“Rather than trying to motivate yourself, your goals should be to clarify the next few steps ahead of you.” – Benjamin Hardy

I spoke with a woman about her dream venture. She was excited about the idea of making her service available to the market. After asking her some details, I noticed that she had a decent idea for a business but it would take some work to really vet out the idea and bring it to market in the manner she wanted.

What began as a light conversation had now become serious. I looked her in her eyes and asked her what her first step was.

She hesitated before spouting a bunch of steps she knew had to happen. I stopped her as she began rattling off the ideas she foresaw as necessary. “What’s the most important first step?” I asked. She paused before answering.

“I think the most important first step is getting the system together,” she began. “But, I also need to…” I stopped her again.

“All of that is irrelevant if you don’t take this first step.”

Distracted & Diffused

As visionaries & creatives, entrepreneurs tend to look at the next big idea more often than is necessary. They want to work on ideas E,F, & G without giving ample time and resources to A.

But, if A is the main thang, it should remain the main thang until it isn’t: through completion or pivot. All of the other ideas may be sound and necessary but they are not A. They are not the next step. The problem with focusing on E,F & G is they distract and diffuse energy. Distracted energy is wasted energy. Diffused energy is weak energy.

If you are to succeed, you want to be neither. Opt for focused energy. Get that thing done that is most important to moving forward. And, continue in that manner so that nothing becomes urgent. Urgency should be a tool that you use on yourself not something that is thrust into your arms like a crying baby with a dirty diaper.

Urgency = Movement

Ya see, motivation is triggered through urgency. Depending on the individual, urgency triggers flight or flight because it creates tension and anxiety. How much of each depends on the situation and the person. Yet, the resulting reaction in the body is the same: adrenaline rush.

Urgency creates anxiety creates adrenaline creates movement

That equation is one to remember. It is the reason your boss tells you to move with a sense of urgency. They want you to get it done NOW! Do you crack the whip on yourself, though?

Most people don’t. They have been conditioned to rely on their masters… oops… bosses to do that for them. In the entrepreneurial space, you are your own master and slave. You decide what you will tell yourself to do.

I had a training with a company that wanted to teach people how to lead. They taught us a simple strategy. As our team members achieved a task, we were to talk to them about What’s Important Next. In order for our team member to WIN, they had to know “what’s important next”. Eventually, team members became leaders. They were trained on the same ;philosophy but with an additional thought. New leaders were to begin asking themselves as well as their team members “what’s important next”.

That is an important question (and why I keep repeating it).

One thing is certain… the master always knows what the slave needs to do next. It’s that clarity that helps get things done. It’s that same clarity that will help you get your work done. All it takes is knowing your next step.

Lego Model Your Life

I loved Legos as a child. (Who am I kidding? I still love Legos!) I wasn’t always good at creating large models out of my pieces. I built small things. In my pre-teens, I received my first model Lego set. I spent the evening putting it together. The box contained packets and an instruction booklet. I dumped out all of the packets into small piles, flipped through the booklet, and turned to page one.

I couldn’t build the model without step one. If I’d begun at step 42, it would not have worked. Maybe it would have worked if I started at two or three… maybe. Eventually, I would have had to return to step one an do those things.

The packets represent the different areas of your life: finances, business, love, relationships, fun, health, mental, spiritual, benevolence. You put them together into a beauty model of how you want your life to look. If you don’t, someone else will. You probably don’t want to know what someone else will do with the pieces of your life. I know what you’re saying:

Life Is More Complicated Than A Model Lego Set (and mostly more fun).

Yet, the concept remains:

Know what your building (future clarity)
Know what you need (product clarity)
Know what you need to do (process clarity)
Know what’s important now (present clarity)
Know you can do it (purpose clarity)

Missing pieces mess up the end product. And, no one likes a model that cannot be finished. What’s Important Next (WIN) is the gameplan. Urgency is the game clock. Start Now!

If you know you’d like to eliminate excuses from your vocabulary and you need some help getting to that next level in your life or business, go to bit.ly/30withfortune for a complimentary, 30-minute call with me. Together we’ll create a plan for your next step.