Michael Hyatt's Blog, page 7

2 Questions to Ensure Your Rituals Work for You

We all have rituals, even if we don’t refer to them in those terms. They’re simply the tasks we do on a regular, even daily, basis. They’re so woven into our days that we’re on autopilot when we do them. Things like showering and getting ready for bed, setting up the coffee maker for the next morning, going on a run, or even how we spend time relaxing. Sometimes we introduce new rituals into our days to help us frame our time better, or to become a better version of ourselves.

The challenge comes when our rituals feel more like pain than pleasure. If our rituals become an obstacle rather than a path to more freedom, that can lead to a lot of frustration. It doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, it shouldn’t be.

We get to decide how we want to frame our days. We determine what we need in order to be more focused, productive, and relaxed. Rituals are just a means to that end. So we can adjust them as we need. But where do you begin?

Everyone can ensure their rituals are working for them by asking themselves these two questions:

How do I want to feel? You get to decide the feeling you want to generate through your ritual. Do you want to feel relaxed? Do you want to feel at peace? Do you want to feel empowered or inspired? It can be easy to look at someone else’s rituals and decide you want to do the same thing. What works for them might not work for you, though. It might not produce the feeling you hope to have. It’s perfectly okay to look to others for inspiration. But ultimately you have to design the rituals that are both best for you and meet that goal of how you want to feel coming out of them.Do my current rituals contribute to the feeling I want to have? One of the best things you can do is start by writing down what you already do. Then reassess each part of your rituals. Do they produce the feeling you want to have? If not, you can eliminate them. Or, you can add a new component to get the result you want. Maybe a ritual does produce a feeling you want to have, just not at the right time of day. Don’t be afraid to move different parts of your rituals around. If you feel too tired to exercise in the evening, kickstart your day with a morning workout instead. You are free to do the things you want when it’s best for you.

Asking these two questions forces you to slow down and take stock of your emotions. It might not seem like it, but our emotions play a big part in our ability to be focused and productive. It’s not just about what’s happening outside us; it’s also about what’s happening inside us. As scary as it can be, be honest with yourself.

How do you feel now versus how you want to feel? Do the rituals you currently have direct you toward that feeling, or are they working against you? Answer these questions honestly, and you’ll begin to feel more in control of your day and experience the cascading effect throughout.

How to Stay Happily Married As An Entrepreneur

Being an entrepreneur is as exciting as it is challenging. There are new opportunities to do creative work—work you find purpose in—and to grow as a professional. For all the excitement, though, there are also plenty of challenges, particularly ones that affect a marriage. Gail and I have experienced this in our 40 years together.

Long hours, late nights, bringing work home, and working on weekends can all cause a lot of strain. That kind of stress can only weigh on a marriage for so long before something has to change. The good news is, the steps you take toward that change are also where you can find rich opportunities.

So how do entrepreneurs achieve their dreams without sabotaging their marriages in the process? As an entrepreneur, you can help your spouse (and yourself) by giving him or her these four gifts:

The gift of awareness. As hyper-focused high achievers, it’s easy to see ourselves as the center of the show. But we’re not—no matter the accolades we receive, the work we do, or the amount of money we make doing it. We have to be aware of all the material and nonmaterial contributions our spouses make to our lives.The gift of inclusion. Inviting our spouses into our businesses and making them feel included creates intimacy, builds trust, and brings us together. It doesn’t necessarily mean hiring them. Even just receiving input or counsel keeps our spouses in the loop and sets our marriages up for success.The gift of commitment. Given the risk of entrepreneurial endeavors, some of the most important words we can say (and hear) are, “We’re a team and we’re in this together, no matter what.” Communicating that kind of commitment regularly can get you and your spouse through almost anything.The gift of presence. The entrepreneurial life is full of ups and downs and unknowns. To prevent things from going wrong, we can easily overwork. Oftentimes, we overcompensate too. That only ends up taking from our marriages, not giving to them. Instead, we can bless our spouses by realizing it doesn’t all hang on our shoulders alone and deciding ahead of time not to  shortchange our families as we build our businesses. As important as our physical and mental presence is at work, so it is at home.

Having a happy marriage and an entrepreneurial career is possible. Things might not be perfect, but experience has taught Gail and me that it can get better and better as you invest in your marriage.

Which of these gifts can you give more of to your spouse so you can win at work and succeed in life at home?

A Pathway Through Crisis for Entrepreneurs

When you own a business, it is inevitable that at some point you will experience crisis and disruption. The question to ask yourself is, should I pull back or lean in? Being afraid in uncertain times is normal, but fear doesn’t have to define your response. When seasons of crisis come, you can strategically pivot in the face of the unknown and lead with confidence, make solid decisions, and find a way through.

