By nature, I am a dreamer. I love to envision possibilities that I could create. How about you?
Many coaches share this with me I know. It is the ability to envision new and wonderful ways of being and doing that drive our love of coaching and creating a business.
As much as I love to vision and explore possibilities in my business, the joy is lost if I don’t make at least the brightest among them real. Making a vision real, where it is having a positive impact in the world is what gets me out of bed each day.
There are many, many, many things I don’t like doing when it comes to running a business. Tasks that drag my energy down. One such task is answering a bunch of emails! Can you relate?
I know what you are thinking. Why don’t I just hand off these tasks to my assistant? Some communication I can and have handed off. Other tasks as well I have found I can delegate to others on my team. I highly recommend this to those of you who, like me, may have things that you don’t like doing that are energy drains.
The point of this message however is to have you look at those things that only you can do. Those personal messages, or aspects of running your business that you may not like doing but can only be done by you.
It sounds depressing as I write that but I am here to give you hope! In my Soul Strategy Vision Course, I include a training on habits to help make a vision a reality. It is one of the easiest ways I know to systematically create success one step at a time.
I call these: Happy-Making Habits
I have discovered that when I make something a habit, there is joy even in the most gnarly of tasks. Really!
I have studied habits and learned a lot from the gurus of this concept. One of my favorites is Charles Duhigg.
He lays out a simple but powerful formula that I have followed in my own unique way. Just to be clear one of my habits is to take other people’s formulas and make them my own, so this is not exactly how he teaches it but as it has worked for me!
Here are the basics in story form:
Craving-Something you are longing for, want to experience.
Example: I once had a craving to have a full roster of clients. I knew for that to happen I needed to reach out to people on a regular basis. Something I really didn’t like to do.
- Cue: Could be a day of the week, time of day, some kind of regular activity like a meal. Example: I choose the cue of 3 PM on weekdays.
- Habit: Something you do every time you get the cue. Example: I called someone up, or reached out with an email to say hello or offer something I thought a person would be interested in like an article or book suggestion.
- Reward: This is where it really makes a difference! You must have a fun juicy reward for yourself. Example: I had a jar in my office filled with $10 bills. Every time I reached out to someone I put one of those bills in my wallet labeled “mad money”.
Result: I made 10 calls that week and enrolled 3 new clients. I went on a $100 shopping spree!
This quickly became a beloved habit and I no longer even noticed my dislike of reaching out. I was more aware of how much I loved building up my mad money at first. Then the reward became my client roster growing every week. Sometimes you need to start with a reward that just tickles you as this one did me, in order to get to an even more satisfying reward.
We humans are not machines. I once had a mantra to help me with this: I am a queen, not a machine!
As such it is not happy-making to just do things we don’t like. Making anything and everything into a habit though will streamline the boring tasks and your focus will be on the reward which is always a happy-making event.
- Start with one craving you have in running your business.
- Choose a Cue which can be a time of day, day of the week, or another meeting or activity that will remind you of your new habit.
- Start a small habit to begin with – could be one that only takes 30 minutes.
- Give yourself a yummy reward!
I help coaches grow their businesses by offering a support system that will help you create your very own happy-making habits. One way I do that is by leading a Mastermind Group Coaching Call every week to support a group of amazing coaches making their dreams come true.
I would love to chat with you about this if you are in need of support for your own happy-making habit creation.
