Being a business owner comes with many exciting activities, like going to conferences, meeting interesting new people, and challenging yourself to meet new goals. And it also comes with a large number of boring but necessary activities, like developing your business’s offerings, optimizing your practices and procedures, and other aspects of running an effective business. Of course, both the boring activities and the exciting ones are important, but the shiny events and things that make you feel successful may not be what actually lead to success—often it’s the nitty-gritty work that gets you there.
It’s great to go to a lot of events, travel, have fancy dinners, and make new connections, but those things don’t translate to business results in the way that focusing on the boring stuff does. That doesn’t mean you have to give those things up entirely, but don’t forget that the most important work is often in the details.
Here are a few tips to help you hone your focus and maximize your results:
Motivation Versus Discipline
Of course, the most challenging part of focusing on the boring stuff is that it’s boring, so it can be hard to stay motivated to work on it even when you’re dedicated to achieving the outcome you know it’ll lead to. Motivation is a tricky feeling, because it makes you think that you need it in order to get things done. But the reality is that motivation won’t get you where you need to go—it’s transient in nature, because it’s ultimately just a feeling, and you can’t sustain a feeling forever.
That’s why so many people drop their New Year’s resolutions within the first few months of the year. Even though you may feel fired up at the beginning of the year, it’s hard to sustain that motivation for long. If you rely on motivation alone, you won’t get very far. The people who do manage to achieve their goals and sustain their focus rely not on motivation but on discipline. Discipline is reliable where motivation is flighty because you can use the power of habit to maintain your momentum toward your goals. If you use your initial motivation to establish a habit of working on something boring every day, then discipline is just a matter of maintaining your habit rather than working up the motivation to do something.
Goals Require Self-Negotiation
Entrepreneurs tend to be goal-oriented people, and it feels awesome to set a new goal and challenge yourself to reach it. But in doing so, you inevitably have to sacrifice some things. Even if you’re not a busy person (and let’s be real, you’re probably extremely busy), you already fill 24 hours of your day with something. That means that if you’re taking on something new, you have to make room for it by bumping another activity out of the way—maybe that’s just sacrificing your hour of TV time at the end of the day, or maybe it’s another goal you’re deprioritizing without realizing it. In fact, I’ve seen entrepreneurs sacrifice important aspects of their businesses in pursuit of a shiny new goal—sometimes that sacrifice is the quality of their business offering or the wellbeing of their employees.
Every goal requires a negotiation with your priorities, and new goals can be a distraction from more important matters. You have a limited amount of time, energy, and resources. So before you take on a new goal, determine its priority and what sacrifices you’re willing to make to achieve it, and don’t forget to account for sacrifices that may affect your business, your team, your family, and your own mental and physical health.
Get 1% Better Every Day
My strategy for improving my business by focusing on the boring stuff centered around a goal of improving by just 1% every day. Every day, my team held a meeting focused on how we could improve by 1%—improving our product, customer service, leadership, team training, and other important aspects of the business. By doing so, the results of those improvements compounded over time.
Instead of focusing on flashy new goals or exciting events, this methodical approach allows you to stay focused on the less exciting but highly important aspects of your business with a manageable goal. A 1% improvement doesn’t require a great deal of time or resources, and it can be applied in whatever area your business needs it most.
As a business leader, your focus is one of your most powerful tools, and by limiting distractions and directing your energy into the areas where progress will be most effective, you can create better results than you thought possible. Start by asking yourself how you can improve your processes—particularly the boring ones—by just 1% today.
