Strategies and Tactics for Women by Dr. Shannon Reece

Performance Tip of the Week

It’s one thing to jump into the business game. The challenge is staying in it at an effective level.

As business owners, we often talk about how it’s difficult to be a one-person extravaganza. It’s true. You must attend to so many details all the time that it can become taxing, and at some point, completely overwhelming if you lose your focus.

You have the desire to keep pace with the flow of business, and to find ways to push beyond your competitors. That’s why you are in business — to succeed. But when your head is not in the game, you wind up feeling like you are getting dragged behind the bus, instead of driving it.

Maintaining Your Pace

As important as it is to keep your finger on the pulse of what is happening in the business world around you, it’s imperative that you stay in touch with your heart. That is truly the only way you will successfully attend to the things that matter the most to your ultimate achievement, and allow you to filter the noise.

How do you accomplish this?

First, you must maintain a present-centered mindset. Easier said than done.  But you lose clarity quickly when you dwell on the past, or get too far ahead of yourself worrying about the future. Your most important job rests in the present, making solid decisions moment by moment, and choosing to be the director of your own life. When you move beyond the present it’s like you have taken a hiatus from your life, and leave the present to chance. Hopefully you can see how ineffective that could be if done on a regular basis.

Your second step is to ask yourself 3 simple, yet powerful questions:

• What do you want out of life and business?
• Who do you want to be for those around you?
• What impression do you want people to have of you?

Once you have taken some concentrated time to really answer each of these questions, you will have a framework from which to work, and key principles and goals on which to focus. Success at the business game boils down to your ability to perform at peak levels because you know what you want, how you want to touch the world around you, and the legacy you wish to leave behind. When your mind is centered on these things you will operate effectively and impressively in the moment.