How Thinking Big Can Be the Difference Between the Life You Have and the Life You Want

Starting small isn’t a bad thing. You have to start somewhere, and small is often the most logical way. It’s also where I focused my attention when venturing into real estate. I’d look at two- to three-unit buildings (typically apartments) in an attempt to add properties to the portfolio — and that’s just what I did.

Then, the realization hit: It takes the same amount of time to look at a two-unit place as it does to look at a 25-unit place. Still, the only hurdle was funds. If I could figure out that aspect, I could scale much faster. It would also take fewer hours on my end, which could free up time for me to work on other business opportunities.

It might sound redundant, but entrepreneurs must think about the bigger “big picture” when it comes to starting their own business. Is the goal to replace one 40-hour a week job with another? Or is it something more? Sure, you might own that job — but there are only so many hours in a day, so you limit your ability to scale when you keep your aspirations small.

“Look at things as they can be, not as they are.” – David J. Schwartz

Getting Over Yourself

I met with a contractor recently. He has a great business, a good reputation, and a solid customer base. He’s also a highly skilled tradesman when it comes to tiling. When I suggested that he might want to add other people to his team, he bristled. Even after I explained his potential to make more money (or the same money, just with fewer hours in the day) by adding someone to the team, the idea just didn’t appeal to his sensibilities.

For him, as is the case with many small business owners, sole proprietorship meant being busy: If you’re not extremely busy in your business, you’re not doing it right. You’re not successful. And understandably, it’s easy to equate more hours of work as being more productive, but that’s not the truth. Although this contractor is very successful, he has no systems in place should he want — or need — to take a step back. That’s a problem.

On the flip side, a good friend of mine got into consulting after growing tired of working 50, 60, or 70 hours a week for someone else. He decided to devote his expertise to his own business. But instead of working on his own, my friend built a team. And that team became his consulting firm.

Eventually, he was able to spend less and less time as a consultant. Sixty hours turned to 50, and 50 turned to 40. Today, he still has the same ability to pick and choose what work he takes on, but he also has other people who charge billable hours, of which he gets a percentage. He’s scaling his business. And should he want or need to take a step back, he already has systems in place to easily add more members to the team.

If you don’t think bigger and picture your end goal, consider yourself stuck. You might even find yourself driving harder than necessary just to keep the business afloat. You’re not limited to this small business you’ve carved out for yourself — you have the potential to be so much more.

I could’ve easily continued buying cheap two- to three-unit buildings that were spread out across the community. I loved it, honestly. But when I was driving all over town to collect rent from those two- to three-unit buildings, I realized no systems were in place to do something so simple for future iterations. The time I spent collecting rent could’ve been better spent buying other units — bigger units, I should add.

Taking a Bigger Leap

It’s human nature to think about ourselves, and that can be difficult to shake when you’re starting a business. In the beginning, the focus is on ensuring a job for yourself. Once that’s accomplished, resist the urge to consider your work done. The timing is right to start thinking bigger. You can start by directing your attention toward the following places:

Make a conscious decision to think big

Thinking big is a choice. You can choose to be the next Bill Gates or someone who is completely happy doing a job solo with no helping hands. If you want to grow a business into more than simply a one-person shop, adopt a bigger mindset. Get to work on developing and implementing processes for actual growth rather than maintaining the status quo.

“If you think small, your world will be small. If you think big, your world will be big.” — Paulo Coelho

Get serious about processes

Consistent processes help people think bigger. But these processes aren’t meant to add more work to your schedule; their purpose is to add people to your team and lessen your workload. You can’t grow a business if all your attention is on operations. Outsource tasks that fall into accounting, marketing, graphic design, and scheduling — these can all be handled by other people.

Stop playing the hero

Remember those people you’re adding to the team? Whether you bring on an office manager, accountant, or social media consultant, let that person do his or her job. It’s not a big deal if things diverge from your standard practices. Everyone does things differently, and that’s OK. In fact, it’s often encouraged. As long as a process is completed successfully, how a person arrives at that end point shouldn’t matter.

Thinking small is where most sole proprietors start. It’s their first venture into something entirely different, and that small step is actually a big step to take. But once you get your footing (and get into a rhythm with this new business), it’s a disservice to not at least consider what else is out there. The potential can be big.

What part of this article resonated most with you and why? Share your thoughts with us below!

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Why You Need to Treat Your Business Like Getting a Haircut

No matter your age or gender we all have woken up at some point and said I need a haircut. Even bald men have to do some sort of maintenance. The warning signs are clear because you do not look put together, maybe you’re uncomfortable, and it’s time to clean up. As an entrepreneur, your business can be giving you the same signs, but you may be ignoring them. Very often our business can be a mess, and we let the look of our business, and more importantly the profits, get swept away like cut hair on the barber floor.

Here are 5 tips you should be asking each quarter to see if your business needs a cleanup:

1. Making an appointment

You better make an appointment if you need a haircut with your favorite barber or stylist. Sure, you can just walk in and hope someone is free, but you never know what you’re going to get. Same is true with our business. Are you meeting with key employees and clients regularly to ensure things are running smoothly? Do you meet with them at the right times too?

If you call a meeting with them at the busiest time of their day, you can throw them off their game, and more importantly not get the information you need. Sure, this may mean meeting earlier in the day, or later at night then you would like, but in the end it’s about getting the results so push outside that barrier.

2. Preparation

Even if you see the same person each time you get your haircut, they always ask, what are we doing today. The usual, something new or maybe they even share an idea they have. Either way, before each haircut a conversation takes place. Why? The person in control wants to know what is going to make you, the client, happy and come back again. They know you are going to need another haircut.

How often do we stop to ask what our clients want or need? In today’s automation society, we very often plug people into a system and feel it should just work. Are you stopping to ask your clients if it’s working, and more importantly are you seeing if they need the usual, something new or maybe you need to share a new idea you have that can take them to the next level?

“Give me six hours to chop down a tree and I will spend the first four sharpening the axe.” Abraham Lincoln

3. The cut

This is where you get to sit back and relax, but maybe you’re a bit nervous. I see a lot happening, but this does not look like me. If the person cutting my hair stops right now I will look silly. What can you do? You’re in the chair so you have to trust them that in the end this will look amazing!

We have all had clients that have freaked out halfway through the process. For example, your client can say their website is not getting traffic or their social posts are not getting enough likes. The question is are you checking in with them throughout the process? Are you making sure they know where we are and where we are going? More importantly, do you stop to ask the questions, do my clients trust me?

4. Final touches

For the ladies it’s the blow out at the end, for us men it’s the hot shave to square you up. Either way, you can see things coming to gather and you sit up a little bit straighter in the chair. You feel good and you begin thinking about where you can go to show off your clean new look. Before you get up, your stylist takes out that big mirror and shows you all the angles so you can see the work, and they ask the final question, how does it look?

How many times do you report to your clients? If you are not giving monthly and/or quarterly reports on progress then you are missing out on showing them all the angles. If you have a large customer base, are you sending out regular surveys that ask how you’re doing, and more importantly are they happy? Finishing a job right is better than finishing it fast. Any job you’re working on should have final touches that make your clients feel good, sit up a bit taller in their chair, and more importantly tell others about the great work you are doing.

“If you don’t have time to do it right, when will you have time to do it again?” – John Wooden

5. Maintenance

Before you leave, very often you are given a plan to keep your hair looking great. Maybe it’s a product you should use, or a routine you should put in place. More importantly, a good barber will ask you when will we be seeing you again, and you want this experience again so you will want to book that next appointment before someone else does.

