Although it doesn’t feel like Spring yet,here we are ploughing through Q1 at pace and heading into that time of year. With just over two months down, how are you tracking on your yearly and quarterly goals? If you’re feeling like you might have lost a bit of focus on your big goals, then I might have a little 10 minute exercise that will help you.
Like most business owners striving towards the optimal balance of working ON the business v’s working IN the business, I do find it challenging each week to complete the proactive milestones in amongst all the operational and reactive things that come up day to day. I know I won’t be alone in that.
This week I’d given myself 3 mini completion points, as follows, that contribute to the bigger Q1 goals for our SA business:
- learn how to create a reporting dashboard in QuickBooks
- research and make next step decision on the SEO capability of our kigo website v’s going down the route of self-hosting and connecting a bespoke website with the kigo plugin
- create an ‘end of stay’ and a ‘mid-stay’ clean checklist for our cleaners (have you ever been caught out by a TV not working between one guest stay and the next? This is the kind of thing that our clean team can check and report on).
I’m pleased to report these actions did get ticked off.
A growing SA business can kick up so much busyness that I’m very conscious about getting caught in the weeds and I definitely don’t want to lose focus from the big hairy audacious goals Chris and I set at the start of the year. So, when I heard a podcast episode from Peter Voogd recently, about a 2 monthly re-focus exercise, I had to give it a go.
The podcast episode was about how to make sure we are sticking with our new year goals, past the first and second month, and shared some routines to get back on track, producing results.
As Peter Voogd puts it, ‘Your job as an entrepreneur is to make sure whether you are there or not, whether you are sick or not, whether you feel like it or not, results are being produced and you are progressing in your life and business.’ I subscribe to that.
THE FOCUS FIVE ACTIVITY
This is a 10 minute exercise to shift your mindset and mentality to help get you back in the zone when you’re feeling out of optimal state. Voogd does this every 2 months, but suggests others may need to do this more often until habits take over (remember ‘habits trump inspiration’).
I’ll share the steps below and a few examples from my own exercise.
STEP #1
Write down 5 things you are grateful for and really appreciative for. Things that if you didn’t have them you’d be extremely sad or stressed. We always want to come from a place of gratitude because it’s impossible to feel frustrated when feeling grateful.
- My amazing wife and 3 boys
- My good health to be fit, active and mentally capable
- Our SA business and all of our paying customers
STEP #2
(To help you come from a place of confidence and self worth)
Write down 5 things you are proud of, considering the last 2 or 3 months, not from years ago. So things like business achievements, results, good deeds,
- Crafted a master vision for the year, my Q1 goals and implementation plans
- Introduced my kids to 2 important life values (1 per month – Jan = Loyalty and Feb = Respect, 10 more to go) and associated teachings as I said I would in my annual goals.
- Got our SA bookings back above £XXK/month through nurturing relationships and developing some new business
STEP #3
Now it’s time to turn ‘gratitude’ and ‘proud of’ into Excitement. Write 5 things you are excited about in the coming couple of months
- Our family ski trip
- Getting a new car
- Getting our first refurb to packaged SA unit moving
This step is key because we have to create things to be excited about or we risk falling into drudgery.
STEP #4
Everything always has to come back to results. Now it’s time to turn the ‘grateful for’, ‘proud of’, and ‘excited about’ focus into results. You can re-inject all your gratitude, confidence, energy and focus into 5 results you want to have done because, ‘ideas don’t pay the bills, execution does’.
What are 5 results you want to have created in the next 30-60 days (you choose the appropriate time frame)?
- Launched our SA management offering
- Refinanced our guest house
- Have tested adwords on our website and optimised organic SEO
When I did this I made a note to self from Peter’s suggestion about the importance of keeping a record of this stuff because it’s so important to be able to see your progress and how far you have come. This is crucial because it helps prevent you from living in what business psychologists call ‘the gap’ i.e. always thinking about where you could be and what could have and potentially disheartening yourself because it’s always so far in front. Instead, what you need to be recognising is how far you’ve come and feeling great about that. Because ‘success is a practice not a destination’.
Voogd recommends that by doing this exercise every 2 months it will re-programme your thinking and help keep you on track by making sure you focus on gratitude and what’s important so that you don’t misplace your priorities.
I certainly found the exercise energising and will be scheduling it in every 2 months.
Would love to hear what tactics others use to help keep you focused and on track with your yearly goals.