If you feel your business planning sucks and struggle to keep on track, you’re not alone! Here’s why most business planning fail and what you can do differently.
I sit behind my desk and stare at my computer. I don’t allow myself to do anything else, as I have a plan to keep. I managed to do this for weeks, beating myself up at night for failing. Failing to stick to the plan.
As soon as I let go of this planning completely and allowed myself to “do nothing”, I got creative and suddenly got all the work done. How does this work? Clearly, planning doesn’t work for me?!
Do you feel it’s hard to keep at your planning?
You’re not alone! My client told me the story mentioned above, and I’d like to show you why many business planning fail.
5 Reasons why most business planning fail
– Shiny Object Syndrome
You may suffer from the shiny object syndrome. Have you just decided to start selling your VIP offer, and then you see how lucrative it is to sell low costs offerings easily? So, you shift your focus.
You know LinkedIn is the social media platform that works for you, so you’re going all in. And then you discover Instagram. You love pictures, so instead of LinkedIn, you start putting your energy into your Instagram.
These are only 2 examples, and I can give you countless others. You see, decide, and you start only to abort and refocus on something else. Often without giving yourself a proper amount of time (which truthfully can be quite long) to see whether your initial plan succeeds. You stop before you can shine. don’t!
Stick to the plan
At least for a certain amount of time. I would say give yourself at least 3-6 months, or even a year. See the results come in before you change (again).
– Itty Bitty Shitty Committee (or Gremlins galore)
Yes, those Gremlins in your ear that whisper, yell and tell you all the reasons why you can’t launch yet, need to upgrade first and must have it all in order before you can continue.
The thing is, we’re never done. It’s never perfect, and that’s good enough. Because no one wants perfect, that’s boring! None are perfect. No matter what the itty bitty shitty committee has to say about it.
We’re so trained to protect ourselves and to point out why and where it goes wrong that we often abort a plan because “there are no perfect circumstances” or “we’re not ready”.
Don’t wait for the perfect circumstances; they don’t exist! Hear those Gremlins and do it anyway!
And you’ll get ready by doing it. Trust me, leap, and the net will appear. So, silence those inner gremlins and stick to the plan.
– Burnout and Overwhelm
you know me; this is my bug bear. My mission is to show you that you don’t have to work 24/7 to be successful. Better yet, I love to see you do less and get more.
The thing is, we’re like magnets. Magnets to more work. Instead of focusing on our priorities, we have a tendency to keep on doing more. Thinking more is better.
The opposite is true.
Don’t get overwhelmed by your to-do list; it leads to burnout. Instead, ask yourself this one question constantly:
“What’s the quickest and easiest way to achieve my goals now?” and then go do that. Take my client from the Get Sh*t Done Club with the goal of getting a freelance job and more coaching clients. She decided to set up a podcast. Great idea! BUT.. it wasn’t the quickest nor the easiest way to get clients. Do you know what it was? Applying for freelance jobs and going to networking events where her potential clients occurred. It can be that easy. Focus on what gets you the results the quickest.
– Personal Circumstances impacting your business
This is what’s happening to me now. Two months in Spain and am still in temporary housing, working through matters as they pop up. In all previous years, I let my personal circumstances dictate my business. Meaning personal was prevalent. This year, not so much. I started working with my daily success habits; they helped me stay on track. As a matter of fact, they did a bit more than that. They allowed me to launch my Get Sh*t Done Club and expand my business further than before. how? I’ll tell you all about it next week, but basically – my non-negotiables allow me to continue running my business no matter what.
– Optimistic or drastic planner
Do you always have more on your to-do list than hours in a day? Then you’re most likely an optimistic planner. Meaning you say to yourself writing a blog takes 20 minutes, and it takes you 2 hours. Not too worrisome, if only you had catered for 2 hours in your planning. Because you didn’t, you now have a problem, and you’re not finishing what you had planned to do.
Easiest way to deal with this?
Get real!
Make sure to be realistic when you set a time for yourself. Avoid disappointment by not including the little things. And start including time for unexpected events in your calendar.
It’s my group coaching program where you set weekly goals, take aligned action, and have weekly accountability calls that assure you get results. It’s amazing.
Right now (up until Tuesday), I have one spot open. The last spot for only $99 a month. For the rest of the year, you can’t join, and when it starts again, prices will for sure go up. Read more here.
Be the CEO of your life,
Yvonne
PS: THANK YOU to all of you who have voted for my newsletter’s frequency! I wish I could honor all of you. Oh wait, I can. Most of you voted for weekly newsletters, so that’s what we’ll do.
In case you voted for less, I guess the best is not to open my newsletter on certain weeks.
PPS: There are three winners! Thank you all for letting me know what you thought. The winners will receive a copy of my book “Fast Focus Forward 4 Instant Results” . An amazing book that helps you to focus and save time. Read more about it here, or order your own book.
Yvonne has a vast coaching experience from executives to teams to ambitious business owners.
Through her personal and business coaching programs she has helped dozens grow their businesses while drastically reducing their working hours.
And when Yvonne is not coaching, you can find her indulging in beach walks, and a sparkly glass of champagne.
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