Tips For Small Businesses

Success:  Moving Past Fear

There are times when simply thinking positively won’t move you past your fear and anxiety.  There are times when simply plodding it out is the thing you must do.

The Evangelical speaker Joyce Meyer says, “If you’re afraid to do it, just DO IT AFRAID.”  No one will blame you for being fearful—what you will be blamed for is letting that fear immobilize you.  So no matter what it takes, keep moving.

Fear is much like a quagmire—it slurps at our feet and if we stand still long enough, it begins to suck us down.  It’s hard to get out of, but it is possible.

If you’re stuck in fear as you shoot for success, there are several ways out:

- First, consider the source.  Where did the fear come from?  Have you been dwelling on the difficulties instead of the opportunities?  Have you been listening to those who are cynics and pessimists, instead of coaching yourself with positive words and people?  If so, MOVE ON.  GET AWAY from people and situations that drag you down.

- Second, take your checklist and note what you HAVE accomplished.  Look at your list of goals and the baby steps you’re taking to get there, and on a separate sheet of paper (or a separate document in your computer), begin to list everything you have accomplished.  This will begin to empower you to move on and leave the fear behind.

- Third, take stock of your talents and skills.  Fear often tells us that we “don’t have what it takes…”  Show fear as the liar it is:  list your skills, all your positive attributes.  Then look at the problem again, after you have a new appreciation for your God-given talents and abilities.

- Fourth, don’t underestimate the power of prayer.  Regardless of your spiritual beliefs, there is an amazing power that comes from releasing your fear to a God Who loves you and is looking out for you.  Don’t bottle the fear up—let it go.  You don’t need it anyhow!

- Finally, remember this acronym when facing fear:

o          F= False

o          E= Evidence

o          A=Appearing

o          R=Real

For that’s really what fear is—it is an unrealistic look (false look) at something and attempting to make you believe it (appearing to be real).

Once you know these things, you’ll be able to move past your fear and on to the next step you need to be successful!

Success:  Overcoming Anxiety

Anxiety is the result of either a) not believing you can achieve your goals successfully or b) having a fear of not achieving your goals.  Either can stop you in your tracks when it comes to being successful.

Worrying is not anxiety, but it can accompany being anxious.  Ultimately, what anxiety does as well is distracts you from your stated goal.

You must plot your course for success.  If you have your goals well-defined and your “insurance policies” in place (such as friends who can encourage you, experts in your chosen field who can guide you, etc.), anxiety and worry don’t have much room to take root.  If you are a negative person, however, you can give birth to these twins without much effort.

If you don’t believe in your goals or don’t believe you can achieve them, your attitude will determine your level of success.  And that’s where worry and anxiety come in to roost.

Your first step in overcoming anxiety is to make sure you have your goals written down—or at least, entered in a PDA where you can easily retrieve them and view them regularly.  If you can see your goals and the small steps you’ll take to achieve them (and have a check-mark system to chart your progress), pull it out and read over it when you begin to feel anxious.

The second step is to correct your attitude.  If you dwell in the “I can’t” and “I’ll never,” you’re right—you can’t and you’ll never.  Instead, you need to dismiss those thoughts and consider what you have already accomplished and what next goal your series of baby steps will achieve.  We go back to the truth “attitude is everything.”

Henry Ford famously said, “Either you think you can or you think you can’t.  Either way, you’re right.”  On this point, I think he was correct.  As an inventor, he had the opportunity to dwell on all the times his Quadricycle prototypes failed.  Instead, he moved on, learning from the failures and mistakes.  He didn’t let a bad prototype stand in his way of succeeding.  He overcame any anxiety and worry with positive attitude and a gritty determination.

The final step to overcoming anxiety is to have those around you who can encourage you.  We talked about this when discussing setting your goals and making sure that you have the appropriate support system around you.  Anxiety and worry rarely come to a party of more than one—they like to torment individuals.  Two or three people have the benefit of seeing different angles of a challenge and being positive about the outcome.  So if you find yourself worrying or anxious, tap your support system.  Don’t do it at 3:00 in the morning (your support system won’t be very supportive at that hour!), but do it as soon as it’s practical.  You’ll thank yourself and continue on towards your goal.

