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Depending on your age, and perhaps your sense of humor, you may be familiar with the Monty Python skit “the Silly Olympics”. Even if you do recall it take a brief moment and watch the first 30 seconds of this YouTube video: http://budurl.com/8l22
If you can’t view the video, let me give you the highlights: The 27th Silly Olympiad, an event held traditionally every 3.7 years, which this year has brought together competitors from over 4 million different countries. The first event in the Silly Olympics, as the announcer explains, is the 100 yard dash for people with no sense of direction
Warmed up, in good shape, and ready to go the runners are all nicely lined up at the starting line…the starter pistol fires…and they are off at great speed. Where do they go? Nowhere. Do you look like one of those runners? Do you FEEL like one of those runners?
Many business owners I know run their business like they are contestants in the Silly Olympics. Oh, they start with great enthusiasm and energy and fly from the starting line.
But, for far too small business owners who proceed without a clear vision of the finish line, they end up just running in circles. Eventually exhaustion and frustration takes hold until they finally give up the race altogether and head back to the lockers (a “real” job).
The prices you pay for being a contestant in the silly Olympics are huge! Your money, self-esteem, future security, physical and mental health, and relationships can all be left in the dust.
The price small business owners who find themselves in the Silly Olympics pay most often, second only to lack of financial success, is overwhelm. Overwhelm!
If you are feeling overwhelmed in any way I assure you it’s not because you have too much to do. As a small business owner that will never change. Never has, never will. It’s because you have joined the race for people with no sense of direction. Want to run a race you can win? Develop a clear vision of the future of your business.
By: Deb LaQua, BusinessBuildingShortcuts.com
I didn’t expect to learn a lot about starting an online business from the ducks and ducklings who summer on the river in front of our cabin. But I was surprised to find that I did.
We’ve been at our cabin in SW Colorado all summer, and have had the never-ending joy of watching ducklings grow from fuzzy balls floating on the river to developing feathers to learning to fly.
Yesterday, as I was sitting here at my computer and looking out at the river, a group of two duckling families floated by…or maybe I should say whizzed past…on the river. Some of the ducklings were older and more skilled, and some barely had their adult feathers.
They were moving fast, and making a wake behind them as they appeared to be trying to take off and fly. Some of them got above the water for a second, and then plopped back down. They were really working hard at this new skill.
The adult ducks were right there with them, buzzing through the water, getting a bit airborne, and then settling back in on the surface. Demonstrating what to do every step of the way.
It’s been a long time in duck years since these babies first got their feet wet in this business of becoming a duck. We’ve watched them learn where to walk and swim, discover whom to learn from, and find out how to cooperate to stay safe and alive. We’ve seen them try new things, and sometimes venture out on their own.
The adult ducks aren’t teaching the ducklings how to fly by swooping around high in the air, showing off their fancy high-altitude flying and advanced hawk-evading techniques. They are right there on the water, demonstrating the next logical step in the learning process.
I remember the feeling of being a duckling when it came to starting an online business, with so very much to learn. The struggle of paddling hard upstream to master a new skill. And then the joy of drifting downstream as it became second nature.
But I also get the joy of being adult ducks, teaching and demonstrating the skills we have learned so that others might also survive and thrive in this journey of starting an online business.
Somewhat unlike our duck family, there never seems to be a time to stop learning from others, so we continue to take courses that teach the next skill we need to learn. We continue to benefit from our coaches and mentors. We get together with like-minded people at live events.
Deb LaQua BusinessBuildingShortcuts.com
I just returned from a fantastic week camping and fishing with my husband and our boxer dog Jasper. Aside from catching the biggest trout I have ever seen up close, something else happened that occupied my thoughts much of the drive home. My thoughts were about the courage it takes to take risks…and the theme continued in a call with a coaching client today.
Even though most boxer dogs never learn to swim, Jasper overcame his fear of having his feet leave solid ground when he was three. He just loves to retrieve sticks tossed as far out into the water as I can throw them.Last year, when he was eight, I tried to teach him a new trick – to jump off the boat dock at our fishing spot. As much as he wanted the stick, tossed into the water just out of his reach, he was too afraid to jump in because he couldn’t put his feet down on solid ground no matter how far out he stretched his paws past the edge of the dock. What was beyond the safety of the dock, and beneath the surface, was unknown.