We have all had a great meeting with a client where after, we all feel great. That feeling will stay as long as each party continues to deliver on what we spoke about in the meeting. It’s so important for both you and your client that you give them a maintenance plan to follow after a meeting. Even if they are hiring you for a service, there is very often work that needs to be put in by both sides. Make sure you set the next meeting so you can keep up the momentum.

What part of this article resonated most with you and why? Share your thoughts with us below!

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9 Tips to Keep Yourself and Your Team Motivated While Working From Home

The entire world is now faced with the COVID-19 pandemic. Since this respiratory illness is highly contagious, especially in places with multitudes of people, more and more companies are now encouraging their staff to start working from home to mitigate the spread of the highly contagious disease.

For some, doing online work from home can be a breeze but to others, it would be a totally new experience and may find it a bit challenging to focus and actually be productive. The good news is that there are a few essential tips that you and your team can practice to help you balance working from home while staying productive and disciplined. Working from home requires a lot of discipline and comes with its perks. However, it is also easy to pick up bad habits along the way. 

This post will give you 10 tips on how to go about it and how to motivate your remote workforce to work from home during the current COID-19 lockdown:

1. Start your day right

This means that you start your day bright and early, just as you would on your normal workday, except that you will be working from home. Encourage your team to follow this trend too. Although your home office desk could be steps away, you need to transition from the mood to a working mood.

Getting to work on time starts your day on the right footing and prevents you from slipping into the bad habit of waking up late, which could easily turn into a routine. Furthermore, the morning hours are the most productive hours for most people.

2. Dress the part

For you to achieve success, you first need to dress for success. This is one way of personifying a work-from-home ethic. Try as much as you can to avoid just rolling off your bed and heading over to your work station in pajamas. Pajamas have the slack effect and you will carry that all through the day.

You need to take a shower, look clean and fresh and clad in something functional and comfortable. It doesn’t necessarily have to be a suit. You will effectively adopt the character of what you are wearing.

3. Schedule your team tasks and goals

Creating a schedule helps you map out the activities of the day and the objectives you hope your team will achieve in that week. You need to indicate the steps you expect your team to follow to help them accomplish the set tasks.

Set goals and tasks in a way that they are achievable and manageable. This ensures that the team works within the schedule and avoids rolling over unfinished tasks. Such rollovers only lead to fatigue and stress because of playing catch up. This can be detrimental to the performance of the team

Structure the day with the standard business hours to help your team enforce some self-discipline.

“The way to get started is to quit talking and begin doing” – Walt Disney

4. Focus is key

When working from home, you are bound to face a lot of distractions. You can have access to social media, the internet, TV, video games and more. Ensure that you focus on the task at hand until you finish it first. 

Try and enforce discipline among your team members so that they stay focused, at least through the time they are required to work. From time to time, you will get some sudden urges to do something and that is normal. Ensure that you first finish your task before you do anything else.

5. Work out

Working from home means that you will be sedentary most of the time because there is minimal walking or moving around. Being sedentary isn’t as much of a health risk but dampens your motivation and discipline. Therefore, since you create your own schedule, include some time to work out. Working out will help in terms of boosting your energy and productivity along with getting you ready for the day.

6. Set clear expectations for the team

Working from home means more flexible hours for the team. Therefore, to ensure that they are more engaged and responsive during certain hours of the day, you need to clearly communicate your expectations. Additionally, you also need to periodically check in on them to ensure that your expectations are still aligned with their engagement.

“The secret of getting ahead is getting started.” – Mark Twain

7. Remember to socialise

This works for both you and your team. People easily get lonely working from home because they are isolated with no colleagues around them. You are bound to miss the daily banter at the tea point and the basic element of social interaction. Therefore, when you and the team are done with the day, encourage everyone to meet friends online and interact. It will help boost everyone’s psyche and productivity.

8. Earn rewards

Working from home gives you the freedom to do whatever you want. Nevertheless, for you to achieve anything significant, you need to discipline yourself to be more productive than binge-watching your favourite TV show. Instead of watching six episodes in a row, do something constructive then reward yourself with an episode then get back to work. You can also have an hour of video gaming.

9. Watch the team’s stress levels

Managing stress levels while working remotely can be a challenge. Always try your best to ensure that stress doesn’t get in the way of your team’s productivity. Always encourage the team to stick to their set schedules and find ways to resolve any arising problems to prevent future stressors. Everyone needs to understand that success takes patience.

Working from home requires discipline and focus to achieve goals, not just for you but your remote workforce too. Using the above tips will help you and the team to stay motivated to achieve your goals. 

Have you ever worked from home? Do you like it or not? Share your thoughts and experiences with us below!

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The 4 P’s Needed For Entrepreneurial Success

Entrepreneurship is challenging and more complicated than many realize. It is highly glamorized, and you can become an “entrepreneur” by simply filling out your social accounts. The choice to be an entrepreneur and achieve whatever level of success you envision will, without a doubt, come with its set of challenges. Fortunately, regardless of status, zip codes, connections, you have the opportunity to succeed!

Even with the amount of Youtube videos, eBooks, and blog posts where you can gather an unlimited amount of information on any topic, there are still several areas that regardless of the industry, you must focus on getting to where you want to be.

Making sure you focus on the 4 P’s mentioned will continue to make sure you are pushing forward in a way that will help you continue to grow and achieve everything you want out of entrepreneurship.

1. Persistence

Persistence may seem obvious, and if you have been reading or looking into entrepreneurship, you have come across this step. Persistence can also be categorized as “hard work.” I can tell you that persistence is not enough alone, but it is the essential first piece of the entire puzzle. 

You will face challenges on your road to success. Things will happen, and you will have to remain relentless in order to get to your ultimate goal.

Keep pushing through the obstacles with everything you’ve got. Continue or start working on your mental toughness. Find sources of content or mentors that can help guide you through the challenges that will inevitably come along on your journey.

You can work hard and stay on course, which may feel like you are doing what’s necessary to succeed but without the following piece of the puzzle, you could find yourself on a hamster wheel and never actually getting closer to your goal. That is why this next piece complements persistence so well.

“Energy and persistence conquer all things.” – Benjamin Franklin

2. Progress

You have to remain persistent, but you have to see progress in everything that you do. This is where I find many entrepreneurs go wrong. You are grinding and doing the things that you feel are necessary to get to where you want to go. Then you look up weeks, months, or even years later to realize you are still practically in the same position where you started.

You have to get clear on your goals. That is the ultimate way to verify you are making progress with all your hard work. Start by writing your ultimate goal for success and work backwards. Break down what you’d like to accomplish in years, quarters, months, weeks, and develop daily routines.

During your persistence step, make sure you are continuing to check off the things on your weekly goals to accomplish your monthly goals to eventually achieving your quarterly and yearly goals.

Also, be sure to continue to adjust your list on a regular basis. If you are new to the world of entrepreneurship, the task, or industry, then it is understandable that you may put down unrealistic timeframes for some of your goals.

That is part of the beauty of persistence and progress. You continue to evolve and grow, which will make you the entrepreneur you want to be.

3. Pivot

Pivoting goes hand in hand with progress. You have to know when you need to make changes to your strategy. Pivoting will be different for every business, but there will be times where you realize the content isn’t working or the sales script is not as effective as you hoped, or maybe you are not checking things off your goal list.

Be aware that you do not have all the answers, and you will have to continue to make adjustments as you go. Do not get so caught up on what you think you know and not pay attention to the facts and what your progress is telling you.

Pivoting is crucial to the entire process. If you are not getting the results you want and don’t pivot, then you will most likely never obtain what you want to achieve out of all your efforts.

Get out your own way and make the necessary changes that need to be made in order for you to grow.

