The One Thing You Need for Success
There are countless blogs and courses and books about how to succeed in business. The secret to success is actually ridiculously simple, when you get right down to it. One word - ACTION.
As a business owner, it's easy to get lost in shiny object syndrome. We think that this course or blog post or webinar or book or chat with a guru or coaching session will reveal the secret to success. Like discovering the Holy Grail, the heavens will open, an angelic chorus will ring out and riches will rain down from above. Newsflash - it ain't gonna happen that way.
The secret to success is pretty simple, truth be told. It's not sexy, it's not magical and it's actually fairly obvious. I'm about to save you hours of reading and studying and thousands in coaching fees with this one piece of advice.
Success in business requires one key thing, done consistently.
ACTION.
That really is the secret to making it or breaking it. Showing up and getting things done. You can have the greatest mindset or the most incredible strategy but without putting anything into motion, nothing happens. And that is what kills a business. Blog posts won't magically appear if you don't write and post them. Facebook ads won't wind their way into customer's feeds if you don't create them. Sales won't happen by themselves if you aren't asking for them.
Don't get bogged down in the weeds of busyness in your business. All those $10 an hour jobs, like shuffling paper, filing bills, editing your website until you feel it's absolutely perfect, are keeping you from attacking the $500 or $1000 an hour jobs, the ones that require greater skill sets and scary things like talking to clients and *gasp* negotiating. It's too easy to hide behind the busy work because the business work can make you feel vulnerable. Receipts won't reject you but a customer might.
Owning a business takes guts and nerves of steel. But you already know that, don't you? Put on your SuperHero cape and attack one big task everyday that will propel your business forward. Do the work that makes your squirm as the rewards are going to be the sweetest, be that hitting SEND on that proposal or picking up the phone to call the high-ticket prospect or sitting down to actually create that course you've been talking about for the past six months.
Carve out one hour everyday to do the work that matters. Go now to your Google Calendar and block off that time in your schedule every day. Make it sacrosanct and make it a ritual. Choose your optimal working hour, that time of day when you are at your peak performance, and block it off so you have no distractions. If that means downloading an app like SelfControl or FocusBooster, do it. Whatever it takes to keep you focused and doing your best work.
Do this every working day and I guarantee you'll see a huge improvement in your productivity and your bottomline.
Like the shoe company with gazillions of dollars in sales says, Just Do It.