Learning from other entrepreneurs and reflecting on my own experiences, I’ve discovered this four-step process for working through a crisis.

Recognize your situation. Being honest about the present reality can be harrowing, especially if you are entering uncharted waters. But it’s better to face the facts while you can still act. Your circumstances might be challenging, but don’t lose faith that you’re going to make it through. Some of the best moments of success come when we lean into the tension of hard realities while also remaining confident in what the future holds. To do this well, it’s helpful to recognize your emotions. Are they constructive or fearful? Are they empowering or destructive? You might not have control over what’s happening, but you do have control over how you respond to it.Reassess your position. Quantifying any threats puts you in the optimal position to get your mind centered on what has to be done to pivot and innovate. This involves identifying vulnerabilities, and looking for ways to mitigate risks, and taking advantage of opportunities. Because every context is unique, I recommend a three-tier approach. One is making minimal but advantageous changes to your business. Two is implementing a conservative rollback, like redirecting resources to more profitable pursuits. Three includes taking radical moves like layoffs or pivoting on your most significant products.Look for new opportunities. Once you’ve reassessed, you’ll have opportunities to make further strategic moves that’ll pay off not only in the present but also in the future. Maybe you uncover your team had untapped potential when they were realigned to new roles. Or maybe you discover ways of doing more with less, pivot existing products or services, or sales channels to add that you weren’t considering before. However it turns out, stay focused on opportunities so you don’t cave into fear and paralysis.Respond with action. It’s imperative to take action by doing the very best you can with what you have. The tendency to hesitate or try to calculate all the consequences of decisions you’re about to make is understandable. However, the surest way to fail as an entrepreneur is to hold back, to procrastinate in making decisions, to leave your customers and your team hanging. Resilience is an entrepreneur’s superpower. Nothing is as helpful or as important.

Making it work during a time of crisis and disruption is all about being proactive rather than reactive. If something doesn’t work, pivot and try something else. Take what you learn each step of the way and keep going. You’ll make it to the other side.

How can you respond more proactively when you experience disruption?

3 Benefits of Self-Automation

Most of us have tried establishing a new habit. With good intentions, we usually start out strong. But then life happens, and the habit falls to the wayside. Maybe things become busy at work, or the weather isn’t cooperating, or your kids aren’t sleeping, which means you’re not sleeping. Whatever the reason, there is a common denominator to our failed efforts: we rely mostly on willpower.

The truth is, willpower doesn’t work. At least, not for long. The part of your brain that controls your conscious choices doesn’t have enough horsepower to make endless decisions that override your body’s basic disposition. To ensure you take a certain action consistently, you need something more powerful. You need to tap the part of your brain that does things automatically, without having to make a decision about the action constantly. You need to self-automate.

Self-automation is the process of putting some of your daily decisions and actions on autopilot, so they happen without conscious thought. When you tap into this hidden brainpower, the benefits are incredible. Here are three of them.

Increased mental energy. Researchers estimate the average person makes some 35,000 decisions every day. By the end of the day, you’re left feeling exhausted, with no energy for even the smallest decisions, like what to eat or watch on TV. When you reduce as much daily decision-making as possible, you free your mind and lower your stress levels. You also clear up brainpower for other, more important things.Creative problem-solving. Ever had a breakthrough in your thinking while in the shower? That’s partly because the shower is already a self-automated environment. You don’t really think about the process of bathing—you just start going through the motions. Imagine what’s possible when you automate more decisions and actions through your day. You gain more headspace for creative thought and more freedom to think, contemplate problems and ideas, and make connections you hadn’t seen before.Reclaimed time. Many of the tasks that contribute to our common feeling of daily busyness could be managed with much less attention and stress through self-automation. Think of the time and energy that goes into daily meal planning, coordinating school schedules and extracurricular activities, or routine household maintenance like laundry. Many of these small, but significant, daily choices can be put on autopilot. Use tools like menu-planning templates, subscription services, or shared family calendars to significantly reduce your daily decision-making and save hours each week.

What’s one area of your life you can begin to self-automate to reduce stress, claim time, or free headspace?

8 Traits of the Entrepreneurial Mindset

Growing up with my dad was like entrepreneurial school. He taught me that I had the opportunity to shape my own future by applying myself to something I loved. I just needed to look for the right opportunity.

That first opportunity, at age 11, was selling boxes of all-occasion cards. Honestly, it was a bust. I was turned down by my neighbors and didn’t have the tenacity to pursue strangers. A couple years later, I started my own lawn-mowing business. That didn’t last long either. But it did last longer than the cards venture. In fact, with each new entrepreneurial venture, my perseverance and determination grew.