“A pivot is a change in strategy without a change in vision.” – Eric Ries

4. Profit

The life of any business. You have to focus on bringing in more profits. Early on, you potentially could cycle through Persistence, Progress, and Pivoting multiple times before you reach the profit phase, which is fine.

As an entrepreneur, one of the main objectives is to be able to support the business and yourself financially. You have to focus on generating and increasing profit. Obstacles will come, and as you grow, you need to make sure your profits continue to grow with you.

Sometimes we continue to overcomplicate the process with all the information we consume and with the many tasks on our to-do lists. My mission was to simplify the process. Regardless of the many things that are on my plate, if I continue to cycle through the 4 P’s, I know I’m continuing to grow as an entrepreneur.

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Let Your Feet Do The Talking

The message ‘let your feet do the talking’ takes me back to my younger days as it was something my dad would say before a particularly big football match. I never quite realised up until recently how that message has impacted me in all areas of my life. Predominantly, it is about life position and knowing your worth, which is important for all of us.

In our football changing room before a match, we had lots of different personalities – those players who would make others laugh, start the banter or tell the coach how good they were. They might question the coaches’ decision on why they were substituted and so on. 

Personally, I was the captain for most of the teams I played for but was also one of the quietest in the changing room. Perhaps a different way of leading by example – making sure my shirt was tucked in and sleeves rolled up. Then, when we crossed the white line, it was like a switch turned on and I turned into a different animal.

Whilst I was quietly confident and trusted myself for the talent to come through, I can’t deny that I did sometimes look at those players and think, ‘I wish I had the confidence to stand up and say ‘look, I’m good’ or ‘I’m the best.’

I can certainly see how having that personality to be in people’s faces – metaphorically speaking now, can put people on the front foot initially and leave you feeling like they are better than you. Psychologically, if you are coming back from injury or experiencing trials and tribulations on a new team, those people who were able to give it the big ‘I AM’ would very likely be slightly ahead, be listened to more, get more opportunities – even if there was no substance to their claims.

Then, the doubt can start to kick in – ‘am I really as good as what I believe to be the case…why don’t I trust myself as much as I used to?’ Perhaps you can relate to this in an area of your life?

The Different Changing Rooms

So, moving away from football now, what if we applied the concept of Changing Rooms to our general lives? We could call it a ‘life changing room, business changing room, relationship  changing room, or social media changing room. We could call it whatever we like!

In our Business Changing Room – what if we have a product that we know will be so useful, is better than others products, and will have so much impact on people?

In our Social Media Changing Room – what if others have more ‘friends’ who are willing to share their stories, their ideas or their progress more and have so many more followers or people liking and sharing things related to their posts compared to ours?

In a Career Changing Room – what if we’re producing the goods behind the scenes and have been working so hard to please the boss so we can work towards that promotion? Our colleague, however, is the one that is always jumping up and down saying, ‘look how hard I’ve been working’ and gets noticed more with praise as a result.

This is where the meaning of ‘let your feet do the talking’ takes on a whole new meaning and becomes really impactful – and it certainly has for me. 

In truth, there will always be times when we see people being more confident and drumming up their abilities more than we do. We will see others are telling the world they can do this or that. We will see others wishing to showcase their information or their products. We even see someone who is wanting to impress in a manner that you would only cringe at doing.

There is absolutely no judgment on people doing that by the way – that is completely OK. I have also needed to do that at times in my life and certainly in my business. However, if that does not feel like the most natural way to approach things, it’s also okay too!

In my opinion, ‘Letting your feet do the talking’ encompasses:

• A solid foundation – just knowing yourself and where you’re coming from and you’re happy with that
• Knowing your position – not that you’re better than the next person, rather that you’re equal to all those around you
• Confidence, self-reliance, knowing your worth, and trusting yourself
• Having faith in your ability, despite what others tell you or what you hear others say about themselves
• Having knowledge that whatever you are and whoever you are will shine through in the end

There is so much more to ‘letting your feet do the talking.’ Perhaps though it is worth considering that those encompassing aspects I’ve just mentioned are things that we are all born with. We’re inherently confident, we inherently have faith in our ability, we inherently trust ourselves. They are our homebase starting positions. They are our natural state and believing otherwise may indicate we’ve moved away from our natural well-being for some reason.

For example, we’re comparing ourselves against others; we’re coming back from injury and are doubting ourselves to perform at the same level that we know we can; we haven’t achieved our pressurised goals; or someone has told us we can’t do this or that.

If that happens, we can always remember that we’ve got this far, we must have been successful in our own way, we have made it to this point and we’ve always got ourselves. Coming back to homebase and knowing ourselves as we do, we can always just get back to ‘letting our feet do the talking.’

What about this article resonated most with you and why? Share your thoughts with us below!

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8 Powerful Ways To Show Up In Dating & Relationships – Apollonia Ponti

If you are struggling to create clarity in your life then I have created the Addicted2Success academy to support you in getting crystal clear on your next moves in life. Join my mentorship in The Addicted2Success Academy here. The only PROVEN METHOD in the world that allows ANYONE to effortlessly ELEVATE the 8-KEY AREAS of life, is finally being passed down… EXCLUSIVELY, in this Academy.

 

Apollonia Ponti is a Dating & Relationship Coach for men. She specializes in teaching men to understand what women want, master their attraction skills, and build their confidence in dating or a relationship.

In this Addicted2Success Podcast episode Apollonia shares how you can show up powerfully in Dating and Relationships.

Here is the audio of the podcast:

 

Mindset #1 You don’t have to prove yourself to anyone

You have clarity in your life about who you are as a person and if you are not going to be desired as a man by a particular person, then you know there is someone else that will desire you. Now I’m not saying that you’re going to be disrespectful and come off harsh and really, really aggressive, but what I do mean is that you just hold your power. You know who you are and you don’t have to prove yourself or you don’t have to say things to get people to like you.

You don’t have to act in a particular way for someone to like you. You know that you showing up as you will be the way people will see you and if they don’t like you, no big deal. You like you and that’s what matters.

 

Mindset #2 You’re not attached to an outcome, you know that everything will work out, and if it doesn’t, you will be okay

If you go a little bit deeper in this, this means that you’re okay with being alone, right? This means that you, alone, are okay because a lot of times in relationships a lot of people seek validation from another. They seek validation that they are loved, that they are enough but you’re the only person that needs to see yourself as enough to attract that. That’s what I’m saying. Mindset number two is not attached to a specific outcome.

If you like a girl and she’s an amazing girl and you think this is going great blah blah blah, you’re okay if it works out and you’re okay if it doesn’t work out. It’s just the simple act of you not putting pressure because if you put pressure it shows neediness, insecurity, and attachment.

 

Mindset #3 You look at things as what value can I offer someone or something instead of what can I get out of this because you have a mindset that you know the more that I give the more that I’m going to receive

Now it’s not that you’re saying that you’re going to give someone a piece of you or your time if they’re not going to be respectful or receiving towards it, but you know that you don’t have this attitude that you’re just like, “Okay, what are you giving me? I’m here because you need to be here and you’re giving me something because my time is valuable to me.” No.

Your time is valuable to you, yes, but this is from a different perspective and mindset. You’re like, “Okay, how can I add value to you in your life?” Because you know you’re capable of meeting your own needs and being there for others. It’s less selfish. This comes off so attractive to women and it shows too that you are powerful and that you hold your own pretty well.

 

Mindset #4 You’re unapologetically honest

I don’t mean that you’re just going to point out and say things like you look fat in that dress or anything like that but you’re going to obviously be honest and open about your own opinions. Women are so attracted to this and I talk about this so much because I just want to get it ingrained in your head. You don’t want to always agree with a woman because one, you’ll fall into friend zone pretty easily when that happens, and two, women test men a lot when it comes to this.

