In August of last year, on a beach in Northern Spain I mulled over life and arrived at Business Matters. It’s always interesting what happens when you surrender to what’s around you and just be.
The grey matter seems to light up – like it’s suddenly got space to think. There is good of evidence that points to doing nothing, just being for a small part of the day has great benefits for mind and body. It’s also cute that we have insights when we least expect, like waking up in the morning and when in the shower.
There are lots of reasons for the shower thing – but that’s not for now.
I already show my own Ninja group how to do some of this, but the whole beach thing changed my mind on a couple of aspects so I have redone the whole goal setting and time management thing that my Ninja’s get.
I personally think the term ‘goal’ should be binned, far too close to this whole sport malarkey.
Here is the overview.
Your life should be mapped out with a couple of massive lifestyle wants – 25 year plan. What is it you finally want to be/do/have. You’ll never get there but it’s something to aim for. I can explain why.
We are ‘river people’ going with the flow is something you should do, swimming upstream is hard and you can’t do it for long, often a focus on massive business goals interrupts life and ends up incredibly stressful – ever heard the line about ‘how do you eat and elephant?’ – One bite at a time.
Let me explain how that works with your business.
You might want to be an eminent surgeon, but without medical training (seven years) you have no chance. It’s a seven year thing. But flowing your business from £10k per month to £20k is pretty straightforward, see it’s incremental, you can target, monitor and manage weeks at a time and take baby steps.
And here are the steps that I show my Micro Businesses to do.
- Never plan for more than three months at a time
- Have a weekly written plan and daily objectives that you actually monitor
- Swerve as many time sinks as possible. Social media, negative idiots on the office, sad and lonely friends who just drain you (don’t ignore them – allocate time to them – just not today)
- Disconnect from ‘tech’ which includes the internet and phones, and do it often.
That’s the start. Even if you only do these you’ll be well ahead of the game and you will move forward – this is the thing that most people don’t get, running a business, becoming wealthy are all part of a process – it’s the process that does the work, not the work.
I’ve met several very wealthy people over the last year who don’t have a mobile or a work email address – far too important to pick up their own phone. Think GP or Cardio Consultant.
I’ve met some of the happiest people on the planet who don’t care what Facebook is.
I’ve also watched two ten year olds play for hours without an Ipad in sight – tech is banned in the house/garden for them.
On the day I returned from my holiday I made Jam, started drying my Sunflower seeds and prepared reports for two new consulting clients. You really can have most of what you want, but you need to plan for it and you need systems.
Doing the same old thing year after year just gets you closer to death and nothing else.
Do all of the above your business will change, actually you don’t need to do them all. Even if you only implemented a couple of these you’d be a lot better off.
If you want to get a foot firmly on the floor and move fast, then I know my little group of Ninjas will give you the boost you need. Come and become a Ninja, you’ll get the real deal and finally sort your business shizzle out.
Richard
© Richard Smith, 2017
…the brutally honest truth about growing a small
business in world of self interested crooks, scallywags
and charlatans.
www.StartupDirect.org
www.youthbusiness.org