At the close of 2023, you may be elated, neutral or downright discouraged with your venture’s progress. This post is for those who find themselves more often in the last 2 buckets of “blah.” The more we stay in “blah” the more we strengthen that brain circuit of negativity.
What can you do to weaken that circuit of negativity and, instead, strengthen the circuit of doing and possibility?
Create your personal manifesto. It is a statement of commitment. Complete these sentences and post them in a place to reinforce your “WHY.” Visit your manifesto every morning to reinforce your intention to take action. Read it aloud or silently. You may record it and play it as you prepare for your day. Speak it aloud to others as a way of holding you accountable to your commitment.
My purpose in doing the work, including the boring, tedious stuff is to___________.
My mission is to___________.
I have taken on this challenge because____________.
I have to give myself credit for____________.
My response to the inner critic is to ____________.
I’ll be kind to myself by _________________.
I’ll reward myself for meeting today’s challenges by____________.
Before I go to bed tonight, I will assess my progress and how I can improve tomorrow. I will visualize my best self, working through tomorrow’s challenges with vigor.
Some people rely on external reinforcers to make big things happen. Others look internally ─ they pray, journal, or talk to themselves. Your personal manifesto is a powerful combination of all three. Give it a try.
Share your entrepreneurial conundrums with The COREageous Entrepreneur family of subscribers. Email me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com. I will post my solutions.
New founders often find themselves awash in a sea of concerns: revenue growth, hiring, firing, funding, family responsibilities, and lots more all at once. It feels like a murky mess. During the course of a day these concerns swirl around in your head while new tasks get added to the mix. Overwhelmed and at a standstill, you’re exhausted, and the clock keeps ticking.
Here’s a solution:
I’m a big fan of time blocking/boxing as a visual way to plan your week. “Compartmentalizing” takes time blocking one step further. It is a process of separating conflicting concerns into different mental “compartments” to manage them separately. This is a helpful coping strategy for getting concerns out of your head and on paper. Compartmentalizing concerns is helpful to your mental well-being, particularly in situations where emotions or worry take hold.
Each area of concern can be a compartment. For example, let’s take “funding your enterprise” as a compartment. Compartmentalizing involves breaking down the larger issue of securing funding into smaller, more manageable components. Carve out a block of time in your calendar for each component:
Clearly defining the amount of funding required and the specific purposes for which the funds will be used.
Example: Break down the funding needs into categories such as product development, marketing, and operational costs. This will provide a clearer picture of where the funds will be allocated.
Research different funding sources and methods available to startups.
Example: Divide this task into exploring traditional funding options (e.g., venture capital, loans) and alternative methods (crowdfunding, accelerators). This helps in understanding the pros and cons of each option.
Build a Pitch Deck:
Example: Break down the pitch deck creation into sections such as problem statement, solution, market opportunity, financial projections, and team introduction. This makes the process more manageable and ensures each aspect is well thought out.
Focus on building relationships with potential investors.
Example: Divide this task into smaller activities like attending networking events, reaching out to mentors, and participating in industry conferences. Each activity contributes to building a network that could eventually lead to funding opportunities.
Develop a detailed financial plan.
Example: Break down financial planning into creating a budget, forecasting revenue, and outlining key financial metrics. This allows you to focus on one aspect at a time, ensuring a comprehensive and well-thought-out financial strategy.
By breaking down a compartment into smaller, manageable components and assigning specific times to address them you can make progress on multiple compartments in a more organized and efficient way.
Need one-on-one help compartmentalizing? Contact me at Rebecca@MIndfulCommunication.com. Visit www.MindfulCommunication.com.
Happy Thanksgiving to all! I’m kicking off the holiday season with a topic we can all relate to. Could better business decision-making make a more successful 2023-24 for you?
My client, RJ, sorely needed to hire an administrative assistant (AA). He decided to take charge of this task on his own.
Two weeks later, RJ reached out for help having made no progress. “What got in the way?” I asked.
His response included a host of the usual culprits ─ the tendencies that conspire for many of us when making important decisions. They included:
Overthinking. RJ was conflicted. He spent his time collecting online articles about what makes a good AA, how to manage an AA or how to manage himself instead.
Fear. He discovered several articles about AAs who stole an employer’s money and resources. The potential costs of detectives, lawyers and court time further stunted progress.
Avoidance. In addition to the above, as an introvert, he dreaded the hassles of interviewing so many people and wasting time on poor candidates.
Perfectionist tendencies. His expectations were a bit too lofty for the money he was willing to spend on an AA.
Poor sleep. RJ often stayed up well past midnight trying to be his own AA. Consequently, after several weeks of too little sleep, he was irritable and more indecisive than usual.
4 Step Business Decision Making Process
Therefore, we created a basic 4 step business decision-making process that he could adapt for future decision-making. Together, we:
gathered the essential facts. As the research suggests, when making decisions ─ less data is more.
narrowed down the job description to a short list of absolutes: duties, specific qualifications, experience, salary requirements, in-person vs. remote, etc. This would save interview time.
discussed the short-term and long-term advantages for making a “good” versus a “perfect” decision and why to make it soon. RJ had many projects coming up and was becoming increasingly disorganized with current tasks.
got the process out of his head and down on paper. We drew a pros and cons table for the interviews. We listed the absolutes in the column on the left and spaces for the applicants’ names across the top. We left a few rows open for bonus features a candidate may offer such as “willing to work on weekends” or “does errands.”