When you’re open and you’re honest about how you feel or have your own opinion about a specific topic that the both of you are talking about, it shows that you are just you showing up for you and not trying to impress her because you are enough and that’s what is impressive to a woman.

 

Mindset #5 You value your time so this means you also want to see if she’s worth it

There is a difference here. What I mean in value your time is you take your time with her to see if she is worth it for you. A lot of times men fall into just the visual of the woman. Like oh my gosh, she has a nice body, she’s beautiful, she’s this, she’s that, which I’m not saying to dismiss, but what I am saying is understand that those women can be a little bit more intriguing to you when you’re really trying to get to know her on an emotional level, what she has to offer you and who she is as a person if she’s worth a commitment as well.

Instead of just seeing her beauty and thinking, “This one!” This is the mindset you want to always have: no matter how beautiful the woman is or how great the woman is, you have to see if she’s worth it for you to invest your time in and the same goes vice versa. A woman of value is deciding the same thing; are you the type of person she wants to make a commitment to as well.

 

Mindset #6 You show up powerfully in your own skin

What I mean by this is you just know yourself. I mean I talk about this in mindset number one and mindset number two, but when you show up in your own skin, you walk into places like a lounge or a restaurant or wherever you are, and your chin is up, shoulders are back, and you just confidently know who you are. Women can sense this when a man just knows who he is and he owns it and he’s just powerful in who he is. It shows in how you present yourself.

How do you become powerful? Well, you have to be focused on something that is thriving in your life and you can read my article on how to find your purpose to discover some ideas on how to find your purpose and how you give back. This is significant to your everyday world when it comes to attraction.

 

Mindset #7 You’re compassionate but you don’t get defensive

There are so many men that I know that get very low on patience. They take automatic offense to something as though if a woman says something she’s being disrespectful and he points fingers back and he automatically gets offended as though he has to defend himself and the world is all against him. This is not compassion. What this actually does to a woman in her mind is it kills attraction all the time. I mean from day one. It’s a huge red flag for a woman. I bring this up because this has happened a lot in coaching sessions and men that I’ve talked to, they’re just like, “I just don’t have patience. I just don’t have the time, blah blah blah blah blah,” but they hold this aspect of not having compassion but also not knowing how to just breathe, take a moment and be like, “All right.

This has nothing to do with me. What’s the worst thing possible that can come out of this? Let me just open this up for discussion,” instead of just pointing fingers and getting so frustrated to the point where you can hear it in their tone. You can see it in their physical being and you can hear the way that they come off and their expressions. Everything changes, their demeanor, their energy, everything.

This is huge in regards to the mindset of a man. You don’t want to let anybody else control your emotions. You are the one that’s in control of your own emotions, right? Meaning, okay someone says something to you to piss you off. You have a choice! You have a choice to either get angry or just look at him and smile and be like, “Damn. You’re having a bad day.” Right? Because of the fact that when you hold your own, it shows so much more confidence that you’re just not reacting and you’re just accepting it and you’re just like, “You’re not going to get to me,” because you control yourself. You control you.

Reacting and taking everything personally can kill attraction instantly. It comes off as unsafe. And that is huge for women, they need to know they can be safe with you. It is your choice in how you choose to respond to the things around you.

 

Mindset #8 You embrace failures with strength and confidence

We all mistakes in life but you embrace these mistakes and ask yourself how can I be better, what can I learn from this and what would I choose to improve. Let me respond to my mistakes and see how I can fix this so it doesn’t happen again. You don’t get down on yourself and start punishing yourself like, “Oh, you’re not a good guy, you’re horrible, no woman is going to like you. You don’t deserve love.” You don’t say those things to yourself.

When you’re in the dumps you’re like, “Okay fine. I messed up but how am I going to improve with this and how am I going to move forward?” You take the proactive notions and you build the skills so you don’t have this happen to you again.

from
https://addicted2success.com/podcasts/8-powerful-ways-to-show-up-in-dating-relationships-apollonia-ponti/

Are Low Self-Esteem and a Lack of Confidence Holding You Back?

Have you ever had an idea that you thought would be great, only to stay silent and watch a disaster unfold? Perhaps you’ve been agreeable for so long that you feel unable to stand against something, even though it’s causing you distress. Now try this; close your eyes and think of the most successful person you know. How would they have dealt with your situation? Got that scenario clearly in your mind? Good. Now answer this without thinking; why didn’t you do that? 

Why didn’t you act in the way that person is acting in your mind?

Think about how the person handles the situation, and identify what they would do that’s different from you. Chances are that you see this person as confident and self-assured, qualities that you can’t see as well in yourself.

Confidence manifests in different ways in different people, so don’t think that just because you lean towards introversion that you’re lacking in some way. In fact, as William Shakespeare wrote in act 4 of Henry V, “The empty vessel makes the loudest sound.” Sometimes, the people who make the most noise have the least say. They act boisterously to hide the parts of their personality that they don’t like or to detract from their lack of substance. A popular phrase amongst Texans illustrates this even more perfectly; “The rooster may crow, but the hens deliver the goods.”

Being confident doesn’t always mean being loud or forceful, sometimes it’s enough to just know that you’re right. Take my friend for example; she didn’t correct the men who told her “Well, actually, I think you meant to say Cro Maga, not Krav Maga.” Nope, she just smiled, secure in the knowledge that they’re out in the world making fools of themselves when they talk, incorrectly, about an Israeli self-defence system.

“Well that’s all well and good, Alexis, but how do I improve my confidence? Reading the last four paragraphs explains the concept well enough, but how do I apply that to my life?”

Well fear not, dear friend, because I’m about to drop a knowledge bomb on you below:

1. Check the Facts

If ever you catch yourself doubting your abilities or reverting to negative beliefs, look for evidence and check the facts. If your low self-esteem is telling you that you never finish anything, list all of the things that you’ve never finished. Then list all the things that you have.

They don’t need to be big things, they can be as small as “I watched all eight seasons of Game of Thrones, even after everyone said not to bother with the last one.” It could be “I entered all of my expenses into QuickBooks and filed my tax return on time.” See? You can finish things, can’t you?

“Some people want it to happen, some wish it would happen, others make it happen.” – Michael Jordan

2. Prepare for the Worst

Got an impending task or engagement that’s filling you with dread? Why not let your imagination run riot and think up the worst possible outcomes? You can’t stop there though, you have to follow up by thinking of solutions should the worst arise. Chances are, the worst things you can conjure up have no possibility of happening, but anything that does crop up will seem minor compared to your catastrophizing, and you’ll handle them like a champ.

3. Be Your Own Cheerleader

If you feel in a slump and you want to hide on your couch, away from the world where it’s safe and familiar, try some positive affirmations. “Hosting a dinner party for ten people was really knackering, but my guests had a great night.” “I doubted that I would hit my deadline, but I actually submitted my work early.” “Coaching the kids’ football team can be so frustrating at times, but seeing their faces as they work together makes it all worth it.” List your achievements and be proud of them. Yay, you did the thing!

4. Be More Yes, but Also More No

Agree to things before you can talk yourself out of it and open yourself up to new experiences. Do things that terrify you and you’ll be amazed at what you can do. But don’t forget the power of NO. 

If you don’t want to work late finishing a group assignment on your own so that your colleagues can go out on the town, tell them so. If you don’t want to sit around gossiping behind someone’s back, walk away from the conversation or ask to change the subject. Follow the example of Phoebe from Friends; “I wish I could, but I don’t want to.”

