Cultivate GREATNESS | Leadership Training & Life Hacks

by Scott Allen

You can read business advice books, attend seminars, even get a mentor or a business coach, but all that knowledge won’t help you one bit if you don’t act on it. I bet if you think about it a little, you’ll realize that even without listening to another guru, expert or motivator, you already know a thing or two about what you need to be doing to improve your business.

Reading another book or listening to another tape isn’t really going to help because it’s usually not the knowing that’s the challenge, but the doing. We get caught up in our routines and our chaos and forget about what we know we ought to be doing.

Most of us don’t even follow our own best advice.

I had an epiphany moment a few weeks ago when I realized that I wasn’t following my own best advice. I coach other people all the time on how to grow their business, how to stay organized, how to build their network, and a whole lot of other things, and I give some pretty good advice, or so I’ve been told.

Then why am I not following it myself?

Sure, I’m following some of it, or I wouldn’t have gotten as far as I have. But I’m not nearly as consistent as I’d like to be. Are you? Consistency is a tremendous challenge for entrepreneurs because often so little in our life is consistent.

So I decided I needed some help reminding myself to follow my own best advice. Here’s what I’ve started doing:

1. I set a weekly reminder for myself in Outlook with the subject, “Are you following your own best advice?”
2. In the notes for the event, I’ve started putting in some of my own best advice that I frequently find I forget, starting with last week’s tip, Don’t Prioritize Your Schedule, Schedule Your Priorities, and another one of my favorites, “A project isn’t complete until it’s working for you rather than you working for it.”
3. Each week when the notice comes up, I spend a few minutes to reflect on the list, what’s going on in my life and in my business, and how I can put my own advice into action this week.
4. As I think of more pearls of wisdom throughout the week, I just add them to my notes on that event.

So far, so good. I feel much more grounded and focused than I have in a long time. Give it a try and see if it doesn’t do the same for you.

by Scott Allen,
Your Guide to Entrepreneurs.
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