What You'll Discover In This Episode:
Have you ever heard the phrase all or nothing, now or never? Perhaps not or at least not in those exact words. But most likely, that mentality shows up a lot in your business, in ways that limit your growth and hold you back from accomplishing your goals.
Here’s an example…
Say you would love to move to a four day work week and start your weekend on Friday. You daydream about how that would allow you to finally get all of those pesky house projects done. Have more pool days with your kids. Go to lunch with your friends. Maybe enjoy a few spa days, read some books, or just take the long naps you’ve needed since you graduated college.
You give it a thought. Can I take Fridays off? Well, no. I have far too much to do on Fridays. Somebody’s gotta run the business and pay the bills.
So, you tuck that dream right back into the treasure chest of forgotten dreams you gave up on, right between become a rockstar and win the lottery.
But see what just happened there? You gave up on your goal quickly because you only gave yourself two options: take Fridays off or don’t Fridays off. And that’s what the all or nothing, now or never mentality does. It limits your thinking to only black and white, and holds you back from seeing the expansive gray area between the two options.
Taking every Friday off can’t be your reality right now but what about taking off one Friday each month? Or working only a half-day two Fridays per month? Or simply stop working two hours early every Friday?
Could one of those options work to give you back some time for your home projects, relationship, and self-care? You bet! It’s not the eight hours you’d love to gain every Friday but it’s a start. You can’t lose 15 pounds overnight. You can’t 10x your revenue in a week. You can’t take every Friday off… at least for now. Reaching every goal is about taking steps in the right direction and not giving up on the goal!
As Desmond Tutu once wisely said, “There is only one way to eat an elephant: a bite at a time.” What he means is everything in life that seems daunting, overwhelming, and even impossible can be accomplished gradually by taking on just a little at a time. If you choose to be productive throughout your week, down the line you could take off every Friday without your absence negatively impacting your business.
For now, though, seek that right next step in the gray area, which is only visible if you make a paradigm shift away from the all or nothing, now or never mentality that’s holding you back.
In this episode of Productivity Straight Talk, I dive into that way of thinking and flush out how changing that mentality can greatly serve you and your business by helping you make progress in the gray area which stands between where you are now and where you want to be in relation to your goals.