“Put all excuses aside and remember this – you are capable.” – Zig Ziglar

5. Flip the Script

The language we use about ourselves, both internally and with other people, has a significant effect on the way we see ourselves. I’m going to paraphrase something that has stuck with me from Hannah Gadsby’s stand-up comedy show Nanette to illustrate this; self-deprecation is self-humiliation, and I’m not doing it to myself anymore. There’s a bundle of nerves in our brain stem, the reticular activating system (RAS), which works to filter out unnecessary information so that we can focus on what’s important. By using negative-self talk, we unwittingly tell the RAS to look for information to back up the belief that we’re stupid/incompetent/unloved. Simple changes to the words we use have a huge impact.

Instead of:“I’m really struggling to cope at the moment.” 

Try This:“I’m experiencing many challenges at the moment, but this feeling is temporary, and by getting through it, I’ll have learned skills that I will use again in the future.”

Instead of:“I’m still single and it must be because nobody finds me attractive.”

Try This:“I haven’t yet met the person who is deserving of my time and wants me for who I am. I’d rather be on my own than with somebody who makes me miserable.”

What are some ways people can improve their self-esteem and confidence? Share your thoughts with us and the readers below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/are-low-self-esteem-and-a-lack-of-confidence-holding-you-back/

How to Become an Influencer in 2020

If you’ve ever wondered how to become an influencer, you aren’t alone. Influencer marketing is on the rise as consumers and social personalities can now get paid to review brands to their audiences, promote glamorous lifestyles, and receive free products and services, including the luxury of complete wardrobes and travel accommodations.

Millennials and GenZ rely on these everyday people to provide valuable information within their realm of expertise. Companies are increasingly setting budgets aside to capitalize on this growing field of marketing. In 2017, over $2.1 billion was spent on influencer marketing on Instagram alone. The demand for social media influencers is anticipated to increase, especially for micro-influencers with less than 100k followers.

Influencers are the credible voice of this generation. Although everyday people, these consumers have positioned themselves as experts in their respective industries, earning the trust and attention of hundreds of thousands of follows, followed by contracts that pay real money. 

As an influencer, you can use your voice to share information relevant to your passions or help your peers with purchasing decisions by reviewing products. While it may look like glitz and glamour from the outside, influencers can attest that they are required to be “on” 24/7 to cater to their brands, promotions, and audiences.

Inevitably, more people are looking to explore the world of influencer marketing. Despite the glamour, influencers are free agents who must create content that is both intellectually and aesthetically pleasing. They perfect the process of publishing and promoting content online and learn how to monetize their content. While the role is creative, it is also data-focused. As consumers grow more selective about who they follow, it is impertinent that influencers provide value, remain authentic, and indulge in the continuous task of having a robust and engaged following.

“A brand is the set of expectations, memories, stories and relationships that, taken together, account for a consumer’s decision to choose one product or service over another.” – Seth Godin

So how do you become an influencer in 2020?

First, define your brand, niche, and audience. Your brand should have a unique, consistent voice that reveals to the audience what you want them to know about you. A successful influencer finds a niche, a subject in which they are an expert and are passionate about it. Journalists and thought leaders in a variety of industries have successfully crossed over into influencer marketing by consistently providing valuable information in their niche. Your brand should speak to who you want to appeal to.

Next, choose your social media channel and develop your content strategy. Your voice should reflect the sponsorships you hope to receive, even in the beginning. Consider blogging, guest posts, and curating content from other thought leaders and similar accounts when developing your content strategy.

For influencers hoping to build an audience using career, job, or academic-focused content, LinkedIn would be a great platform. For influencers seeking to post a video or photo-based content such as tutorials, sponsored endorsements, or other content that might relate to a brand or product in a variety of industries, Instagram would be the platform of choice.

Now, you must organize your content so that it is published efficiently. Content scheduling allows you to schedule ahead and prepare in case of unexpected distractions. Your content schedule should have a month’s worth of pre-planned content; a content calendar can ensure your content is consistent and also track your performance and engagement.

“Numbers are hollow. It’s all about community and involvement” – Andrew Steinthal

What’s the best time to post on social media?

Have you ever wondered the best times to post on each social media platform? The answer varies with every social network and the type of audience being engaged. According to an article on the best time to post, “Facebook and Twitter both see high engagement at 9 a.m., whereas one of the best times to post on Instagram is 5 p.m. LinkedIn caters to B2B audiences, with an ideal posting time of 10 a.m. to 12 p.m.

Pinterest sees high engagement as late as 4 a.m. With many businesses facing a growing global audience, varying time zones have become a growing concern, especially when it comes to the best times to post.

After you’ve created your schedule, it’s time to focus on your followers. Find 50 similar accounts and make them your besties! Get from behind your device and make friends face-to-face. You can host and attend events, or even take a social media class to apply to your new platform. It also helps to learn how to pitch yourself, your metrics, website visitors, and engagements effectively to companies you’d like to pay you for your social media posts.

Speak at conferences, be a guest on a podcast, and position yourself as a thought leader in your industry. Just keep in mind that it takes time to see success from influencer marketing, as most influencers report months or sometimes even years of hard work before landing contracts. You must be willing to build relationships over time, and not just digitally.

It’s easy to become an influencer as the entry barrier is very low. It’s not so easy to really become an expert in your field. This takes time. Niche down as much as possible, stay consistent and most importantly, have a great vision in place which can change this world for the better. 

Have you ever thought about being an influencer? Share your thoughts on it below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/how-to-become-an-influencer-in-2020/

Boosting Your Creativity in 3 Easy Steps

“I am simply not creative.” How many times have you said this to yourself or others? I’d imagine quite a few times. Many people believe that creativity is a gift they do not own, a very luxury gift actually, only destined for a select few. I want to break this myth right now and say that creativity is a gift that every single one of us has within ourselves.

The reason why many people do not see it is because they do not allow it to be, they hide it and fear it every single day. Many believe that creativity is only for certain types of people working with art for instance or other creative professions. Albert Einstein said that “Creativity is intelligence having fun.” So every possible intelligent person on this planet can have the chance to be creative and every one of us is intelligent in our own creative way.

Creativity to me is about freedom of expression, freedom of words and behaviour, freedom to be who you truly are and show what you truly love. It is often suppressed because it can be judged as foolish, not being adequate enough, not serious enough, too colourful or too flamboyant. How many times do you wish you could wear that beautiful colourful hat you are keeping in the loft but are too scared to do it as people might think you have gone crazy?

This is a very typical example of how creativity is suppressed daily. Today I want to encourage you to connect deeply to your creativity, to find it, unleash it, and let it be the light in your life. I want to invite you to play with it and start realising that creativity is a gift you have that wants to be expressed and that can be used positively in many areas of your life.

• Creativity can help you stand out in your business.
• Creativity can help you give positivity and fun to your life.
• Creativity can help you connect to your true desires.
• How can you connect to your creativity more?

“The desire to create is one of the deepest yearnings of the human soul.” – Dieter F. Uchtdorf

Here are three easy steps for you:

1. Connect to your inner child

Just close your eyes and go back in time to all the games you used to play and all the activities you used to do as a child. Go back to relive the things you truly loved doing. Were you passionate about colours? Did you use to make clothes or play with marionettes? Maybe your passion was acting, or you always dreamt about flying?

Give a voice to your inner child, let him or her out and play and fully express themselves and bring that expression and passion into your daily life, your ideas and projects. Your life will start to be much more colourful and joyful through using creative imagination.

2. Stop the self-critics

This is such a fundamental step to take if you truly want the creative inner you to come out. Bringing out your creativity can feel scary especially as humans always fear being judged and criticised and have a strong desire to fit in and to comply with the masses. 

Ask yourself what is more painful for you, to repress your inner creativity and conform or to be fully creative and possibly not being liked by a few? Put your hand to your heart when you ask yourself this question and see what feels right for you.

