Welcome to yet another exciting and challenging new year! 🙂 As we all do, I’m sure you’ve already started the year with a few resolutions in mind and are eagerly planning on how to get them done. Newsflash: you probably won’t get half of them accomplished by the end of the year. Don’t worry, it’s not entirely your fault, it’s only human that we tend to set goals for ourselves that are not correctly adjusted to what we really need. So, how about this year we keep it simple? I’ve thought about this a lot and realized that truly good resolutions are similar to setting a certain mind frame. They are not a list of desired achievements per se but what will provide the right context for those achievements. I’ve narrowed them down to three, but feel free to add to the list 🙂
Focus on what really matters
As an entrepreneur, more often than not you have to pay attention to each and every little detail related to your business, the market, and competition. You tend to want to do everything and be involved in everything. Not to mention that, and I personally know all too well what this is like, entrepreneurs have a mind that never stops coming up with new ideas. Unfortunately, this means that you are getting pulled in a ton of directions and are, most definitely, feeling overwhelmed. So, stop for a second, take a really hard look at what you are doing and start cutting through the static and clutter. Not sure how to do that? Here are some hints: delegate, delegate, delegate. Avoid work that is just keeping you busy and focus on activities dedicated to making your business stronger and better. Focus on your product and on selling it, less on running around for funding. Focus on the people who buy your products. Chose an idea and follow through. Get empowered. Focus on growth.
Say “no” more often
Saying “yes” to everything that comes your way, whether we are talking about new clients or business opportunities, is a sure ticket to Exhausted and Overcommitted Ville. This goes hand in hand perfectly with what I’ve written above. Saying “yes” all the time will bring more pressure, more work load and will make you lose focus of what are the real important things for your business. Ask yourself a simple question: Does this opportunity help me develop my business in any way? If you’re just a tad hesitant in answering, then don’t disregard the red flag and take a closer look. 9 out of 10 times, you’ll be better of saying “pass”. Wonderfully enough, by learning to say no you see that you’ll become more proactive (“yes” leads to reactive actions :)), a better negotiator, better at prioritizing and learn to pick clients and business partners more carefully. Bottom line, you’ll be a better entrepreneur.
Health above all
A healthy entrepreneur is a performant entrepreneur. Seriously now, you can’t expect to properly run a business and be successful if you’re exhausted all the time and are constantly dealing with health issues. Whether we’re talking about mental, emotional or physical health, it’s important that you take care of yourself. This means eating healthier, exercising more, dealing better with stress and aiming for a real work/life balance. You’ll see – you’ll be more productive and happier. And this will translate to being efficient, getting things done quickly and keeping the business running ship-shape.
Here’s to an amazing 2016!
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