Hello, fellow business owners (imagine me saying that like Steve Buscemi saying "How do you do fellow kids"). I don't know about you, but I'm fed up with a "practice makes perfect" mindset. Perfection isn't real - so I'm switching it up: Practice makes progress.
Last year was a huge progress year for me, especially when it came to mindset. This year, I'm doubling down. So, let's talk about what I'm doing to get my head on right and set myself up to make headway.
1. Embrace a Growth Mindset
This one's a hard pill to swallow, but want to know the secret sauce for success? It’s all about a growth mindset. Here’s the deal:
Challenges are Opportunities: Got a problem? Great! That’s your chance to learn and get better. Instead of thinking, “Why is this happening to me?” switch to, “What can I learn from this?” Each obstacle is a stepping stone.
It's not easy, and it's okay if you take 5 to complain in the group chat, but then it's time to pick yourself up and keep going. Life is about choosing the problems you want to have. Personally, the problems I want are the ones related to running my business. I would SO much rather stress about carving out the time to do my own marketing than deal with the soul-crushing anxiety of working for a terrible boss ever again.
Keep Learning: Never stop soaking up knowledge. Read books, attend workshops, and seek mentorship. The (business) world is always evolving, and you should be too. Lifelong learning keeps you sharp and adaptable. It also has the side benefit of making your brain a much more interesting place to live in. Seriously, keep your brain as wrinkly as possible.
I recently found out about Coursera, an online learning platform that offers both free and paid courses from universities like Harvard, Johns Hopkins, or Yale - you can find everything from certificates to degrees in a huge array of topics. Want to learn about web design? AI? Poetry? Dinosaurs? Foundations of business? Agriculture? Marketing? Coursera's probably got something.
Don't have time to sit down and read or study? Audible has a ton of business and mindset books to listen to. I asked for recommendations for favourite business and/or mindset books a while back. Here's what's on my listening list for Q1:
Year of Yes by Shonda Rhimes
The Compound Effect by Darren Hardy
Psycho-Cybernetics by Maxwell Maltz
Traction by Gino Wickman
(If you have reading recc's, I'd love to hear them!)
Celebrate Effort: Focus on the journey, not just the destination. Effort counts big time! Even if you don’t hit your target, recognize the progress you’ve made. It keeps you motivated and builds resilience. More importantly, it keeps things real.
If you only focus on the negative, you aren't being real with your self-image. You're just bullying yourself. Stop it.
2. Set Clear, Intentional Goals
Goals aren’t just dreams with deadlines. They’re the outcome of a well-executed plan.
Be Specific and Measurable: Forget vague goals. Go for “increase sales by 20% in Q1” instead of just “increase sales.” Specific goals are easier to track and achieve.
Break It Down: Big goals can be overwhelming. Shoot, small goals can be overwhelming. Split them into itty bitty little bite-sized milestones. One item on a daily to-do list is a lot less intimidating than the huge end result.
I like to work backward. Ok - so I want to increase sales by 20%? Where are the gaps in my business? Is it marketing? Oh, no one knows who I am? That means I need more eyes on my business, which means I need to increase reach, which means I need to adjust my marketing to gear it toward awareness. Cool. I can do an awareness campaign. That's just one thing. I can do just one thing.
You can do just one thing too. Then do another thing after the first thing, and another after that, and then you're at your goal and it's been easy. Progress.
3. Develop Resilience and Positivity
Life’s gonna throw curveballs. That's because life can be a dirty, underhanded, no good liar. This is for the lemons into lemonade situations:
Practice Gratitude: I could talk about counting your blessings, keeping a gratitude journal or any manner of other well-worn pieces of advice that get trotted out when we talk about gratitude mindset. I'm not going to do that. Instead, I've got a question: Would you trade places with yourself a year ago?
Would I trade places with 1 year ago me? Lol. Absolutely not. I like who I am better this year. I like the outcome of the work I've put in, and I feel good about the work I've yet to do. Those are things I'm grateful for. What about you?
Stay Solution-Oriented: Got a problem? We've talked about this. These are the problems we want to have. Find a fix instead of panicking about it. Problems are the quicksand we were warned about in cartoons. If you stay calm, work the problem, and plan your next move, you won't get sucked down.
Build Your Community: Surround yourself with supportive people. They’ll lift you up when you need it. They'll help you work the problem. A strong network provides encouragement, advice, and a different perspective when you’re stuck - both in business and in life. This is an area I'm extraordinarily lucky in. I have incredible friends and family. 10/10, no notes.
4. Say Yes to Opportunities
Remember Shonda Rhimes’ “Year of Yes”? Let’s channel that energy:
Do It Scared: Don’t let fear stop you. Say yes, even if your knees are shaking. Every new opportunity comes with a bit of uncertainty, but that’s where growth happens. This year, I'm trying to get better at in-person networking. It scares the bejesus out of me because I feel SUPER awkward in person, but I'm doing it scared until I'm better at it. Personal growth, right?
Be Open to Change: The world moves fast. Embrace new technologies, trends, and ideas that can give you a competitive edge. It's a universal truth that change is the only constant, and adaptability is an enormous strength.
A note - being open to change doesn't mean jumping on every single new thing that comes your way. Personally, I'll never willingly get a smart fridge, and I'm firmly of the stance that AI "art" is theft. It's about learning and weighing your options, not blind acceptance.
Network: Go to events, join groups, and make connections. You never know where the next big opportunity will come from. Networking opens doors to partnerships, clients, and even mentors. If you're like me, you'll do it scared, but the important thing is that you (we) do it.
5. Implement Proven Systems and Habits
Success isn’t just about big moves; it’s also about daily habits and systems:
Figure Out Your Time Management: Personally, I don't find rigid schedules helpful - my work is more fluid than that - but my days tend to follow a template. My one non-negotiable is that the first hour of my day goes to what I've mentally termed "CEO Shit," which is any business activity that it takes to make the business run or grow. It could be organizing my inbox, working on marketing, developing a new offer, tweaking the website, bookkeeping - any essential non-client work thing I have to do.
CEO Shit gets priority because without it, the business doesn't run, things start to bottleneck, and then I have problems I've brought on myself rather than problems I want. Ew.
Review and Adjust: Regularly check your progress and tweak your strategies. This ties into CEO Shit - sit down and have a quarterly review of how things are going. Check in with your goals, your plans, and your roadmap, and make the adjustments you need to see to stay the course. It can be a lot to juggle, but setting aside a business development day once every couple of months is really helpful.
Balance Work and Life: Avoid burnout - I've been there, and it's the opposite of fun. I'm not talking about being stressed, I'm talking about real, actual burnout that leaves you chronically exhausted and requires years to recover from.
Make time for relaxation and rest. Take a nap. Take your weekends off. In North America, we live in a productivity culture that can be incredibly toxic. It's almost shameful not to be constantly busy or doing something. Hustle culture has ruined a lot of us for joy. Personally, that life is simply not for me. I love what I do, but I don't live to work.
TLDR;
I'm a work in progress, and progress is what I'm working on.
What progress are you focusing on this year?
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