It’s not uncommon for a small business entrepreneur to be bedfellows with the kind of fatigue that rakes your body as you succumb to the mental exhaustion of a day riddled with decision and distractions.
But, goal fatigue?
Who even knew it was a “thing?”
Symptoms of Goal Fatigue
Sufferers may not realize the common manifestations of goal exhaustion. In fact, many casualties of goal fatigue attribute symptoms to other causes, such as “21st century business.” It comes with the job…
Indications you may be experiencing goal fatigue include, but are not limited to, the following:
No movement toward the achievement of a goal in existence for a period of time.
The goal is an albatross or a “should.”
Attentiveness to the goal, and it’s plans for achievement, is minimal.
Distractions and interruptions are a regular occurrence.
Avoidance. Avoidance. Avoidance.
Recommended Treatment for Goal Fatigue
A good shake up is the perfect cure for goal fatigue. For instance,
Ditch the current goal. Even though you’re going against conventional business wisdom, it does no good to continue with the same unachieved, uninspired goal.
Plan a goal detox. Sometimes the best way to find your way back to a goal that ignites and inspires is to go without for a period of time. Don’t worry. The world won’t come to an end.
Select a goal intriguing to you. Nothing sparks creativity and passion more quickly.
Achieve a goal in another area of your life.
Adopt a personal goal requiring the achievement of your business goal.
Truly, there are many more “unconventional” methods for overcoming goal fatigue and exhaustion. The key is not to let it happen to you or if it does…
Certainty for a small business entrepreneur is essential. Without it, resources are wasted. Time is frittered away on busy work. Procrastination is a constant companion. And, confidence in one’s ability to achieve success easily erodes.
Avoidance? Sure. Why not! Who wants to dig into a project or goal that is rife with uncertainty?
Where the magic begins
Once you know that you know that you know…that’s where the real magic begins. The direction is clear. Action is decisive. Progress ensues. Vacillation dissolves. Priorities emerge effortlessly.
It’s just that simple — when you’re certain.
Before, and until certainty is achieved, it’s really best to sit with the unknown. Familiarize yourself with the fog. Get comfortable with the notion that your direction may not be black and white for awhile. It’s okay to change course midway through the fog.
No. This is not about getting your spouse to clean out the garage — finally!
If we are to be completely honest, every entrepreneur has a project list that proliferates like rabbits at Easter, squirrels in my garden, and cat videos on Facebook. And, in true entrepreneurial style, ideas give birth to more ideas until nothing gets done.
We have the best of intentions, don’t we? We come up with inventive ideas to move the business forward. In a word (or two), they can easily be defined as brilliant and ingenious!
And then the day begins.
Given all the ways we’re pulled hither and yon in a day, it’s no wonder well intentioned plans soon gather cob webs. Before we know it, days turn into weeks, weeks turn into months, and we’re now two years past due on that website update that is sorely needed. (Heavy sigh!)
Granted, we could engage a project manager or delegate to whomever else is in the office, but with a small business like yours and mine, it still requires our involvement. So, we delay (i.e., procrastinate) and wait patiently for the unicorn called “available time” to reveal itself.
The way I see it, we have two methods at our disposal to break a logjam in our business. We can let it annoy us until we can’t stand it anymore and dump the project entirely, or we can tie it to a bigger mission.
Projects With A Purpose
One of our clients recently lived this experience. We had discussions for months (or was it years?) about a project that desperately needed attention. No matter the planning, cajoling, or coaxing, it was an undertaking that continued to outwit them.
A “nice to have” project that continually fails to make it to the drawing board generally lacks urgency. It requires more energy than we realize to hold on to “nice to have” projects and/or plans. Minus a connection to a bigger purpose or goal, it continues to hound us. Sound familar?
If you’re projects are nagging you a bit more than is tolerable, consider a bit of self-coaching. Ask yourself:
What project(s) is/are pulling at me?
What is the bigger goal or purpose — the one thing — I can get behind that excites me enough to create some forward movement?
If you can’t find the enticing reason to start now, perhaps it really was just a “nice to have” idea which has since lost its shine. For the sake of your sanity, cross it off your project list until a greater purpose brings it back to life.
Nagging projects need a worthwhile nudge to completion or to be cast aside to make room for something more valuable.
Does work-life balance truly exist — or is it a mark most small business owners aim for which remains just out of reach?
