5. Staying the Course
Don’t be too hard on yourself if you don’t make the progress you wanted on a certain timeline, just keep going. You should not be discouraged by little setbacks. If you get a little sidetracked or even stall out sometimes, it’s perfectly natural, and bound to happen. Pick yourself up, and get back on the path. It’s more than many are doing.
Have regular meetings with yourself to check in and check progress on how you are doing. Be proud of what you have accomplished and keep trying to be better each day, each week.
Always try to give yourself a little reward for getting something important accomplished, or set up the reward in the beginning as part of your motivation to follow through and finish a project. Recognize even the small successes!
Know that your vision or goals may not turn out exactly as planned on paper, either. It doesn’t work that way. Your priorities will change, your necessities will change, and your circumstances will change. But that’s not a reason or excuse to not to strive and try to build a better business and life for yourself. Some things may go better than expected, some not as well. But it’s better than sitting where you’re at and settling for less than you deserve.
Another thing to consider is that people - no smarter or richer or more important than yourself - have built very successful businesses. I’m not talking about overnight successes - the business “lottery winners” where everything blew up and made them instantly rich. I am talking about the many, many quietly successful people that worked hard, learned and adapted, reset and tried again until they got it right. Be like that.
Having a business can be very rewarding; but it can also be very stressful as you well know. The point is that it’s your business and you can change it, set it up, reboot and improve it at will to make it what you want it to be.
Try to enjoy what you do while you work on these time management and productivity challenges and stay positive while you are adapting the new habits and using the new skills you’ve learned.