I’m sitting in my home surrounded by good looking men. The saw’s are buzzing with paint fumes wafting through the house. I’m sitting at a makeshift desk positioned in the middle of my living room. My desk is way too small and all my files are spread out all over the room. I had to clear out of my office to make room for the workers.
I could easily let this disruption distract me from my work, from completing important activities needed to grow my business but I won’t. Life is all about distractions but how often we let those distractions consume us preventing progress and denying ourselves of the success we want.
As a female financial advisor it is easy to find 100 reasons why we can’t get to the important activities. We allow phone calls, family issues, paperwork, technology to distract us from what is really important, serving clients and developing new relationships. We may leave the office feeling busy when in fact we accomplished very little in terms of growing the business. Barbara Stanny had a fabulous term for this called ATBS = Addicted to busyness Syndrome.
There is a HUGE difference between being busy and being productive. We tend to relish in our busy-ness, this hectic schedule becomes our comfort zone, a place where we can justify our daily habits while being less than productive.
Life will ALWAYS get in the way if we let it, the key is knowing what is important and what activities are absolutely necessary to drive business growth. As you begin each day look at your To-do list, identify the activities that will have the greatest impact on growing your business. Put everything else off until those activities have been completed, then at the end of the day be very aware of how that makes you feel.
For just 1 week, 5 business days, start every morning focused solely on business building activities, hold all calls, postpone meetings, block out everything until you have completed your most important priorities.
Remember discipline is doing what you need to do, when you need to do it even when you don’t want to…