The notion of work-life balance reared its head in the 80’s. It was the time our culture began its shift to bigger and better toys. Or, as my client, John Lanza, puts it — the accumulation of stuff.
The idea of gathering more stuff while keeping a balance between work and non-work (i.e., life) hours seems a bit at odds, don’t you think?
Since that time, there are have been several reiterations of work-life balance all of which continue to elude most small business owners.
It’s time for a reboot.
The Balancing Act
Many small business owners, especially those that belong to the sandwich generation, have long given up on the idea of ever achieving a balance in their lives. Yet, like any worth-while goal, now is not the time to give up or give in to live a life filled with exhaustion, burnout, and regrets.
Let’s begin again with a few simple premises:
Define work/non-work life balance for yourself. Each of us is after something different when it comes to balancing our work with the rest of our lives. (At one time, I defined work-life balance by the shoes in my closet.) Whether you’re after more time with your loved ones, greater revenue, or more energy, you get to decide for yourself.
Experiment with strategies of achievement. There are many roads that lead to the same destination. Do some free wheeling to find what works best for you. And, be open to applying another strategy when the current one looses its shine.
Think outside the schedule. Advancements in neurobiology are opening opportunities for better ways to approach performance. Whether you work in 40/20 minute cycles of productivity/restor schedule creative days and “hate to but have to” days, find your personal performance groove.
Let go of accommodating everyone and every whim. I recently read we have an unlimited ability to respond and a limited ability to act. How true! Responding to and acting upon are two divergent concepts. One can respond (unlimited capability) by not acting (limited capacity).
Don’t be afraid to go against the grain. One of the great stresses in our modern day society is the compelling drive to stuff as much work as we can into hours of operation from 9 am – 5 pm. This is a hangover from the industrial age. With advancements in technology, you truly can operate your business during your most energized hours.
Over time, we’ve become highly skilled at optimizing websites, computers, and business models. Sadly, we still suck at optimizing our lives. But I believe in us and I believe we can do better.
I learned to drive using my Dad’s 1948 Dodge. It was a big green egg of a machine with a stick shift and a clutch that slipped. “Flooding” the carburetor was a common occurrence with an inexperienced, unschooled teenage driver. Although the nuts-and-bolts of how and why it occurred were a bit advanced for my teenage brain, I knew the fix.
The entrepreneur’s brain is similar. When overwhelmed, it spits, sputters, and “conks out.”
Keep Your Engine Running Smooth
Growing a business requires an avalanche of activities. No wonder the brain “floods.” And, when it does, thinking slows. Vision blurs. Procrastination creeps in and we avoid the very action needed to restart our engine! It’s as common as the clutch slipping on my Dad’s Dodge.
When it happens — and it will — use these simple tips to fire up your brain and turn on the entrepreneur’s engine.
Journal daily.Julia Cameron, author of The Artists Way, wrote of the importance of “morning pages” to assist in prioritizing the day. Like draining seldom-used pipes of rusty water to get to the fresh, clear, nourishing water, morning pages act as a brain dump to clear your thinking.
Contact your coach for answers. DIY “repairs” might work as a quick fix, but if done incorrectly, they can be costly! Know when to call in a pro.
Implement these ideas into your business and take your brain out for a joyride! (Just remember to release the brake.)
Someone pledges to accomplish a task, project, or goal by a certain time and they actually follow through on their commitment. It’s stunning!
From my vantage point as a strategic business coach, it appears accountability and commitment are as rare as a unicorn. Yet, this is the frustration of many small business owners that arise from the irritation of broken and abandoned promises.
It’s not that simple, Nike!
I’d like to believe Nike’s mantra is enough for commitment, accountability, and outcomes. Just Do It. Oh, if it were so…
We can’t indict others for this seemingly blatant disregard of honoring promises without looking at how we handle commitments. Whether it’s a promise made to a client, an agreement with a business partner, or a pledge to our business coach (Egads!), commitments are slippery.
Someone said,”Commitment is doing the thing you said you were going to do long after the mood you said it in has left you.” —Unknown.
Let’s Keep The Mood Going
A commitment to which one holds him or her self accountable is more than raising your hand to say, “I will.” Whether it’s with another — or oneself — a commitment conversation has several crucial steps including:
Achieve clarification and agreement.
Review specific results and due dates.
Discuss capabilities and concerns, if any, of meeting deliverables on time.
Identify resources and/or tools needed to accomplish the objective.
Establish the measurement of success.
Verify and clarify expectations, results, and timelines.