Success:  Setting Goals

“Genius” has been described as the “ability to focus on one thing at a time.”  Many people who are “geniuses” are so not only because they have a high intellect, but because they are a gift of being able to focus on the objective or goal at hand.

This same focus must come in to play when determining what your goals are in relation to success.  You need to learn to work towards one major objective and juggle a few short- and mid-range goals at the same time.

One way to determine what your direction is (and ultimately your goals are) is to do a check-up.  I suggest listing 7 categories:  Financial; Career, Family, Personal, Spiritual, Mental, & Physical.  Rank your goals in these categories and how you’re doing.  This will illustrate to you where you are and where you’d like to be and exactly how balanced you are as you move about your process.

o          Set goals that are smart.  Big goals must be broken down in to manageable pieces.  Don’t set more than 4 goals to work on during a single day.  Seek divine guidance and direction on each goal.

o          Then identify what the pay-off is when you achieve your goal.  Nebulous rewards don’t motivate people to achieve much.

o          List the obstacles that stand between you and your goals.  If you’re not aware of potential problems, you’ll be side-tracked when they arise and lose sight of your objective.

o          Have someone in your corner who can dispense counsel & guidance.

o          Think about who can help you achieve your goal.  Identify friends who can be encouragers and who can help keep you motivated and on-track.

o          List the skills and knowledge required to attain your goal

o          Develop a plan of action to achieve your goal

o          Set a deadline for achievement.  It’s hard to achieve something that has no ending date.

As you consider your goals, ask yourself the following questions:

- Is this really my goal?

- Is this morally right and fair to everyone involved?

- Will it take me closer to my long-range goal?

- Can I commit myself to start and reach this objective?

- Can I see myself attaining this goal?

You should answer yes to each of these questions.  If not, re-evaluate!

And then give each goal a final test of the “basic wants” in life:

- Will it make me happier?

- Will it make me healthier?

- Will it make me more prosperous?

- Will it increase my security?

- Will it help me make more friends?

- Will it give me peace of mind?

- Will it improve my family (and other) relationships?

- Will it increase my hope for the future?

If you can’t answer yes to each of these questions, re-evaluate your goal.

Success:  Takin’ Care of Business

If you’re hearing the song that Bachman-Turner-Overdrive made famous in the 60s, that’s exactly what I want!  I’m not talking about “business” in a strictly financial sense, but “business” with the idea that whatever you’re shooting for success-wise, you complete your tasks.

Once you have a course plotted for success, there are going to be a million things that will vie for your attention and time.  It’s not that these things haven’t been there before now, and it’s not even that the world is plotting against you succeeding.  It’s just that now you have a focus and you’ll begin to notice things that seem like they shouldn’t be on your radar screen.

It doesn’t mean that you don’t do the little pesky things that are buzzing and want to be taken care of (especially if it relates to your job), just that you must not let those things pull you off-track.

So how do you stay on-task?  The best way I’ve found, bar none, is to keep a log of tasks that must be accomplished as you move towards your goal.  Remember to break the big tasks in to a series of small ones and to give yourself a reward-system as you do it.  I use check-marks; others use stickers (sounds silly, but if it works for you, who cares?), still others use tangible rewards as they accomplish “x” number of small or large tasks.

Whatever motivates you is your key—keep it simple and keep it attainable.  If the carrot is too far out in front of the horse, the horse will give up.  If it’s just close enough to smell and see but just out of reach, that horse will keep moving towards the incentive.

Let’s say your goal is to lose 60 pounds.  That’s quite a chunk of weight and can take a long time to accomplish.  Let’s also say that you need a new wardrobe.  Should you wait until all the weight is gone to buy those new clothes?  Probably not—your current closet full of clothes will look awfully loose and ill-fitting if you do.

