Consider it a core ingredient. The magical piece of the puzzle. The one thing you have to have in order to arrive in a pre-destined place. I would argue it is even more important than an impressive IQ.

Why do some achieve great things while others simply kick a can around – making do with ‘small’? I’m starting to think it has a lot to do with focus.

So what do you focus on?

The end result. The exit strategy. The thing at the end of a journey. That’s what you focus on. See it. Taste it. Visualize it. Plan it.

You should be able to easily answer:

1. How far away is it?

2. What needs to happen between now and then to make that end result a reality?

3. Working backwards – if the end result is Z, what has to happen in the month prior, and then what happens in the second last month all the way back to today. That’s your plan. Your road map.

4. What obstacles are likely to surface? Whats the planned work arounds?

When you have focus, you can easily determine what opportunities to pursue or pass on to someone else… or which stepping stones to use – because everything that comes your way will now be considered in the following light – “Is this opportunity part of my plan, or will it take my focus elsewhere?”

Why is that the most simple of things are often the most profound?

photo credit: margolove

Twitter has been bugging out on me this week. I started wondering – is it just me… ? So I sent out a tweet asking if anyone else was having issues. For some reason I thought it would be reassuring to know that there were more people experiencing the same frustrations.

Guess what? There were. This got me thinking – why did I feel like it was just me? Why did I want to know if others were in the same boat?

These last four weeks have been more challenging than I’d like. More setbacks than I’m used to. More uncertainty than I’m comfortable with. It’s been tough.  We’ve all been there.

So here’s the thing – we can all experience fear, we are all unsure of ourselves at times, we all get nervous, we all have doubts, we are all capable of bigger and better, we are all competent when we focus, we are all able to pick ourselves up, dust ourselves down and move on knowing more about what not to do next time round.

There are two words that I think go really well together – fear and excitement. I do my best to keep them as balanced as possible. Fear tells me I’m doing something new and excitement keeps me moving forward so I can see what it looks like on the other side. When one of these words starts to dominate the other, we become stagnant or too mainstream. I find the middle is a good place to be.

So regardless of where you’re at or what you’re experiencing – there’s a whole world of people thinking, feeling and experiencing the very same thing.

Some tips to keep your perspective:

1. Focus. What do you want or where exactly are you going. Everything else measures up against this and it either supports your efforts or will hinder it.

2. Find people who are already doing that thing you want to do or in that place you want to be – connect with them (see my post on networking to make sure you get it right), learn from them, surround yourself with people just like them. You cannot help but become part of what you’re around.

3. Recognize the tape recorder playing in your head may just be that… a tape recorder. Not fact. Not gospel. Just a bunch of gibberish you bought into once upon a time but no longer applies.

4. Find a cause bigger than you and enable it. Something you’re passionate about. Something that makes a difference. Something that allows you to give back.

5. Learn. Make mistakes. Learn again. Make more mistakes and then when you’ve learned more – fall down. It’s ok. It’s all part of the plan. Falling down is absolutely part of the process… what really matters is what you do when you’re down there. Embrace the pity party… or as Sinatra suggests… pick yourself up and get back in the race. HAH!

photo credit: alexkess

Is probably easier than you think. Ponder this – The man who believes himself to be in the taxi business won’t go nearly as far as the man who believes himself to be in the transportation business. What business are you in? Can you diversify your core business? Say you had a residential cleaning business, are you in the business of cleaning or in the business of giving people back their time? If you provide a clean home, perhaps you could provide a home cooked meal? What about a pick up/drop off drycleaning service?  You may be able to introduce additional income streams if you first broaden your business model. Another added benefit to introducing additonal product lines? – when you have multiple product lines with the same customer they are far less likely to leave you. Think about it – do you have a telephone provider and an internet provider or do you have a provider who sells you phone, internet and cable as a package? Hmm…

So you want to be in business for yourself. You need a name, a product or service people want to buy and a way to reach your customers. I don’t think it’s any surprise that in today’s day and age that your strategy must include a website! So… where does one begin?

Instead of approaching the godaddys or register.com Why not try a BlueHost.com – Why? Glad you asked:

1. you need more than just a domain name. you need a domain, a server, email accounts and perhaps software to manage customer databases, send out e-blasts and a lot more.

2. Get in touch with bluehost.com – get your domain name, unlimited server space and a ridiculous amount of email accounts complete with amazing customer service.

3. Ok – now what? Well, you need a virtual storefront. Not a web designer? or maybe you don’t have the funds to put one to work…? try this. Go to wordpress.com and register for a blog. Pick a template, add your pages, content, change a color here or there and voila.

4. Have your domain name you just got from BlueHost.com point to your wordpress blog.

5.Set up your website to represent you, your service and how to go about contacting you. Ensure you are maximizing your site by registering key words, turning on comments and…

OR

you could visit www.monstertemplate.com and choose a template from thousands upon thousands and either purchase the template for a web designer to tweak. Or have the site itself tweak it for you at a cost.

For expertise on how to ensure your website is doing everything it can for you – drop me a line at shannon@therenaissanceeffect.com  or let me know what resources you have found that we can add to this section.