Spring Clean Your Way to Success

This article appears in the Sep/Oct 2016 issue of Business Franchise Australia & New Zealand

“If you do what you’ve always done. You will get what you’ve always gotten.”

We’ve heard Tony Robbins say it, and many others before him including Mark Twain, Henry Ford and Albert Einstein.

In fact if you were at one of my events earlier this year you would have heard me saying it to a full house of business owners. Saying the words and even hearing or reading the words are one thing, but what do they actually mean and how can you change things up a bit if you’re not happy with your current results or you would like to shake things up, drive your business forward and get the results you deserve.

As human beings, we are creatures of habit and unless we make a continual conscious decision to do things differently and make a commitment to taking consistent actions towards what it is we want, it’s no wonder many business owners become stuck, are working harder than ever before and are frustrated with slow or no real progress.

Every year just before Spring hits, many of us find the urge to purge. Known as spring cleaning, it’s about clearing out the old to make way for the new. We all know how good it feels to spring clean our home, but when it comes to our business or our personal life, it’s not something that really takes priority. We all know the benefits of spring cleaning and the spiritual gurus and feng shui experts insist we would all be far better off if we put ourselves first, cleared, rested and restored our mind, body and spirit. The challenge is not many have made a commitment to actually doing it and sticking to it.

This new financial year I made the decision to do things a little differently. First I was to start the new financial year off with a well-deserved holiday. Alone. Yes that’s right. The purpose was to completely “spring clean” my mind and restore and recharge my batteries. Whilst many a business owner was frantic, worrying about financial year end and roll over into the new financial year, I was walking along the coastline of the Sunshine Coast of Australia. Reading, walking, even having cat naps. Did I do a lot of thinking? Of course I did. This week was exactly what I  needed to lay some new foundations for what my team and I will be working to achieve over the coming twelve months. Now you may not be able to take a week off right now however I would encourage you to schedule your breaks away (even if they are just short breaks) for the next 12 months and make them a priority. Make you a priority and not just your business.

Let’s explore some great practices that that can be easily integrated into your business and your life that will help you go from surviving to thriving in no time.

Rejuvenate, Regenerate, Restore.

I’m often amazed at how much “time off” successful entrepreneurs have each year. I’ve been lucky enough to spend time with many and the secret to much of their success is how much time they allocate to restoring and recharging their own batteries and spending quality time with the family.

#SuccessTip: Schedule your holidays for the year first then fit your business priorities around you. You will be surprised at how much you can still achieve in the year and you get to balance it with some time off too.

Time to Reset Your Mindset.

I’ve heard some people of late claiming to be business growth experts and suggesting it’s not about mindset it’s all about the model. I have to disagree. No matter how many systems and frameworks you have in place to follow, if you don’t have the right attitude and mindset you simply won’t be putting your best foot forward every day or worse still you won’t be putting any foot forward at all. Take some time to do a quick mindset check right now.

How are you feeling right now? Are you consumed with positive or negative self-talk? Do you find yourself blaming and  complaining more or are you the opposite?

Creating a new mindset for success is about creating new thoughts, habits and new behaviours. Before you can create new thoughts, habits and behaviours you must be first aware of your most dominant thoughts, habits and behaviours. Awareness gives you choice and it’s choice that empowers you to take whatever actions are needed to make long lasting change.

#SuccessTip: Start being aware of your current thoughts, habits and behaviours. Be honest with yourself about the automatic negative thoughts and self-talk that are possibly holding you back. Stop telling yourself stories, that something in your life today is preventing you from  achieving what you want tomorrow.

It’s all in your head. Start to make new choices. Change old beliefs with new ones. Take new consistent actions. Repeat this for a few weeks and see the change it makes.

Adopt New Daily Rituals.

Now I’m not getting all spiritual on you however maybe I need to. Studies show that if you meditate for a minimum of 30 minutes in the morning before you do anything else you will be more productive, feel more energised and have more clarity on working on purpose. If you’re like most business owners, myself included until just recently, your morning routine may start off with waking up and looking at your iPhone and checking Facebook, social media or your emails.

#SuccessTip: Own your morning. Don’t start in reaction. Most open their eyes and before they even get out of bed they reach for their phone. Don’t let this be you. If you’re jumping into your inbox you’re diving into a day of other people’s agendas. Decide on your morning ritual/s. It could be writing in a gratitude journal, exercising, meditating, improving your mindset, skillset or action set or whatever you choose. Just choose something that serves and support you.

Remove yourself from toxic relationships and get yourself a coach or a mentor.

The people we surround ourselves with have a dramatic influence on our success, so much so it’s absolutely necessary that you remove the toxic people from your life. Never allow bitching, moaning and groaning in your business and your life. When you close the door to the disempowering and negative stuff you will be surprised at how fast things shift for you. l also recommend you find a peer network to support you in achieving your dreams and more importantly you’ve got to have a coach or a mentor. A mentor, a coach or a friend must be someone who accepts a no excuses mentality. Someone who won’t let you be a victim, someone who holds you to a higher standard and won’t let you slip off course to achieving your dreams and goals.

Get Focused and Raise Your Ambitions.

You can’t be productive unless you’re motivated and you can’t be motivated unless you raise your ambitions and unless you have a clear vision of what you want to achieve. What keeps most business owners stuck and just surviving is they don’t have a strong enough and compelling enough why. Even if they do they don’t know how to attain it. So get planning, stay focused and on task and you will achieve more than you ever thought possible.

#SuccessTip:
• Wherever you’re at – don’t limit yourself where you are going or what you are wanting to achieve.
• Choose to generate the results you want in your life – no great accomplishment ever came from a small vision.
• You don’t have to start out big you just have to be big enough to start.
• You don’t have to get great to start you just have to start to be great – Zig Ziglar.

Remove the Distractions.

A mentor of mine told me to be absolutely obsessive about this. Just get rid of the distractions and all of them! Achievers remove all the blocks and the distractions and they are very focused on what it is they want. Are you interested or just committed? If you haven’t heard my  definition before it’s worth repeating. Those who are interested will do what is convenient. Those who are committed will do whatever it takes. Which one are you?

#SuccessTip:
• Consume less news;
• Watch less tv;
• Stop spending so much time perusing social media;
• Use social media strategically – use it to contribute and to create;
• Stop consuming and spending time on meaningless things that are just filling up your life and taking you away from where you want to be;
• Remember the 4D’s of effective time management: Do it | Delegate it | Decide when | Dump it
• Journal, write and dream; and
• Ask yourself…Who must I become to move towards where I want to be?

Know you can achieve the business and life you want. It starts with setting your intentions, clearing out the clutter, the rubble, the toxicity and the distractions, adopting new thoughts, behaviours and actions and of course making a commitment to do whatever it takes to stay on course. Lastly, be inspired, be empowered, take action and have an awesome day.

Tania Allen helps small business owners maximise potential. She is the founder of Vision Alliance & www.taniaallen.com.

If you are interested in learning more about how you can implement these strategies into your business and fast track your success contact Tania today:

1300 76 49 20 | +61 419 481203
tania@vision-alliance.com
www.visionalliance.com.au