How you think about your business is directly proportional to how successful you will be. Take a look at all the things that are holding you back from where you want to be and you’ll see a common thread, you.
When I owned a dental practice I was really good at looking at all the things that weren’t working, analyzing expense reports, creating cash flow forecasts that never seemed to match reality. Every time I thought I had found the solution things changed and it blew up my models. I was in the office at 8am picking up the kids by 6pm, constantly thinking of ways to fix the problems, researching solutions constantly, reading books, analyzing daily sheets, focusing on mistakes being made by others. I was frustrated, disappointed, angry and blaming everyone, only after my business failed did I take the time to analyze what I did wrong and this is what I found out.
Mistake #1
The first mistake I made was not clearly defining my WHY. This is talked about a lot, but I never truly understood it. Initially my why was to create a business, work for myself and make lots of money. It sounded pretty good, I don’t understand why I failed? I truly didn’t know what I was getting into and my real WHY at the time was just to do something different from what I was doing before. And in retrospect I totally fulfilled my initial why.
A good “why” isn’t just a thing marketers use to sell products, it's the baseline motivation that gets you out of bed in the morning. Why do we feed our kids? Because we love them and don’t want them to die. Why do we start our own business? Because we have something amazing to offer that's better than anything else out there? If you’re not excited about your “why” don’t be surprised when it's reflected in your results.
Mistake #2
Time equals money. This simple formula has governed my life for over 40 years! I have to admit I sometimes still fall victim to it. I used to pride myself on being a “hard” worker, which meant I had no problem putting in 12 hour days at work. What I didn’t yet realize is that it wasn’t the hours that made the result happen it was my brain. The value I created could sometimes take 12 hours but usually I only did about 4-6 hours of real work and 6-8 hours of thinking about work. This realization blew my mind, when I finally gave myself permission to work less I found I created more.
I did a deep dive into how I spent my day and when I started blocking off time with no distractions and limited myself to only those hours, I was more productive, energized and enjoyed the rest of my day guilt free.
Which leads us to...
Mistake #3
Overthinking. Overthinking is going to kill you, period. Overthinking, dwelling on issues, analysis paralysis are all the curse of the smart. Overthinking happens when we haven’t clearly defined the problem and taken steps to implement a solution. How much time do you waste dwelling on perceived problems or avoiding them? This is the easiest thing to fix through planning, discipline and chilling the fuck out.
Here’s my pro coaching tip on overthinking. Write it down on a piece of paper, all of it, what you’re thinking, what the problems are, everything that is clogging your brain. Now take a deep breath and read it back. As you’re doing this think to yourself, “How would I solve this problem if I knew the answer”. Give your brain real problems to solve, don’t let it create ones that don’t exist.
If you can sit down each day for 15 minutes and answer the following questions you will greatly improve your business and life experience.
Why are you doing this?
What one thing of value do you want to create today?
Plan it and forget it.
If you would like more information on this or any other business obstacles contact me at pete@beskasconsulting or sign up for a free 45 min coaching call.
Looking forward to hearing from you.
Pete Beskas