Although it requires time, presence of mind, and skill, have the conversation. It’s the one discussion that maintains the momentum to deliver on promises made.
Entrepreneur, Tamara Mellon, recently discussed her rise from the ashes following failure and filing for bankruptcy in 2016 on CBS. The former co-founder of the wildly successful shoe line, Jimmy Choo, spoke candidly about the cause of her defeat.
Mellon explained her vision was right, but the execution was wrong. She learned from her mistakes and started over…very successfully, I might add.
Mellon’s “right vision — wrong execution” plagues many entrepreneurs. Equally troublesome is a wrong vision or cloudy vision or no vision.
It’s challenging — at best — to craft a strategic plan based on the right vision. A plan based on a blurred or confused vision is unachievable (and scads of hard work).
Why do some skilled, gifted entrepreneurs struggle while other seemingly less talented, individuals succeed beyond your wildest dreams? It’s a real head scratcher — especially when hard work, time, and effort are feverishly invested.
Interestingly, academic research identified how entrepreneurs can consistently improve performance, exceed, and succeed, much like their sports and music counterparts.
Turns out, wild success is less an issue of luck, talent, or hard work and more a matter of focused learning and deliberate practice.
Good Enough, Smart Enough, and Talented Enough
Malcolm Gladwell, well-known author of Outliers, was the first to mention the “10,000 Hours Rule” which suggests greatness is achieved once 10,000 hours of practice is attained. The Beatles and Bill Gates were two examples of success used to make his point.
According to Gladwell, the amount of time the Beatles played music and Bill Gates “played” with computers shaped their success.
Although Mr. Gladwell does reference “deliberate” practice in Outliers, the original author of the study on “deliberate practice,” K. Andrews Ericsson, says Malcolm got it wrong. Spending 10 years, or 10,000 hours, working in your domain does not translate to high levels of performance and success.
What’s critical is “deliberate practice” — a scientific attention to specific improvement goals, a constant drive to move outside one’s comfort zone that is “generally not enjoyable,” and a good coach “to minimize the risk” of wasted, frustrated time.
Deliberate practice directly influences the capacity for entrepreneurs to excel and acquire the following:
Attainment of consistent high levels of performance
Greater capacity for processing and integrating new information
Multiplication of skills and capabilities
Adaptability to rapid and unpredictably change
Expansion of cognitive resources needed to accurately evaluate opportunities
It’s deliberate practice, not hard work, long hours, talents, giftedness, or intelligence that is the greatest magnifier of performance — and success.
Turns out, you really are smart enough, good enough, and talented enough to succeed. What you need is practice — deliberate, intentional, and strategic practice.
The Bare Necessities of Deliberate Practice
Not all forms of practice deliver the level of success most entrepreneurs crave. Practice, as academia demonstrates, must be deliberate.
Two well-respected entrepreneurship researchers, Robert A. Baron and Rebecca A. Henry, outline key elements of deliberate practice — beyond 10,000 hours — to include:
Focus and concentration. Expanding the capacity to exceed is mentally demanding. Therefore, one must be fully absorbed in the task at hand. No multitasking and interruptions, please!
Strengthen weaknesses. Thought-leaders tout the benefits of bolstering one’s strengths. Research experts disagree. Continuing to develop strengths does very little to influence performance. Much like a bodybuilding ends up with bigger biceps when focused only on biceps (vs. reshaping their entire body), an entrepreneur fixated on strengths does little to improve performance. Embrace your weaknesses!
Duration. Gladwell “sorta” got this right. Research concludes the accumulated benefits of deliberate practice are attained in 10+ years — not 10,000 hours. Let’s not give up too soon!
Repetition. Sustained levels of performance are acquired through recurrence and replication. “Dripping water hollows out stone, not through force but through persistence.” —Ovid, Roman poet
Continuous feedback loop. Analysis and insight gained from tasks, metrics, and/or others provide objectivity for making the right kinds of improvement.
Pre-performance preparation. The capacity to excel includes establishing appropriate goals and the process required to reach the predetermined goals. In other words, strategic thinking and planning is a must!
Self-reflection and observation. Rather than rushing from one achievement to another, deliberate practice followed by objectively noting behaviors, outcomes, emotions, and reactions, amplifies future performance.
Post-performance reflection. A “post-mortem” after sustained periods of deliberate practice provides insight into the correlation between levels of performance and goal realization. This analysis produces strategies for future improvement of performance.