“You can’t use up creativity. The more you use the more you have.” – Maya Angelou

3. Stop rushing and start observing more

Creativity will have a tough time coming out if your mind is always busy with stuff, worried, and overthinking about daily problems. Taking time to relax and calm your mind will help you notice the beauty around you. It will help you “see” things you might not see while running around, which could give you lots of creative ideas.

Some of my most creative moments are when I am out in nature watching the leaves moving and the birds flying or simply watching people passing by, without worrying about the whole world. During those moments, your mind is relaxed and can more easily generate ideas and get inspired by the world around you.

One last piece of advice I want to share with you is this: every time you get a creative idea, a creative hit for doing something, creating something, or writing something just do it. The more time you leave before taking action, the more your fears will jump all over your creativity and leave very little left of it. And if that happens, the same old same old boring patterns and ideas will keep dominating in your life.

How do you boost your creative side when you need it? Share your ideas and thoughts with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/boosting-your-creativity-in-3-easy-steps/

Develop Your Adaptability to Supercharge Your Success

Some of my friends are professional athletes who have made millions of dollars in their sport. But let’s face it, most people are not going to make it to the pros. The competition is too fierce and talented, and the odds for most athletes are too long, no matter how hard you work at it.

That doesn’t mean you shouldn’t try. If you have a dream, chase it. If you have an ambition, pursue it. If you have a goal, grasp it. But also understand that sometimes life requires a Plan B. That’s when you need to be flexible and adapt your plans based on the circumstances life throws at you.

Your Plan A might be to make it to the pros. That’s a lofty target and shows how optimistic and confident you are. Good! But having a Plan B doesn’t mean you’re pessimistic. It doesn’t mean you’re not committed to Plan A. You’re not allowing failure to be an option. Plan B should make you feel great too. It can also be lofty and ambitious. It’s smart to have a Plan B; it’s not a sign of weakness.

How adaptable are you? If your Plan A hits the rumble strips, do you turn happily to Plan B, knowing that sometimes life is a bumpy ride, or do you crumble, thinking that since your Plan A failed, you must be a failure? Flexibility will allow you to find new ways to succeed, even when your initial plans go awry.

“Every success story is a tale of constant adaptation, revision and change.” – Richard Branson

Lessons in Adaptability from Phil Harvey

My friend Phil Harvey is an excellent example of a flexible approach to life. Although he hasn’t had things all his own way, he has consistently found ways to succeed. He loves his Plan B as much as his Plan A and he’s never shy of adapting a plan when circumstances change.

When Phil was twenty, he and his brother James took jobs with one of the largest moving companies in the Denver area. They worked there for about eighteen months, and during that time, they noticed that their employer made a lot of mistakes. Phil didn’t plan to start his own business, but the company’s issues were affecting his income. It was time for Plan B.

Phil and James decided to set out on their own. They learned as much as they could about the moving business, then parted ways from the company and set up their own organization. They started out using a Chevy Tahoe for every move. Not easy. Then the Tahoe broke down. Even tougher. What did they do? They borrowed a Ford Ranger from their mother and kept on working.

Although they were initially under-resourced, Phil and James loved helping people move home. They’re both athletic, lean, and strong, and they make moving look easy. Their customers loved them and recommended them to all their friends. It wasn’t long before they were making more working for themselves than they did working for a large moving company. Soon, they brought on a cousin to work with them, and he too became a partner in the business.

Over the next ten years, their flexible approach paid off big time. As their reputation grew, other avenues of income opened up for them:

• They started renting budget trucks for their moves and then opened a budget franchise so that they could rent out vehicles themselves.
• When they noticed that many clients requested carpet-cleaning recommendations, Phil’s girlfriend started a side business for cleaning services.
• From carpet cleaning, they expanded again to offer general cleaning for clients who were moving out of a rental or preparing their home for sale.
• When clients had them haul away unwanted furniture, the Harvey’s started a side business reselling the items on eBay.

Is there any angle that the Harvey’s missed? They can load and move someone’s furniture and possessions. They can rent you a truck if you need one. They can haul off stuff you don’t want. They can come in after the move and clean the carpet and the rest of the house. About the only thing they didn’t do was sell the house when it was clean and empty.

Oh, wait. That’s not true anymore. James recently got his real estate license. Now they can sell the house too.

If you had asked the Harvey’s a decade ago, would they have predicted that they’d now have a thriving moving business, with numerous other side businesses? I doubt it. But they have continued to evolve, seeing opportunities where they have arisen, and consistently developing a Plan B when necessary.

“Adapt what is useful, reject was is useless, and add what is specifically your own.” – Bruce Lee

Stay Foolish, Stay Hungry

In our society, making a million dollars is a metaphor for success. But how much money you make is a trivial way of keeping score. What’s more important is your happiness. Are you doing what you love? Do you love going to work every day? Is what you’re offering helping someone else?

If you hate your job and you’re miserable, no amount of money will compensate for that unhappiness. To find your niche in life and keep evolving, you need to be adaptable.

You should have big goals, but don’t be limited by them. If your goal is to earn a million dollars, fine. But what’s your goal after that? Setting a finite line can be limiting, so you have to be nimble. Some defensive backs wanted to be wide receivers. They have similar body types and run as fast as receivers; they just don’t catch the ball as well. But in the event the ball is thrown over the receiver’s head, the DB, for the moment, can become a receiver with the interception.

The DB achieved more than he had originally planned because he never limited himself to being just a tackler.

When I leave the NFL, my Plan B will be an offshoot of my Plan A. I have a network of friends, teammates, and advisors who will all be part of my Plan B.

Plan B isn’t always dramatically different from Plan A. If your Plan A is doing something you love, make Plan B something you love too. Chances are it will involve the same friends and acquaintances you made while working on Plan A.

Success depends on finding the things you are passionate about. Once you identify that, think about how you can be involved in that passion every day and how you can use your enthusiasm for that work to change the world. That’s your sweet spot. You should do what you love and what you’re great at. And when the game changes, be ready to change with it.

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/develop-your-adaptability-to-supercharge-your-success/

Why It’s Important to Broaden Your View Rather Than Limit It

When we consider what it takes to be successful, most experts will suggest that you find one particular area of focus and narrow in on it as tight as possible. But I’ve tried that strategy and found it less than inspiring. To be honest, I believe it’s brought me more struggle than success.

From the start of my writing journey, I fell into the trap of hyper-focus. It was hard not to as this seems to be the strategy everyone preaches. Of course, there were plenty of things about a narrower view that made sense to me: my clarity and understanding should have been deeper in a tightly-defined niche, it would be easier to brand myself so that people could understand more easily what I was all about, and it seemed certain that I would have the capability to go farther.

But what I’ve learned over my approximately five-year journey of finding my own area of impact is that it is perfectly acceptable to hold a looser grip, to be more expansive in my view, and to allow myself to explore a topic from multiple angles.

Go Wide or Go Home

The first benefit to a wider view is that by not narrowing in on a tight focus, our experience can be more fun and enjoyable. I could literally feel the constriction of the narrow way but by loosening my grip I became much more like the 7-year-old boy I remember myself to be: curious, full of fun, and in love with life. To not be constrained is to find freedom and in that, we can retain the best of what it means to be alive and in pursuit of those things that are most important to us.

Interestingly, I feel as though I have been going farther in my work faster than I ever did before. When you imagine driving a car in a very tight alley you can see how your intense attention could sap your energy and that your ability to drive would be marked by a tendency for over-correction. Rather than simply driving with ease and speed, you would be limited to focusing on your path and not hitting the side walls. Get out on the open road, however, and you would again be able to drive freely toward your destination.