Eventually we both gave up.
This year we tried again…the result:
Today I was coaching a client who runs her own small business. I’ll call her Susan here to protect her privacy. Susan started our call something like this: “I am frustrated with running my own business” “the responsibility is too much” “I am not cut out for this” “I don’t have the flexibility I want” and other words to that effect.
Recently Susan has taken bigger steps than usual, exhibited more courage ever before, and her income has doubled from the same period last year! With all that success she has been experiencing since we started working together Susan’s sudden desire to quit seemed surprising. In exasperation she exclaimed “maybe all this success has just worn me out?” Ouch! Sure sounded like a hasty retreat back to safety to me.
I asked some pointed questions and it turns out that Susan, like Jasper, had run smack up against the upper limit of her comfort zone. I asked her to recall, from what she has uncovered in our work together, what is it that motivates us to feel the fear, frustration, responsibility, and doubt that can come with being a small business owner and yet press on despite ever-present risk of failure, or as in Jasper’s mind , even drowning! The answer: our commitment to the fulfillment of our vision. It is only when either the immediate price of standing still is unbearable (which is usually is not) OR the clear value of the prize is much greater than our fear will we move ahead in spite of the perceived danger.
In Jasper’s case the joy of getting his stick, his desire to please and the praise he would receive when it brought it to shore became bigger than his fear of the unknown. With Susan, who has the most amazing talents and gifts, focus on her crystal clear vision of why her business exists, how it serves her and her enjoyment of life, and how she serves the world through her business, equates to less fear and more joy in taking leap, after leap, after leap into the great unknown.
If you find yourself stuck in your comfort zone or if you are not making the forward process in your business that you desire, it’s time to take a fresh look at the vision for your business.
Want the stick? Want the stick? Take a long good look at that yummy stick and….JUMP!!!
Many business people I know don’t really set goals of any kind, or at least not to the degree they really should. In fact, in December of 2008 I did a survey in which I asked small business owners “did you have a plan for 2008?”
87% said they did not…87%! That’s astounding!
I admit I thought the number would be high because often, when my clients come to me they are teetering on the edge of business failure, and worse, personal burnout. Soon I discover that they have not been setting goals, magnetic, or otherwise. But the number of people trying to build successful businesses without clearly defined goals surprised even me.
There are lots of reasons so many business owners resist setting goals. If you are not setting goals for your business, see if any of these are your favourite reasons why not:
• You don’t like to be wrong about your assumptions. Goal setting requires making some educated guesses about what is attainable, often based on pretty sketchy information. There is a high degree of risk of being wrong when setting goals.
• You don’t want to be disappointed in yourself or disappoint others if you set goals and don’t achieve them.
• You think goal setting has to be a long complicated, tedious or hard process (which it doesn’t).
• You see goals as somewhat limiting or stifling of your creativity. You take the position that if you commit to a goal you must stubbornly pursue it and close the door to other opportunities.
The reasons for not setting goals, even though virtually every business book or coach would caution us not to take a step without defined and written goals, are almost endless. I even had one lovely lady tell me that she didn’t set goals because she was afraid that if she wrote them down she would jinx them if she did, like it was bad juju or something!
Read any book on business development, or ask any business consultant and they will tell you that you need to have a clearly defined set of goals to ensure success, and without them you risk failure. But I think these authors and consultants, and I can’t think of a single exception, are missing a vitally important piece of information about goals … goals have a magnetic quality. The number one reason people don’t set goals is they don’t realize the power and full benefits of Magnetic Goals.
Once you understand the power of Magnetic Goals, and you define your own set of Magnetic Goals, use them as a tool, rather than just a “have to do because smart folks tell me to” exercise, you will see for yourself the awesome power of Magnetic Goals to draw success to you. To learn more about defining and achieving Magnetic Goals get the e-report: www.magneticgoals.com
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