Do You Follow Your Own Best Advice?
Reading another book or listening to another tape isn't really going to help because it's usually not the knowing that's the challenge, but the doing. We get caught up in our routines and our chaos and forget about what we know we ought to be doing.
Most of us don't even follow our own best advice.
I had an epiphany moment a few weeks ago when I realized that I wasn't following my own best advice. I coach other people all the time on how to grow their business, how to stay organized, how to build their network, and a whole lot of other things, and I give some pretty good advice, or so I've been told.
Then why am I not following it myself?
Sure, I'm following some of it, or I wouldn't have gotten as far as I have. But I'm not nearly as consistent as I'd like to be. Are you? Consistency is a tremendous challenge for entrepreneurs because often so little in our life is consistent.
So I decided I needed some help reminding myself to follow my own best advice. Here's what I've started doing:
- I set a weekly reminder for myself in Outlook with the subject, "Are you following your own best advice?"
- In the notes for the event, I've started putting in some of my own best advice that I frequently find I forget, starting with last week's tip, Don't Prioritize Your Schedule, Schedule Your Priorities, and another one of my favorites, "A project isn't complete until it's working for you rather than you working for it."
- Each week when the notice comes up, I spend a few minutes to reflect on the list, what's going on in my life and in my business, and how I can put my own advice into action this week.
- As I think of more pearls of wisdom throughout the week, I just add them to my notes on that event.
Comments
It really does take courage to move out of the comfort zone and set up your own business. I have an amazing business plan and have been asked why am i not doing it? Good question. I busy myself with reading, research and planning but forget to do the practical. I have started now and am terrified yet excited, but i do know one thing, when you set your goals out you must just go for it or else you’ll never know if you would have achieved them. It will always play on your mind. There are no excuses, only the ones we make for ourselves.
I’m with you on this! What I did when I realized I was getting jammed up was to make smaller monthly goals. (I used the Getting Things Done approach to the “next action” on big goals.) I wrote them down on index cards and now I read them every morning to remind myself. It’s the only thing that helps me. Small goals. And then congratulating myself for reaching them. Anyway, thanks for the post!