Entrepreneurial success isn’t a linear path. The only way you really learn is by trying, failing, gaining resilience, problem-solving, and applying yourself to fresh opportunities. Success is less about being in a particular position and more about mindset. Here are eight traits of the entrepreneurial mindset essential to long-term success.

Openness. Entrepreneurs are uncannily open to opportunities. They see problems others don’t and fixate on challenges others dismiss. They know that the answers to these sorts of problems could be products.Ownership. Entrepreneurs don’t wait around for somebody else to solve the problems they observe. They’re compelled to find solutions and take the initiative.Grayscale Thinking. Entrepreneurs see and make indirect connections, often from an adjacent industry, and then take the risk of giving it a try. They employ mental flexibility to find answers that aren’t always obvious.Risk Tolerance. Entrepreneurs push against the norm. They understand turning their vision to reality requires taking numerous risks. Failure might be inherent within risk, but it’s also a requirement for success.Resilience. Entrepreneurs bounce back when failure comes, especially when hitting roadblocks, naysayers, or a no when a yes is desperately needed. The pathway to success requires the ability to rebound from failure.Resourcefulness. Entrepreneurs are scrappy and inventive, finding clever and unusual ways to overcome difficulties or make the most of opportunities. They often have a limited budget and learn to identify and marshal whatever resources are on hand.Patience. Entrepreneurs stick with a problem long enough to solve it. They see what it’ll cost now to gain the results they seek later—and do what it takes to get to the end of the road. They have a long-term vision they’re willing to invest in, even if it won’t pay off for several years.Belief. Entrepreneurs don’t just believe in themselves; they believe in their solutions. That belief is what sustains them while making a pitch for funding and receiving yet another rejection. This is what keeps them going when others don’t believe in their ideas (or at least not yet).

None of us are born with the full complement of these mindsets, and none of us have developed them to perfection. There’s always room to develop and improve how we exercise these traits in our work every day. Wherever you’re starting from, ongoing improvement is essential to your long-term success.

If you need help reaching that success, join our free webinar, The $5M to $50M Evolution. Through five foundational systems, we’ll teach you how to apply the entrepreneurial mindset to scale your business into something substantial. Register today to start growing your business to eight figures and beyond. Click here to register now.

3 Roadblocks to Avoid for Optimal Team Performance

Working on a team is complicated. Senior and departmental leaders often struggle with a multitude of demands on their time. These demands then trickle down to the individual contributors who make up a team. As if the day-to-day operations aren’t enough, try adding strategic objectives on top of that. It gets complex, even confusing.

This might feel like the norm, but it doesn’t have to be. Every team has the potential to focus on high-leverage work and execute on strategic priorities. What’s needed is the right tools and clarity about the dangers and pain points. Here are three roadblocks to avoid for optimal team performance.

The chaos of interruptions. The modern office seems tailor-made to obstruct productivity. Meetings, messages, and social distractions make it difficult to focus. Making time for high-leverage work is near impossible, especially when the time set aside for that keeps getting scheduled over. The only thing that gets done is what’s urgent now.The never-ending to-do list. Like a social media feed, you can scroll and scroll but never reach the end. And most of the time, those items have been added by someone else. Your days are spent on task-switching, or on maintenance and process tasks like email. Your most important work keeps getting pushed further and further down the list. Having to pivot from one thing to another is felt by managers and individual contributors alike.The project fumble. Things can go wrong, even with a weekly plan or project management tool. Maybe it’s a miscommunication on the team or an unforeseen problem. Then a deadline slips by. These miscues are small by themselves. But there’s rarely just one. Taken together, they’re a huge roadblock to achievement. By Friday, the whole week feels like a total loss.

If you recognize yourself in any of these roadblocks, you’re not alone. These problems are the bane of teamwork. Every high achiever, regardless of the role, will face them from time to time. But you and your team can overcome them—and we can help.

Our Team Performance for Leaders Workshop is a personal productivity approach for leaders based on the popular and proven Full Focus system. Created with senior and departmental leadership in mind, this workshop will show leaders and their teams how to make their greatest contributions by learning how to collaborate for better results, how to take control of their days to accomplish what matters most, and how to be empowered to banish distractions and remain focused on the main objectives.

With this simple but proven system, your leaders will gain the clarity and time they need to accomplish the everyday tasks that drive the results they’re accountable for—and help fulfill the organizational vision. Click here to register now.

Four Obstacles to Clear Between Now and December

You’re approaching the final quarter of the year. It’s the home stretch. You still have big goals to achieve, but some unexpected obstacles have popped up and your team is feeling fatigued. You want to finish with a bang, but is that even possible? How do you rally your people and equip them to perform at the top of their game?