RJ agreed to post the job immediately, knowing that he could amend the description if needed.
The happy ending: By the end of the week, RJ had spoken to five candidates who met the very specific job description. In a manner of minutes, the table made it easy to narrow it down to two applicants who were the best fit for the job. Knowing how another decision could lead to overthinking, RJ gave way to his gut instincts and made his choice.
Some business decisions are easier or more difficult to make than RJ’s. Nevertheless, getting the process down on paper reduces the emotional and cognitive overload resulting in faster and more efficient decision-making.
I am grateful for your queries and your requests for solutions to the perplexing executive functioning problems many founders face. Send them to me at Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com. Watch for solutions in future blog posts. Visit my website at www.MindfulCommunication.com
I apologize for my silence in the last couple of months ─ lots of end-of-summer visitors and a short vacation of my own. The good news is that despite my blogging lapse, there are many new subscribers and new CoreCoachees!
There’s more good news, as the photo indicates. I’ve been diligently working on my next book: The COREageous Entrepreneur: The Four Core Skills and Routines Every Founder Needs to Succeed. I’ve been working at it for a few years now, accumulating evidence and testing out my thesis.
My aim in writing this book (and this blog) is to reduce the startup failure rate, which, depending on the industry, is approximately 80%! With about 5 million founders starting up businesses in the U.S. every year. That failure rate is unacceptable and avoidable, based on my research and experience.
According to the U.S. Bureau of Labor Statistics:
20-50% of startups fail within the first year.
50-70% of startups fail by the fifth year.
Only about 30% of startups succeed by the tenth year.
Certainly, there are external factors a founder cannot control: economic conditions, industry changes, funding availability and pandemics. Conversely, the internal factors that contribute to startup failure include: mental health conditions, ineffective communication skills, lack of focus, failure to execute, poor leadership and dysfunctional teams. These factors are within a founder’s control ─ they are skill-based.
There is preventative and practical work a founder can do to reduce the risk of failure in a smart, affordable and timely way. I’ll report more details (including a webinar!) as I take next steps towards publication.
I’m back to posting, so Stay COREageous and send your questions, comments and conundrums my way! Rebecca@MindfulCommunication.com. Visit my website at MindfulCommunication.com.
If you read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW, you may recall an exercise where he gave pagers to participants and instructed them to record their feelings and activities whenever the pager went off randomly throughout the day. The participants were asked to note down what they were doing, how they were feeling, and their overall sense of enjoyment and engagement in the activity.
I suggest this exercise for my clients with clear task deadlines who are challenged by distraction. I advise them to set random alarms when they need to get some serious work done.
Once they have a plan for the task, they set 4 random alarms to go off during a 3-4 hour period of work time. The objective is to not be caught off task when the alarm goes off. If you do get caught watching the news when the alarm goes off, then it’s a reminder to re-direct you back to the task.
You are competing with yourself to be on task each and every time that alarm sounds.You can also set an alarm for every 20 or 30 minutes during that 3-4 hour work period. How much quality work can you complete in a 20 or 30 minute span of time?
You can create a random alarm experience on both iPhone and Android phones. Here’s how you can do it on each platform:iPhone:
Open the Clock app on your iPhone.
Tap on the “Alarm” tab at the bottom of the screen.
Tap on the “+” button to create a new alarm.
Set the desired time for the alarm by scrolling through the hours and minutes.
Tap on “Repeat” to configure the repeat settings.
Select “Custom” from the repeat options.
Tap on the days of the week to enable or disable them as per your preference.
Set multiple alarms with different times and repeat patterns to create a random alarm effect.
Android:
Open the Clock app on your Android phone. The exact app name and location may vary depending on the device manufacturer and Android version.
Tap on the “Alarms” or “Clock” tab, usually located at the bottom of the screen.
Tap on the “+” or “Add” button to create a new alarm.
Set the desired time for the alarm.
Look for the option to set the repeat pattern (e.g., daily, weekdays, weekends).
If your device has a “Custom” or “Advanced” option for repeat settings, select that.
Adjust the days or intervals to create a random alarm effect by enabling or disabling the desired days.
If you want more spicy ways to get things done, done well and on time, visit my website at MindfulCommunication.com.
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My client, RJ, sorely needed to hire an administrative assistant (AA). He decided to take charge of this task on his own.
I’ve been diligently working on my next book: The COREageous Entrepreneur: The Four Core Skills and Routines Every Founder Needs to Succeed. I’ve been working at it for a few years now, accumulating evidence and testing out my thesis.
If you read Mihaly Csikszentmihalyi’s book FLOW, you may recall an exercise where he gave pagers to participants and instructed them to record their feelings and activities whenever the pager went off randomly throughout the day. The participants were asked to note down what they were doing, how they were feeling, and their overall sense of enjoyment and engagement in the activity.
"It takes more than courage to be an Entrepreneur, it takes CORE."