Often times when we start building a business, we think that if what we are doing isn’t working, then it must not work. This is the furthest thing from the truth! If you have a dream in your heart or something you really want to achieve, you have to realize that it might take a really good amount of time to achieve. Nothing happens overnight and building your dreams might take years to fully accomplish. A wise mentor once told me,
“Be stubborn with your goals but remain fluid with your methods.”
I’m not trying to be discouraging, but far too often creative entrepreneurs will start things and if they don’t see results within six months, they quit. The problem with this, however, is they weren’t consistent for long enough to watch their goals fully take shape and come to fruition. When you have a goal that’s worth achieving, you have to decide to commit longterm and to NOT giving up until you get there.
When you decide to get stubborn about your goals, it means you are committed to digging in until you accomplish them, no matter what. Being fluid with your methods means you are willing to be FLEXIBLE with HOW you accomplish the goal, so long as it’s in line with your why and truly pushing you towards your end goal.
People lack consistency because daily it can be hard, tedious and just plain boring sometimes. It’s challenging to chip away at your goals for years. It’s often easier to feel like it’s not working and to give up. The problem is, most people give up WAY too soon! They give up right before a breakthrough, and then say “it didn’t work.” When in reality, they weren’t willing to work at it long enough to move past the breakthrough.
When you are consistent with your goals every single day, it builds an important foundation to your business. There are things you NEED to learn along the way to become the leader you are destined to be. But it takes a lot of consistency over time to build those lessons and to grow into the dreams that you have for yourself. Inconsistency breeds inaction. You need to commit to doing something- EVEN if it’s small- for your business every single day. Especially on days that you don’t want to!
So HOW can you stay consistent with your goals long enough to stay the course?
Here are a few quick tips that will help you stay consistent with your goals but also remain stubborn enough to achieve them:
Make sure your WHY is big enough.
When your why is big enough, there will be nothing that will stop you from achieving your goals. Create a dream board, use sticky notes, plaster reminders of your why all over your house and office. Keep it front and center so that you will constantly be reminded of where it is that you want to end up. Want to create a dream board? I LOVE this dream board kit that you can purchase with everything you need included. What a great place to start!
Commit to seeing it though to the end.
Easy in, easy out. If you don’t commit and decide to stay the course, what is keeping you there? As I’m building Stellar Day, I am crystal clear about what my goals are with my business and when the days are hard, I remind myself of what I committed to. I remind myself of my WHY. I’m committed to building this to the end, and for that reason, I won’t ever give up. Before you start, make a commitment and let your word be your bond.
Do something every day that will move your business forward.
As I coach business owners and the leaders inside my team, I teach them how to do a Power Hour. It’s single handedly the best advice I can give every single entrepreneur who might be wearing many hats. (And that’s ALL of us, most likely.) Some days you will have hours to run your business, others you’ll be pinched for time. Incorporating a Power Hour every day ensures that the fundamentals of your business are completed every day, and all within one hour max. I released a podcast covering this very topic, and you can listen to that episode HERE.
Make a list the night before.
Having a plan BEFORE the day begins is one way to ensure that you’ll actually get to work on your business. Making a plan is a simple way to stay organized and to enable you to dive right in on the tasks that need to get accomplished. Put your Power Hour tasks right at the top, then from there list out the things that you need to do in order of importance. Keep it all in one gorgeously designed place by using one of our favorite (and customizable!) planners by Erin Condren. It’s a joy to check out your to do list when your planner is this cute! And bonus, these are AFFORDABLE. Winning.
Have a morning routine.
A simple morning routine is one of the greatest ways that I am productive. My morning routines have had to be flexible through the past few months, but I DO have one that I put into action daily. It starts my day early, ahead of my family and puts me in the correct frame of mind to be a successful entrepreneur for the day. You can also check out THIS post that I did that details out why a morning routine is so important to me.
Accountability
It’s so important to allow others into your goals and dreams. I’m not suggesting that you let the whole world in, but find a few people who you trust to share what your dreams and goals are with. Accountability helps in so many ways. One of the greatest effects of sharing what your goals are with someone, is that you have to speak the words out loud or write them down. Spoken and written words are much more powerful than you realize, and can help us manifest the businesses that we want. Also, when you speak them out loud, you are inviting someone else to check in on your progress, which can only help each of us to keep going. Find someone you trust and share your dreams. It’s worth it!
Be flexible.
Be willing to change the methods inside your business that help it run. Be flexible with how you get to the end goal but commit to staying consistent and stubborn with the dreams you have. Then, don’t give up! Flexibility allows for creative freedom and when something doesn’t work, quitting isn’t the answer. The answer might just be that you need to make a few tweaks so your business can keep moving forward.
You are ultimately in control of staying the course even when it gets hard. Anything worth doing is going to have it’s challenges and may take a while to build. You deserve to not give up on yourself and to KEEP GOING! If anything, allow the fear of loss to propel you forward. What if you give up and always wonder what could have been? What if you keep going and achieve everything yo’ve ever dreamed?
Trust me. Being an entrepreneur is hard, but for those of us who get to reach our goals, it’s absolutely worth it! You deserve to keep going!
Make every day stellar!
Jess xo