I have also discovered that I have many more opportunities to grow when my horizons widen. When we are more open to life, more is drawn to us. It is the difference between a closed fist and an open one. And personally, we are free to grow in ways we never would have known otherwise. Rather than being root-bound to a small pot, when we are planted within a larger landscape we can grow unimpeded.

“Your greatness is measured by your horizons.” – Michelangelo

As we open to more, something else directs a greater growth in us as well. Evolutionary scientists tell us that a key component for a quantum leap from one level to a higher one is the presence of a minimal degree of complexity. This is not to necessarily imply a state of chaos but rather the bringing together of many things into a more sophisticated whole.

This state is also known as synergy, the synthesis of many different elements into something that is greater than the sum of its individual parts. But to be effective, synergy requires exactly that, many different parts. I’ve found that with a higher level of complexity comes an ability to evolve to greater heights. With the one-track focus, we grow but don’t truly evolve.

A Case Study: Elon Musk

As we discuss this idea of going wide rather than narrowing in our focus, it seems proper to substantiate it as a strategy that actually brings success in its implementation. Toward that end, I cannot think of a more perfect example than Elon Musk. Elon is arguably one of the most successful individuals of our time. And he also has a reputation for anything but a narrow focus.

Elon is currently the CEO or involved at a high level with numerous companies, institutes, and foundations, all of which are distinctly different in focus. But when one looks closer, there seems to be a fit and all his interests somehow work with or benefit from each other.

By the measure of the specific-focus strategy, he should be an utter failure—a branding nightmare and productivity backfire. But he is completely the opposite. His efforts seem to be extremely successful and people easily perceive a personal brand for him—the wizard intellect and bold individual who is taking humanity forward despite all naysayers and all bureaucracy.

“De-focus, for there lies another perspective.”

Widening Your Own View

My suggestion is rather than blindly believing that a highly-focused strategy is the only way to succeed, try loosening the reigns and go a little wider than narrower. This is backwards advice to most you’ve heard and there are plenty of brand and productivity specialists who will counter the argument.

But I’m not advocating for focusing on completely unrelated interests. The point is to just not be too specific. You can always go a little wider in your particular field. Things will still relate in some way—let it all find its own inherent balance. As you do I believe that you will find greater ease and enjoyment toward a higher level of success. Undoubtedly your growth will flourish in ways the hyper-focused strategy never would have allowed.

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/why-its-important-to-broaden-your-view-rather-than-limit-it/

Are You Ready to Chase Your Entrepreneurial Dream? 5 Questions to Help You Decide

As a techie in your 30s, you may feel you’re past the age for your entrepreneurial adventure. Perhaps sometimes you debate if  you should give it a shot after all – for if not now, then when? But are you ready to give up the stability offered by your high-paying tech job? How do you know if the time is right? 

Here are 5 questions which will help you answer if you are truly ready to be an entrepreneur?

1. Every Thanksgiving, ask yourself:  “Am I excited about next year?”

Leaving a fat, stable paycheck to jump into the unpredictable, unknown world of entrepreneurship is hard! So, when do you know it’s time? Make it a rule to ask yourself every thanksgiving – in my current role, am I truly looking forward to next year? Am I excited?

If your answer is anything other than “Hell, yeah”. You need to move. You are ready for a change. And its probably time you seriously consider your entrepreneurial dream. Follow Jeff Bezos’s famous regret-minimization-framework which begs the simple question – In X years, will I regret not doing it?

As Bezos himself puts it: “I knew that when I was 80 I was not going to regret having tried this. I was not going to regret trying to participate in this thing called the Internet that I thought was going to be a really big deal. I knew that if I failed, I wouldn’t regret that, but I knew the one thing I might regret is not ever having tried.”

2. Do you have financial and emotional support?

We often think that if we get married, we may not be able to accomplish our entrepreneurial dream. The truth is the opposite. A partner can be the biggest support you can have in the lonely journey of an entrepreneur. Not to mention how much of a financial support they can be during the tough times.

Your closest friends are not to be underestimated either. When nothing goes your way, all you want is a shoulder to lean on and someone to motivate you. Make sure you have your social-support system. Network with other entrepreneurs. Only they truly understand what you are going through.

3. Are you ready to put your money at stake and maybe lose it all?

Scroll through LinkedIn and you will constantly read about startups getting funded with millions of dollars. You start to believe that all you need is an idea and you will raise money. But, speak to any entrepreneur who has raised money and they will tell you about the time and money they poured into the business to get traction before they got any attention from investors. So, are you ready to put your hard-earned money at stake and in the worst case, lose it all? 

4. Are you ready to get your hands dirty?

As an entrepreneur, you will be a one-person-army. And for a long time! As a tech entrepreneur, you may very well be an engineer one day and a salesperson making cold calls the next. If you are a food entrepreneur, then you are the cook, the manager, the server, and the dishwasher. Whatever your venture is, you need to get your hands dirty. You own your business and you may need to do it all. You may eventually find help and build a team but when push comes to shove, you don’t say – that’s not my job. Do you envision yourself doing it all?

5. Do you have an exit plan?

On your entrepreneurial journey, you could lose sight and forget to evaluate when it’s time to cut your losses. Remember, a startup is both highly rewarding and risky. Have an exit plan before you jump in and each thanksgiving, re-evaluate if its time to change direction or call it quits.

There is absolutely no shame in changing direction or quitting if the data suggests so. Remember how Netflix used to be a DVD Rental service before they pioneered to online streaming? Sprig, a meal-kit business, called it quits after 5  years of business. Their business model wasn’t sustainable.

Moral of the story – listen to your data and be ready to make major changes if need be.

Did you answer yes to all five? Congratulations, you are now all set to jump onto the entrepreneurial boat. Meet you at sea! It’s going to be a one, fun, bumpy exciting ride. 

from
https://addicted2success.com/entrepreneur-profile/are-you-ready-to-chase-your-entrepreneurial-dream-5-questions-to-help-you-decide/

8 Ways to Consistently Improve Yourself Daily

1. Pick the knowledge you need

When we want to improve at something, we often go to the internet to look for resources. The good news is there are a lot of resources available. The bad news is we don’t know which is a useful one. The clickbaity content might often tell you the things that you already know or the things that you don’t need.

It’s easy to get lost in this pool of resources. That’s why it’s important to get familiar with what exactly you need. Being as specific as you can will weed out unnecessary resources.

For example, If you want to learn writing, be specific about the type of writing that you would like to learn (copywriting, content writing, scriptwriting, etc). Also, choosing a niche (self help, health, technology, etc) will narrow down the results to help you pick up the exact knowledge you need. You can apply the same technique if you want to learn through books.

2. Build the feedback loop

Daniel Kahneman, the author of “ Thinking Fast and Slow” has said, “ How quickly you learn new things depends on the quality and speed of feedback loop you built for yourself”.

The feedback loop is exactly how you find out your weaknesses and strengths. What happened yesterday, happened! You can’t change the past but you can extract the lessons from your past to build the future you deserve.

It’s common for people to repeat the same mistakes over and over and having a feedback loop in place will turn these mistakes into lessons. A feedback loop will help you to improve yourself at an accelerated rate because it will give you a way to be consistently aware of what works and what doesn’t.

3. Get comfortable with failures

If you are willing to get yourself out of your comfort zone, you must be comfortable with failing. When we try new things, we usually have a fear of failure. This fear of failure restricts us from giving our 100% which in turn increases our chances of failure.

Failure often puts you in a confused state of mind which is totally normal. But in this state of confusion, we overlook the data we can access now to make better decisions next time. Failure is not bad, it’s the greatest teacher you will ever find.

