Five steps to better results in business (and life)

Everybody wants to get better results

Who doesn’t want to see more fruit on the tree from the seeds they sow?

If you’ve read Poke the Box, you know now is the time to start. Execute your idea. Launch your business. Make your life changes.

Mistakes don’t cost as much and are easier to overcome. The payoff is also bigger. The world is waiting for you to do something great.

Here are five steps to getting better results along the way:

1. Have a realistic timeframe

You’ve probably heard the saying, “Goals are dreams with an expiration date”. It’s easy to make the mistake of setting the expiration date too soon. Look at any great success story and it wasn’t built overnight. Give yourself realistic milestones you can hit, thereby raising your own belief. Seek out the council from mentors who can help you develop a plan with reasonable timeframes.

2. Be committed

Eliminate the “try” mentality (cue Yoda line). Give your endeavors focus and singleness of purpose. You can’t just go when convenient. Be committed in thoughts and actions. There is no problem that sustained thought and consistent effort won’t solve.

3. Disassociate with discouraging influences

Sometimes you need to get away from certain people. Toxic associations produce doubt and poison productivity. If you spend your time around people that tear you down, it affects your attitude and destroys your dream. Your dream is one of the most powerful forces on earth. Protect it.

4. Prepare for success

Begin with the end in mind. Imagine a point in the future when you have achieved the results you want. You got back in shape. You launched your business successfully. You secured VC capital for your startup. Now, look back and write what it took to get there. What resources, time, money, partners, etc., were in place to help you succeed? Start putting those things together. Prepare for the results to come.

5. Draw from past successes

When I played professional golf, one of the things I learned to do was visualize the past successes of the shot I was about to hit. You can do this too. Play a highlight reel in your head of when you faced a similar problem or took an action successfully. The more relevant of an experience you can remember, the better.

Hey, we all want to get more out of our efforts. It’s no fun being busy for the sake of it. Besides, now is the time to enterprise and create!

Have fun and enjoy the process.