This Destroys 95% of All Business Owners

I had 3 separate conversations with business owners who all were plagued by the same thing…

…the same disease that prevents at least 95% of entrepreneurs from ever making real headway toward creating their Ideal Business.

The disease of Self-Inflicted Overwhelm.

To-Do Lists that seem to be never ending…but no real priorities.

Worry about things well beyond their control.

Chasing more information instead of executing things that are already proven to work.

Spending all their time thinking about the future, the past, the competition or anything else that prevents them from focusing on the present.

Avoidance of the activities that can be real game changes…instead spending their time reacting to low priority stuff or simply procrastinating.

Fear of everything that could go wrong.

You understand…and unless you’re a cyborg you’ve probably fallen into this trap…I know I have.

And the reality is this…if you’re spending too much time in this ‘place’ it’s killing any chance you have of creating your Ideal Business.

So how do you cure it?

Well, here’s my approach:

Step One: Get clear about your values and your priorities.

Not some cliche stuff that you pulled off someone else’s website…what’s really important to you.

This is the filter all your decisions will go through…if something doesn’t fit who you are and what you stand for…it doesn’t get your time or attention.

Step Two: Decide where you want to go.

Decide what success looks like to you. What your Ideal Business will be. This is the destination you’re working toward from where you are today.

Step Three: Create your map and plan the first leg of the trip.

Now the job is to create a map from where you are to where you want to be and then decide what you need to do during that first leg to make significant progress.

Now that first leg can be 100 days, 90 days, 12 weeks, 6 weeks or even a month. You decide.

I use 6 weeks for our Producer Challenge but for a lot of my own planning I just use 3 month blocks…what can I realistically get done in 3 months?

Set your goals for what you’ll do in your chosen time frame and you’re all set.

Step Four: Weekly Planning

Now you just decide what you’ll be doing each week to move you toward that goal so that you’re on pace to accomplish it in the time frame you set (or sooner.) This is where people really start to get hung up though.

They may say they’re going to get things done but they’ve not set aside enough time…or even any time…to do them. If you’re like most entrepreneurs you’ll schedule dozens of blocks to serve other people’s goals…but never schedule one for your own.

If something matters, schedule it and give yourself enough time to do what you intend to do.

Step Five: Win The Day

Every day is a chance to make progress or lose ground.

You decide.

So every day you should be taking strategic steps toward your Ideal Business – steps that you’ve used this simple process to map out.

And if something isn’t one of those steps and it’s not fundamental to running the day to day of your business…when it comes to your professional life it’s WAY down the list of what deserves your attention.

And to give you a bit of perspective…for me, there are about 5 important tasks like that which I set out to accomplish each week.

Yes…weekly. Not daily.

If I can get 48 weeks of 5 significant tasks moving me toward my Ideal Business done…that’s 240 over the year…I’ll be just fine. And you will too.

So stop being plagued by the disease of Self-Inflicted Overwhelm and start investing your time in building your Ideal Business.