aside the guilt, frustration, fear, and all of the other feelings that go along with trying to fix or change the things you believe you are doing wrong.
Start by making a list of the things that you are doing right at the personal level. Be as specific as you can as you add to this list. For example “every day I make it a priority to pay someone a compliment” or “I take 15 minutes each morning and am “there” for my wife and/or kids with no distractions”… get it?
Then ask yourself which things on the list are truly important to you and make you feel the best about yourself.
If you are still having trouble making this list, go at it from this angle:
If you asked your friends or family what personal traits they admire most about you, how would they answer?
Next, move to your business and make a list of things that you are doing right and that have proven time and time again to move you closer to your goals.
If you have trouble figuring out what to put on this list just take a few minutes to think about some of your recent successes and the actions that led up to them.
In most cases, you’ll find that there are several things that you do on a daily, weekly, monthly or annual basis that almost always lead to a great outcome…and that you feel particularly good or excited about when you are doing them or have completed them. List those actions.
But, here’s the real secret…
Now that you have made your two lists (handwritten on a tablet or big piece of paper is best) stop and take a second look at them.
Choose three things from each of your “doing right” lists that make the biggest positive difference in your personal life and your business “life”.
Copy them onto a second piece of paper and read it every night and again in the morning as you start your new day. Keep this paper in sight whenever possible.
Make it a point to do more of each of the items on your “doing right” lists. What would happen if you spent 80% of your time and energy focusing on doing more of the thing(s) that have already proven to get you closer to your goal and 20% of your time working to fix the things you are doing wrong or not at all?
INSIDER Secret…
the more time you spend working on the right things the less time you will have to burn up time, energy, and money on the “wrong” things, and the bigger chance you will have to build a successful business.