3 Benefits of Having a Vision

Many leaders struggle with getting clarity on their vision. With the chaos and clamor of everyday life and business, the bar is often set at just trying to stay afloat. Casting a vision for what you actually want can seem like a far-off luxury. But it comes at a cost.

From wasted resources to burnout to high turnover, there are a variety of pitfalls vision-deficient leaders can stumble into. Some of that might seem common to the life of a business, though, so is a vision really necessary? I would argue yes. Of course, there will always be challenges, but the benefits of having a clear, multi-year vision far outweigh those challenges. By casting an inspiring, practical picture of what you want for your organization, you can reap these three defining benefits.

A sense of purpose. Too often teams spend an inordinate amount of time spinning their wheels and just doing whatever tasks have come up most recently. Having a well-thought-out vision allows your company to zero in on the goals, projects, and tasks that have the highest impact on the metrics you want to prioritize.A positive risk. Inciting risk might not feel like a benefit, but the best future doesn’t actually lie within your comfort zone. Just because an idea makes you uncomfortable doesn’t make it a bad idea. In fact, it might be the exact idea you need.A clearer future. A vision is not an action plan and you won’t be figuring out the “how”—at least not yet. But it does free you to dream and imagine what could be possible, as well as what the end result will be.

Mapping out a clear, compelling vision is essential for every business leader. If you want your team to achieve new heights of success, you need to make time to do this. You need to create a Vision Script that clearly defines your mission and values, current reality, and future reality.

If creating a vision feels uncomfortable, especially if you’re doing it for the first time, turning it into a strategic plan for the coming years can feel just as daunting. Usually things get cobbled together based on methods picked up in the past in the hopes that everything will hold together. Even more frustrating is that it’s rarely democratized and operationalized. But it doesn’t have to be that way.

Our Strategic Planning Workshop offers a proven system that addresses all of these challenges so leaders and their teams can drive performance and achieve extraordinary results. It’s a simple, five-step strategic planning process combined with a powerful alignment methodology for keeping your vision in view all year long and ensuring teams are organized to accomplish it.

Whatever business you’re in, this workshop is for you. Click here to sign up now.

Four Essentials to a Strategic Plan That Works

You know you need to make a plan for the company’s next year, but you feel a familiar sense of dread. Every year, it results in a giant, convoluted binder that is inevitably pushed to the back of the shelf three months in. How do you plan more strategically, so you end up with something that actually works? Is there a better way to set the company up for the future you want?

5 Tips for Starting a Journaling Habit

Many high achievers believe journaling is valuable for personal reflection and growth, but few actually open a journal on a daily basis. Perhaps you’ve thought about journaling, but then promptly gotten lost in the flurry of other tasks. Or perhaps you’ve attempted to start doing it more regularly, but then lost momentum. I’ve been there. Without the right tools, it’s one of the most difficult habits to establish.

From not having the time or not knowing what to write to feeling afraid to be honest with yourself or reflecting through social media instead, journaling can be daunting for any number of reasons. But you can change that. There’s tremendous value that comes with daily reflection, and it doesn’t have to take a lot of time. Here are five tips to get you started.

Pick a format. It can be whatever provides the space you need to write. You may prefer a legal pad, notebook, or journal you already have on hand. I love our Full Focus Journal.Pick a template. The blank page is scary. It can be intimidating to know what to write and leads to wasted time. So find something that guides your daily reflection. You can even build a format for yourself. Just determine what prompts will encourage you to reflect. Keep in mind that you’ll want to be able to begin writing within seconds of reading your prompts, otherwise your prompts aren’t strong enough.Choose a dedicated time. Whether you decide to journal in the morning or evening, pick a time and stick to it. You may have to rearrange part of your daily routine to fit journaling in, but you want it to become a natural rhythm in your day.Set a trigger. At the beginning of any habit, you need a daily cue to prompt the intended action. This could be a calendar alert or alarm.Commit to journaling for 30 days. If you quit a week into your journaling attempt, you won’t see results. But practice reflection for a month, and you will feel the positive effects. Push through the resistance for the first 30 days, and every day after will feel easier. If 30 days of journaling makes an impact on your life, imagine what a decade can do. You’ll gain perspective and live with gratitude. You’ll also supercharge your clarity and make better decisions.

For many, journaling can be painful and boring. But it doesn’t have to be. You can look forward to your journaling practice and even complete it in as little as 15 minutes a day by incorporating these tips. When our days are filled with one thing after another clamoring for our attention, journaling helps us slow down and reconnect with ourselves. The harvest we reap is an awareness of ourselves and our circumstances, clarity of thought, and gratitude for life.

Which tip do you need to implement today to cultivate a journaling habit?