Like an engine firing on all cylinders, the elements of deliberate practice shift you from merely doing to succeeding. Or, as someone once asked me, “Do you have one year of experience success repeated 10X or do you have 10 years of experience success?”
Breaking Free: You Have Options
What’s an entrepreneur to do? There’s good news! You have choices available to enhance your success beyond adding more hours to your already jam packed work week.
Go it alone. This is a strategy many talented, intelligent, gifted entrepreneurs have tried with little success. Although it’s not a strategy we recommend, it is an option.
Engage in periods of focused deliberate practice. Whether you go it alone or involve a colleague, employ the elements of deliberate practice listed above.
Contract with a coach. Since its infancy, coaching has incorporated many of the basics of deliberate practices into its core competencies.
Transfer resources developed in other domains to entrepreneurship. Deliberate practice in sports, music, and creative writing, for instance, can be transmitted to business success. (Looks like that marathon training may pay off after all.)
Join a mastermind group. Collaboration is rapidly becoming the new way to achieving success more quickly — for a variety of reasons. From accountability to accelerating entrepreneurial learning to focused practice, mastermind groups, particularly when facilitated by an experienced coach, is the most effective method for creating opportunities for deliberate practice.
Are you ready to increase your chances for success? It won’t be easy following the principles of deliberate practice. It’s tough work! But let’s face it, what has been done thus far hasn’t been exactly living the dream.
Charles Darwin once said, “It is not the strongest of the species that survives, nor the most intelligent that survives. It is the one most adaptable to change.”
If there was ever a time to be adaptable to change it is NOW. Driven by digital transformation, no one can rest on his or her laurels.
A major component to adaptability is a commitment to lifelong learning. Incorporating it into an already busy schedule is a primary challenge for many small business owners.
Learning On-The-Job Falls Short
Did you know that some of the most successful business owners do not have a formal education? They are who author, Michael Gerber, talked about in The E-myth: masters of their crafts.
We are business coaches, accountants, therapists, designers, and attorneys who have parlayed out skills and expertise into a small business. Minus an MBA, our learning for budgeting, marketing, and operations (for starters) has been on-the-job.
On-the-job training served us well for a period of time. Nonetheless, with the ever-increasing pace of change, new times call for new methods. We can no longer wait for “learning opportunities” to pop up during our day-to-day operations.
What is needed to keep pace with change is a system for learning.
Learning at the Speed of Information
One of the biggest barriers to learning is access to the right information, especially when you consider the amount of information created daily. In a recent documentary entitled, “A Closer Look at the Human Face of Big Data,” PBS quantified the avalanche of information we face daily.
During the first day of a baby’s life, the amount of data generated by humanity is equivalent to 70 times the information contained in the Library of Congress.
Every two days the human race is now generating as much data as was generated from the dawn of humanity through 2003.
We are exposed to as much information in a day as our 15th century ancestors were exposed to in a lifetime.
Given this report, it’s easy to see why many small business owners struggle with keeping up with all that is changing. Staying relevant, in order to keep your business growing, has its many benefits — and is no longer optional.
Those committed to life-long learning note it’s many advantages, including
feeling more capable and well rounded
opening up new perspectives
making new friends by expanding their network
feeling more connected
How to Develop a Lifelong Learning System
Randall Stephenson, the AT&T CEO and Chair, recently told the New York Times, “There is a need to retool yourself, and you should not expect to stop…People who do not spend five to 10 hours a week in online learning will obsolete themselves with the technology.”
Long before Mr. Stephenson touted the importance of 5–10 hours of weekly learning, Ben Franklin, one of the most prolific inventors of our time, demonstrated the rewards of such a practice.
History tells us that Ben Franklin arose an hour earlier each day to read and write. He blocked out this time for reflection, improvement, growth, and learning. He tracked his personal and professional goals and turned his ideas into experiments and inventions. His learning was deliberate, intentional, and systematic.
Here are four steps to guide the development of an intentional life-long learning system akin to Ben Franklin’s:
Know your learning style.
Each of us has a different way in which we learn best. Some people prefer to interact with information by reading and writing. Auditory learners learn best by hearing information. Visual learners retain information best when it’s presented in a visual manner through graphs or pictures. Finally, experiential learners learn best through hands-on experience.Understanding your ideal learning style helps you choose the medium, style, or platform that works best for you.
Understand the time available to dedicate to learning.