But let’s talk about small, incremental rewards that help move you towards your goal.  If you lose 10 pounds, your current clothes won’t look baggy on you, but you will notice a difference in your waistband that might bother you.  Don’t chuck the pants or go buy a new pair—take the current ones to a seamstress or tailor to be taken in.

It’s a small reward and saves you the money of buying new pants that you will continue to shrink out of.  It also keeps you motivated.  For the next 5 or 10 pounds, think about some new cosmetics or a new hairstyle—small things that will make you feel better, inside and out.

Takin’ care of business and staying on task.  Now that’s the way to chart yourself to success!

Success:  The Right Mental Attitude

You must develop the right mental attitude on your road to success.  Without being overly simplistic, think of “The Little Train Who Could.”  Instead of having an “I Can’t” attitude, replace it with an “I Can!” attitude.

A positive outlook is necessary to see change coming, to be able to work with the change, and to make the most of whatever change comes down the pike in your life.  If you expect change (but not from a vending machine!), you’ll be in a better position to accept it and make the most of it.

A fabulous book regarding change and positive attitude is “Who Moved My Cheese?” by Spencer Johnson, MD.

In order to gain right thinking (being positive), you must decide to look at the bright side of life.  Instead of seeing the cloud, see the silver lining in the cloud.  Instead of seeing downsizing as a horrible thing that will plummet you in to bankruptcy and homelessness, consider it an opportunity to look for a better job and a chance to try new skills and career paths that you wouldn’t have had the opportunity to try before.  Don’t be pollyannaish, but do consider all sides of a situation before you adopt a negative perspective.

In order to maintain a positive outlook, you must also be realistic.  For example, if you’ve gained 30 pounds in the last 3 years, it would be highly unrealistic to expect to drop those 30 pounds in 3 weeks.  If you take an honest and realistic assessment of your skills and goals, you’re much more likely to find success in whatever field or career best suits you.

Maintain a cautious optimism as you seek success, not be blindly optimistic about every situation.  There are some situations in which positive thinking cannot overcome the situation you’re faced with.

Consider Tom Brady, quarterback for the New England Patriots; he’s a man who’s in excellent shape.  But if he decided to trade in his helmet and pads for ballet toe shoes, he likely wouldn’t make it, despite his physique.  Blind optimism also puts you at the mercy of con men and charlatans—your optimism must be tempered by context and relevance.

No matter what your abilities are (and they are fabulous!), using them realistically will get you much farther than not.  Your right thinking, paired with your abilities, put you on a course for success—no matter what field you’re in!

Success:  The Right Philosophy

Why does it always come back to the ageless truths?  Mostly because that which is truth is ageless and truth doesn’t change with the wind.  “The Right Philosophy” can be defined by any number of phrases, but it always comes back to the “golden rule.”  It’s re-phrased, but the essence is the same:

You can have whatever you want in life if you will just help others get what it is that they want.

This isn’t some pie-in-the-sky-feel-good theory, this is practical and will be strongly linked to your success, no matter what field you’re in.  It shows that all aspects of success—business, personal, etc.—are linked together and will all have an impact on your financial success.

Everyone largely wants the same things in life; to be happy, healthy, to have at least some amount of prosperity, to be secure and have friends, to have a happy family life, to have peace, and to have hope.

Abraham Maslow called it the Hierarchy of Needs:  our physiological needs are met, then we move on to the need for safety, then to the need for love, then on to the need for esteem, and finally what he called “self-actualization.”  Fancy words to say that we all need the same things (the basic needs met) before we can achieve success, however it is that we define success.

No matter what your religious beliefs are, the golden rule is inherent in each religion; each just uses different words.  The philosophy that you need to care for others (the “do unto others”) as you want to be cared for yourself (“as you would have others do unto you”) is at the heart of my phrase above—you will find success when you consider the needs of others as not only achievable, but something with which you can help.

When you do this, you not only set yourself to be assisted as you face needs in the future, but you also show others (and yourself!) that your own ambition hasn’t blinded you.

Remember:  success doesn’t happen in the vacuum of work only.  It’s something that touches every aspect of your life and the right philosophy will help get you there!