Finding yourself distracted instead of motivated? Here’s why!
Everyone who is in a business leadership position can find themselves off of their game every once in a while. The key is to recognize this, deal with whatever negative or unproductive thinking you’re facing by focusing on where the opportunities and solutions lie, and continuing down the path of productivity.
For those that might say, “Easier said than done,” well, I hear you. That’s why I’ve compiled these 9 powerful, impossible to ignore concepts that you can visualize and use to keep yourself motivated and moving towards achieving your goals.
Change what you’re doing to change where you’re going
What’s that old saying? I’ll try and paraphrase it. Doing the same thing over and over again and expecting different results is akin to insanity.
This is really all about your willingness to self-reflect, to evaluate your processes honestly and constructively. Why is our sales process so bloated? Why do our customers tend to feel pain during the handoff from our sales to our services team? Why does it seem like our employees burn out and blow out at the two-year mark?
There’s no way you’re going to create a 10X-level business if you’re not giving your systems and processes a 10X-level of scrutiny in order to make them as good as they can be.
Track. Analyze. Adjust. Win!
Trying to be perfect won’t help you achieve your goals
Sometimes it’s better to be performing than it is to be perfect. What exactly is perfect, anyway? While striving for an idea of perfection — a state where everything is working in its ideal state — is a noble pursuit, our ability to achieve this and sustain it is nearly impossible.
More to the point, one of the bad habits I see too many business owners employ is waiting until something is “perfect” before they take action.
Listen, there are just too many factors that are out of your control for things to ever be perfect for you. If you’re waiting for everything to be “right,” then you’re going to be waiting forever, and ultimately, you’ll have spent your entire life thinking vs. doing.
Get your plan together. Control the controllable. Take a calculated risk, and go for it!
Success demands consistency
Some of you might be intimidated by this statement. I understand why. And I sympathize with you. But this is the truth. We seem to live in this paradigm where bad habits are impossible to break and good habits are terribly difficult to form.
I would encourage you to reject this type of thinking and replace it with a more realistic approach to goal achievement.
Consistency is the key to achieving any goal. Want to get in better shape this year? Create a realistic plan, and live up to it, one day at a time. Same goes for any other health or savings or personal or business goal. See the vision. Create the plan. And honor it, one day at a time.
Which reminds me…
When making plans, think big. When making progress, think small.
Too often, we’re so focused on the result that we get frustrated by the process, don’t see the results we want quickly enough, and we quit. After we quit, we’re frustrated and ashamed by our failure, retreating even further into broken thinking.
We see others achieving their goals and we think that they were lucky or had an advantage we didn’t have or that we’re just not worthy of success. I’m here to tell you that the difference between success and failure is a willingness to think big while acting small.
Every big goal can be broken down into a series of smaller, incremental achievable goals. Accomplishing each small goal gets you closer and closer to achieving the big goal.
Without breaking things up into smaller goals, people can get tripped up, because they lose sight of the big goal. They don’t see themselves progressing forward, and they give up.
Celebrate the achievement of each smaller goal, while never losing sight of your ultimate goal, and you’ll be 10 steps ahead of your competition.
Success isn’t an event; success is a process
Becoming a success in business is, in some ways, very similar to the way that people who work in music and acting do.
It’s rare that someone has overnight success. Typically, you start your career scrappy and hungry, taking on each challenge before you with an unmatched energy. You prove yourself, and then you move onto the next opportunity, and with each instance, you learn something new and apply that to the next challenge you face.
Suddenly — or what seems all of the sudden to everyone else — you’re in the upper echelon of your industry, and then the opportunities really start to come your way.
To outside of observers who hadn’t been watching your trajectory, you came out of nowhere. But to you and to those who have built something just as you have, you know that years of hard work, sacrifice, and resilience have led you to this moment.
Success doesn’t just happen. It’s your 10,000 hours. Stay focused. Put in the time. You’ll get there. And then you’ll continue to work your tail off to stay there.
You don’t need more time, you need more focus
“I just need more time.”
Everybody says it. But I don’t buy it. Why? Well, generally speaking, we aren’t the best stewards of our time.
We like to procrastinate. Look at our phones. Distract ourselves from focusing on our work because it’s in those especially quiet, focused moments that we have to test ourselves, to push ourselves beyond what we’ve previously achieved. And that’s hard.
More time doesn’t mean better results if the way you’re currently spending your time is doing anything and everything other than trying to solve the problems in your business for your customers.
This goes back to forming good habits. You have to show up. Instead of putting time into your calendar for focused work, give yourself period breaks in your calendar so you can cleanse the mind and then get back to it.
It’s not time. It’s you. And you can change you, if you’re willing to accept that you’re the problem and the solution.
Discipline will take you places that motivation cannot
The greatest businesspeople, athletes, and musicians — the best of the best, regardless of their field — aren’t at the top of their game every single day.
But they are capable of being at the top of their game when it really matters because, no matter what, they have the discipline to show up, do their best, evaluate their performance, and maintain an awareness of how subtle (and sometimes no so subtle) adjustments can improve their game the next time they have to compete.
You have to be willing to follow through. You have to be able to see the nobility in following through, even when you don’t feel like it. That’s the level of self-respect (and, in the business sense, the level of respect for your team and your clients) that winners really seem to understand.
Motivation gets you started. Discipline gets you to finish.
The past is set in stone. The future is yet to be written.
The value in looking back at past successes and failures is that you can evaluate the factors that caused the outcome, and use that information to do better next time.
Looking back becomes toxic, however, when you only dwell on the past and you’re not looking for things that are useful in the present.
The things you’re focusing on today are going to influence where you end up in the future. This is simply a fact. So, with that in mind, think about the things you’re focused on today.
Are you filled with regret about choices you’ve already made? Or are you taking the knowledge you’ve gained in your life’s experiences in order to create the world you want to live in?
You have the power to create your future, but you have to be focused on the right choices and disciplined enough to act on them.
Confidence is calm. The ego makes a lot of noise.
Think about the way you conduct yourself in meetings. Is it important to you to be the dominant voice, or have you surrounded yourself with a team whom you trust?
There are too many CEOs who are too insecure, letting their need to be the loudest, the most visible, and the most admired get in the way of creating a truly successful company.
It is people who move businesses forward, and those people need to be acting in response to their leader, a calm, stable, and trustworthy force who exemplifies the mission, vision, and values of your company.
Our conduct as leaders has the power to align or destroy teams. Which one do you choose?
Interested in learning more about how you can create the sort of life and business that most people can’t even imagine? I’m inviting you to join me and the Cardone Ventures team at our next live event.
You’ve never experienced anything like this before. Just imagine a room filled with like-minded business owners, the Cardone Ventures team, and me, all discussing the strategies, tactics, and opportunities available that can create a 10X way of life.
These seats go fast, so register now to secure your spot! I’ll see you there.
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