Ben Franklin dedicated himself to five hours of learning each week. Others, like Bill Gates, have successfully followed his lead.It can be daunting to set aside five hours per week for personal and professional learning – until you realize that the average person spends 50 minutes each day on Facebook and five hours every day watching TV.
Understand your drive to learn.
Be clear on your intended outcome. (Having a goal is how adults learn best.) Avoid cerebral snacking by answering the question “why” beyond “read this book” to make your time count.Someone once asked me, “Do you have one year experience repeated 10X or do you have 10 years of experience?”
Learning with purpose ensures your experiences — and success — grow each year.
Collaborate and cooperate to expedite learning.
Given the massive amount of information being produced every day, it is not possible to have all of the best information on a particular subject readily available to you.One of the quickest learning practices is to get involved in a mastermind group. Surrounded by like-minded business owners, you can absorb the experiences of others and accelerate your learning objective.
Open Your Mind and Say Ahhhhh…
If committing time to lifelong learning feels like it’s “one more thing to do,” you can also follow Josh Waitzkin’s lead. Instead of squeezing his days to maximize productivity, he creates slack in each day. His daily “empty space” is done purposefully. The extra slack in his schedule allows him to learn, create, and perform at a higher level.
Whether you’re more inclined to use the Franklin or Waitzkin’s method, doesn’t matter. The important thing is to be intentional in developing your system to become a life-long learner.
Accountability within a small business is more important than ever before. With the ever-increasing complexity in the day-to-day running of a business, staying on track to the successful conclusion of a goal is a challenge.
Accountability is an interesting phenomenon. Many of us launched out on our own to avoid the unrealistic expectations of others to hold us accountable (among a few other reasons). Now, as the boss, holding ourselves accountable is difficult.
Although small business owners love the notion of “going with the flow,” we do have built-in accountabilities. For instance, there are tasks and activities that require our attention that are non-negotiable. Employees, service providers, clients, regulatory bodies…all hold us accountable to meet our obligations.
Who holds the small business owner accountable to themselves and their success? Often times, the most critical activities of strategic thinking, planning, and the implementation of goals and plans to a successful conclusion are placed on the back burner.
3 Roadblocks to Accountability
Beyond the traditional “I’ll get to it when I have time” approach, a few other aspects influence our ability to be accountable to our success. These include…
Clearly defined results are missing. Beyond stating the specific results you hope to achieve in your business, it’s equally important to have a clear plan for how your results will be achieved.
Vision is neglected and/or ill defined. There’s a Chinese proverb that says, “A (wo)man who chases two rabbits catches neither.” A hazy vision contributes to distractions and derailments.
Conflict lives within oneself. Ahhh, yes! The proverbial argument a small business owner has with himself or herself can be quite the stumbling block. Whether there’s a disconnect between beliefs and desired results or a conflict between current knowledge and expertise and missing skills, these internals battles stand firmly in the way of success.
The Accountability System
As a business coach, one of the most common phrases I hear is, “I need someone to hold me accountable.” Seldom is it “someone” we need to hold us accountable, but rather it is a system of accountability. A system that we are accountable to and that is equally accountable to us in supporting our success.
Here is how you can set up an accountability system in your small business:
Mindset: The mindset of accountability embraces the conviction that the majority of your success is up to you. It is your choice, your action, and your behavior that contributes directly to your success.
You own your goals, your success, and your failure based on your mindset.
Skill set: The skill set of accountability begins with the artful ability to sketch a clear vision of the results you seek. Combined with the ability to set SMART goals and sensibly crafted plans, you’re sure to cultivate a winning combination.
Structure: The structure of accountability allows you to prioritize business growth rather than procrastinate, to be proactive rather than reactive, to focus, and fend off those pesky distractions that seem to undermine the best laid plans.
Besides being proven to improve performance, accountability in your small business is the linchpin for accelerating growth. It’s as much as an inside game as it is an outside game…especially once you have your accountability system.
Synnovatia is a strategic coaching firm that is detailed and knowledgeable about business. i have a small business that grew from $150K to $750K because of the goal setting and resources that Synnovatia provided. It saves me years of learning on my own.
Once you know that you know that you know…that’s where the real magic begins. The direction is clear. Action is decisive. Progress ensues. Vacillation dissolves. Priorities emerge effortlessly.
And then the day begins.
Not all forms of practice deliver the level of success most entrepreneurs crave. Practice, as academia demonstrates, must be deliberate.
As a 