“When we strive to become better than we are, everything around us becomes better too.” – Paulo Coelho

4. Circadian rhythm

A circadian rhythm is a natural, internal process that regulates the sleep-wake cycle and repeats roughly every 24 hours.

When you want to change your life, you need to know how your energy levels change throughout the day. What do you like to do at certain times of the day and what you don’t is the first step to approach productivity.

Build the schedule that you can follow and not the one that looks good on paper. Why wake up at 4 a.m. and work out if you can give your best in the gym at 7:00 p.m? You don’t have to follow someone else’s schedule just because they are famous. You need to build one that is tailored for you and modify it as you progress.

5. Don’t work, PLAY

Being harsh on yourself will hardly do any good for you. If you don’t find happiness in what you do, you are bound to get bored quickly.

Build the schedule that looks ideal to you, mix it with your current schedule and that is the schedule you should approach in the beginning stages. Basically, choose a small swimming pool to swim in first and then move on to a large one.

Also, when you feel like you are burning out, take a break. You can always shift the gears and pick up the pace but when you feel by heart that you need to cool down, do it. Remember, you’re trying to improve yourself not trying to sell insurance.

6. Divide and conquer

Every one of us has good ideas, every one of us knows what to do. We also know that doing certain things is how our life can actually take shape. But, when it all comes down to taking actions, we quickly look for instant rewards.

Sadly, that’s not how it works but you can hack your way by dividing an action into small sub-actions. For example, If you want a write a 2000 page article, writing 100 pages twice a day will complete the task in 10 days without stretching yourself. Make the actions so small that it should not feel like work but remember there is no substitute for doing, drill that in your mind.

“The goal is not to be perfect by the end. The goal is to be better today.” – Simon Sinek

7. Question everything

What you are right now is a product of how society made you look at the world. Their thought, their beliefs build your perspective and your perspective builds your mindset.

Some of these beliefs are literally nothing but myths. If you don’t question it and believe everything, you are not living your own life. Every single thing that you are made to believe, question it. It’s the easiest way to flush out mental waste.

8. Attitude drives you

When you want to improve, it’s obvious that you will face some level of confusion. You might think everyone is judging you, you might think that this is too hard. There is a lot of confusion but it’s just an act of negative thoughts.

You can defeat these negative waves by manifesting a positive attitude. If you want to be a winner you have to act, think and fight like a winner. Visualize yourself as a winner, talk to yourself on why you are the best in the business to feed that positive attitude in your mind. Talk to yourself or read success stories. 

from
https://addicted2success.com/life/8-ways-to-consistently-improve-yourself-daily/

How To Lead When You’re Terrified Of Failure

The first stage of growing your business requires the basics of gaining clients, selling your services, and fulfilling your services. While new, your self-reliance makes it easier to step into the newness of the situation and build your business.

As you reach the stage of scalability, you find yourself having to rely on the efforts of others. You build your team and find that you have less control over the work. You have people looking to you for leadership, direction, and encouragement. 

The weight of those responsibilities launches you into a transition that will require you to work as much on yourself as you work on your business. Each day in your business requires you to manage opportunities, problems, and people in a new way.

In short, your business requires something new of you, which is scary. Suddenly, you are wrestling with the fear of failure as you work on leading your team and business to the next level.

Failure is learning, and learning is a necessary part of success. That makes sense intellectually, but without tools and techniques to harness yourself, it will be challenging to create an environment for success to happen.

Get fear out of the driver’s seat

After the 2015 release of Inside Out, a Pixar Film about the personification of 5 emotions, stories were shared with the creators that told of the impact the movie had on its viewers. One of the stories that emerged was of a young family at their local pool. The son, a young boy, caught the eyes of his parents as he steadily marched to the highest dive board.

His parents held their breath as they watched their child climb the ladder rung by rung to the top, walk to the edge, take a breath, and proceed to dive off into the pool below. What was so amazing about this seemingly simple, normal act? 

Their son was terrified of the high dive. Imagine being so afraid that your body launches into a shivering terror over one thing that seems so easy for others. When the little boy reached his parents, they asked, “What changed? That was amazing, but how?”

The little boy shared that when he watched the film, he realized that fear was natural and healthy, but he had allowed fear to be in the driver’s seat for too long. “I just asked fear to get out of the driver’s seat and let joy have a turn.”

Courage is not the absence of fear; it’s the ability to step through fear. Because fear is one of the most potent basic human emotions, you are not going to be able to rid yourself of fear, but you can learn to manage it.

“Everything you want is on the other side of fear.”  – Jack Canfield

Get it on paper

This exercise is not one to amplify your fear, but you do need to give it a name. The process of writing things by hand has an impact of pulling thoughts out of your head. When something like fear repeats over and over in your mind, it magnifies and amplifies. With this amplification, the fear grows and creates inaction because the fear seems insurmountable. Writing out the fear names it. If you name it, you can actively mitigate it.

Mitigate the Risks

“What is the worst thing that could happen?” The purpose of the question is not to find all the ways you can fail. It’s to understand what the perceived risks are. If you know what the risks are, then you can put in place watch guards and plans to reduce those risks. You can cut things off at the pass.

When you list out all of the things that could happen, you will likely find that 50% of the list is not possible or probable. 

An additional 25% of the list is more about how you fear that you’ll be perceived by others (give yourself a little grace with these). What would you say to the 10-year-old version of yourself who was about to try something new and had the same fears? You would likely extend more kindness and grace to others than you are willing to give yourself.

The remaining 25% of the list comprises risks that you can mitigate or reduce. What are the metrics you could put into place to act as an early warning system? If, in the unlikely case, these risks come to reality, what plan can you put into place?

This little exercise is more impactful than you can imagine. It puts you back in control by adopting a more strategic approach to the situation—and that’s right where you want to be.

“There is only one thing that makes a dream impossible to achieve: the fear of failure.” – Paulo Coelho

Paint the picture

In Brene Brown’s book, ‘Dare to Lead’, she tells a story of working with company leaders who liked to ‘paint it done’ by defining your expectations, the requirements, and what success will look like. You verbally paint the picture of what ‘done’ means in your vision of success. The purpose of the exercise is to define what the end result would be so that everyone has a clear expectation of what success is.

What are your expectations of the situation? If your fear is about failure, what would be heaven? How would you feel? How would you know that you achieved success? What would your team say? What would the office sound like?

Painting the picture of success is critical to achieving success. It also helps highlight when you are on the right path.

Manage the process, not the work

When it comes to your team, the fear of failure from the business owner manifests a situation where the owner micromanages the team. A business owner can quickly become angry and frustrated with their team. In the end, the fear of failure drives the business owner into paranoia and then boom—the business owner creates the physical manifestation of what they fear.

If you find yourself headed down this road, know that it is normal. This situation is a critical place of transition for you. The key is to shift your primary focus from ‘doing the work’ to ‘getting the work done.’

For many of us, there has been a certain amount of pride and value placed on our ability to do the work, to put in the hours. If your business is going to continue to grow, you need to be able to let go of the work and find value in guiding others toward a common goal.

Trust your team to get the job done. Manage the results that you are looking to achieve and allow your team to rise to the occasion. While you will have missteps in hiring and managing your team, all these learnings create a better definition of success.

You are likely to have some bumps and scrapes along the way. When that happens, take ownership and then take positive action. Ask for grace from yourself and from your team. Your team is not looking to you for perfection. They will respect you for learning along the way while everyone in the business grows and shares in the benefit of being in it together.

How do you manage to control your fear of failure? Share your thoughts and ideas with us below!

from
https://addicted2success.com/success-advice/how-to-lead-when-youre-terrified-of-failure/