Moving from a hobbyist entrepreneur to a CEO of your business is not easy but a necessary shift to take your business to the next level. The following change you need to make is becoming a high achiever. In other words, learning to effectively maximizing the time you have to work smarter, not harder, to achieve more in less time, to reach your goals and more without burning yourself out.
And this is what we’re talking about today, week 3 of the entrepreneurial roller coaster series. Just think of any role model entrepreneur in your industry you look up to. They didn’t achieve success by luck or without hard work. They made it possible through hard and strategic work performed overtime consistently. They became high achievers.
That’s why today, I’m sharing with you five powerful tips to help you become a high-achieving entrepreneur, just like your role models.
1. Stay connected to Your Vision
The high achievers not only have a Vision for themselves and their business but are also deeply connected with it. They ensure that any critical decisions about their business align with the Vision, which in turn allows them to pick the most effective strategies (marketing, offering, structure, growth opportunities) and align their execution part as well.
As a result, they achieve the following:
- Laser focus and ability to overcome the “shiny object syndrome” distractions;
- They don’t feel overwhelmed or paralyzed by too many options on which way to go in their business
- They accomplish A LOT more with the same amount of time you have and consequently create incredible results.
Now that you know that think about you. Do you have a vision for your business? Is everything you do in it align with it? Do you see the results you want to see? If you’ve answered no to any of these questions, then it’s time to create something different. It’s time to pause and do this one foundational thing: align with and stay connected to your Vison.
To help you, I prepared a great and free Clarity & Focus training. It’ll walk you step by step on how to create your Vision and align your values, mission, and goals with it. Click here and get going on a journey of a high-achieving CEO.
2. Challenge Yourself with Setting Ambitious Goals
Ambitious can mean different things to different people, and there are a lot of theories on how far a goal should go. My take on it is that your long-term goals should be VERY ambitious, something that makes you quite uncomfortable.
However, as you break down your goals to smaller chunks: this year, this quarter, this month – each one should be stretching past your current abilities but at the same time not paralyzing you through its magnitude.
It’s why working with the coach is so beneficial to most people. A coach pushes you more than you’d ever push yourself and holds you accountable to it. They also provide support in building the right habits and structure making sure you stay committed and consistent. No wonder most people get much better results and achieve their goals faster when they partner up with a good coach.
3. Build Routines and Habits that Make the Execution of Goals Easier
What helps me with ensuring that I write this blog every week? Grow my business while working a demanding corporate leadership job? Raise my kids and excel at an on-line executive MBA?
It’s all possible because of good habits and routines that support my goals. Let me illustrate this with a health goal example: if you reduce your soda intake by only one pop a day and replace it with water, you could lose about 15 lb n a year! Isn’t that amazing? Without harsh exercising but only a minimal diet change, you can lose 15 lb. Such is the power of small good habits performed consistently. And you’ll see the benefits of that in any area of your life, business included.
Structuring your days so that you don’t need to waste time and energy, making decisions about every little thing makes it easier to maximize the time you have for your business. We all have 24/7/365. We all need to sleep, eat, and have time for loved ones and ourselves. There is only so much time each of us has for pursuing our business goals. High achieving athletes, CEO’s or artists ensure to maximize this time with value-added activities, work that is not a distraction but a vessel bringing them closer to their Vision.
4. Invest in Your Personal Development
I’m passionate about self-development, so maybe I’m biased. But I’ve seen the positive changes investment and dedication to it made on many other people and me. If you study Olympics athletes, all successful CEOs, artists, or entrepreneurs, you’ll realize they all invest in themselves enormously.
Why? Here are three critical reasons from your business perspective:
✅ If you grow, your business grows. For one thing, it’s impossible to move your business to the next level if you, don’t move to the next level first. It’s like planting all your seeds in the garden and then expecting them to grow without watering them. The water for your business is your creativity, innovative ideas, relationships, organization, and leadership. You need a tap to take if from, and that tap is constant self-development.
✅ When you improve as a person, your relationships improve as well. Here I’m talking not only business relationships with your clients or suppliers but also your partners, employees, and the loved ones around you. In other words, as you develop your leadership skills, such as listening, communication, conflict resolution, self-management, team development, etc. they will, by all means, have a tremendous positive impact on your personal life as well.
✅ Personal development is a huge time saver. The better you become at any given skill, the less time it takes you to do things. It’s how you save tones of time so that you move on to the next thing and grow even more.
5. Have Fun
Marc Anthony said it best: If you do what you love, you’ll never work a day in your life.
I’m assuming you became an entrepreneur to do what you love. But I also know that it’s very easy to get tangled up in day-to-day busyness and fire fighting. If you lose the fun, passion, and joy from what you do every day, you’ll also lose creativity, ideas for improvement, and innovation that keep your business competitive.
So don’t forget about FUN. Do you have enough fun every day? How often do you laugh?
As you create structure, routines, and habits, fun needs to have a place in here alongside with rest. All of this and laughter will recharge you and give you the energy to deal with challenges.
Final Thoughts
The trick to achievement and making any positive change in your business is not just knowledge but doing. The fact that you read my blog and know more now than you did 5 minutes ago isn’t going to bring any benefits if you just leave it at that. That’s why the coaching model I developed to help my clients grow their business has three steps: DREAM-PLAN-DO. All important for high achievement: Vision, mindset, strategy, but DOING is what makes it happen. If you’re curious to know more about how my model can help your business rise to new heights or need help in the “doing” department, click here to schedule a free consult with me. Let’s talk!
