Now is the time to face reality: You need to know your business and yourself.
During your daily Strategic Time Out Process (STOP), ask yourself, “What is working well in my business?” As we all know, nothing is perfect. Everything can be improved if enough thought is put to improvement. Is there anything you can do to improve what is working well? Write down your thoughts and implement new strategies. However, be mindful that although all progress comes from change, that does not mean that all change is progress.
Monitor any changes you make to be sure they truly do improve your business. If they do not improve the business but instead cause unintended problems, try to figure out where the problems are and tweak the system or be prepared to abandon the new system and revert back what was working as you continue to think of ways to try to improve it.
You also need to define your short and long term visions and goals. First, you need to evaluate where you are in your business and life. Write down where you are and where you want to be in 90 days, one year, three years and five years. Written visions and goals are powerful, provided you revisit them on a regular basis and commit to achieving them. You need to be realistic in your visions and goals. They need to be obtainable; otherwise, you will abandon them when you do not achieve them or make progress toward them.
During this evaluation process, you also need ask yourself what is not working well in your business or just plain broken. Commit to changing and improving what is not working well. For your business and life to change for the better, YOU must change; otherwise, NOTHING will change. If something is broken, ask yourself if it can be abandoned, and then abandon it. If it is necessary and relative to the continued success of your business, evaluate ways to improve it and take the necessary actions to correct or fix what needs to be fixed.
During your STOP, you need to be totally and brutally honest with yourself. If you are not brutally honest, you are only doing a disservice to business and yourself. After all, your goal and vision is to take your business to the next level. Simultaneously, you want this growth to be accomplished in less time than you were previously working. When you accomplish this, it frees you up to live a more fulfilling personal life.
Next week, I will discuss the process of developing and implementing a strategic focus and priority management system – i.e., how to better manage your time and get rid of the clutter that gets in the way of achieving your visions and goals.
Rick Brines is the owner of The Growth Coach of Chattanooga. He can be reached at 423-886-6095 or R.Brines@TheGrowthCoach.com.