What are you investing in your business emotionally?
We’re getting quite a bit of mileage out of the list we made over a week ago, aren’t we? If you happened to miss the first three installments of my “The Best Business Investment You Can Make” series, here’s the links so you can find them with ease:
Installment 1
Installment 2
Installment 3
Now, today we’re digging into our emotional investments in our business model. WE can’t help it but to be emotionally invested in our businesses. If we aren’t, well…we should get out there and find something else to to already! Our emotional investment in our business is what allows us to tap into our intellectual investment and use it to its highest potential.
On that list we made last week, I asked you to fill it with how you feel about your business. When things go right, when things go wrong…we feel something, right? So you highlighted that list, and those highlights represent everything you wanted MORE of in your business. Things you wanted to feel MORE. More frequently, more intensely. Have a look at those highlighted items.
I’ll bet you they’re all pretty wonderful things, aren’t they? Of course they are. Nobody wants to feel more fear or insecurity when it comes to pursuing their passion! Highlighting those good things puts you in the right mindset to create more of them. When we preoccupy ourselves by focusing on all the things that weigh our minds down in business, we don’t give ourselves room to prosper. We take all of the energy that could be used to generate more of that good stuff and simply…waste it. We waste it worrying and complaining. There’s nothing good about either one.
To maximize your emotional investment in your business, you need to focus on the upside. Sure, stuff happens. It always will. But when you focus on what you want more of, it’ll come. It’ll make next Tuesday’s discussion about your financial investment even easier since you’ll put in motion a plan.
The plan, you ask? Well, today, you’re going to make a list of all the highlighted things you want more of in your business. Then, you’re going to put them in an envelope and hang them on your refrigerator. We spend a lot of time in front of the fridge, so you’ll have to see that envelope of goodness every time you grab a drink or snack. We should remind ourselves of the good things more often!
Have a great weekend and we’ll see you next Tuesday for Step 5!
Take that list and check it twice!
“Confront your fears, list them, get to know them, and only then will you be able to put them aside and move ahead.” Jerry Gillies
On Tuesday, you made a list. If you missed Tuesday’s post, you can check out the first step in my new Business Investment series here. Today, we’re going to have a deeper look at that list.
Intellectual Investments – These are pretty much inarguable. It’s your inner net worth. What you bring to the table. The things on this part of your list are the reason you can have a business that does what it does. But, here’s my question: are you lacking? Is there a way you can improve the strength of your intellectual investments? A business coach, mentor or trusted ally who can help guide you and maximize the contribution of you to your business. Every ship needs a captain AND a navigator. Do you have both?
Emotional Investments - Does your business fill you up or bleed you dry? The feelings in this section might seem all-too-familiar or pretty alien, now that you’ve had a day off from looking at that list you made. Take a highlighter and highlight anything you want MORE OF in the list. Honestly, we’re not going to even give any of our bandwidth to the things we don’t care for (if that’s OK with you!).
Financial Investments - Ahhhh, money. Money, money, money! It keeps us going every day and we love seeing it come in, but do you really know how you’re spending it? And is what you’re spending it on paying you dividends? Sure, we all need office supplies and paid-in-full cell phone bills, but are you considering the investments that you currently perceive as expenses? Take that highlighter and highlight everything you’d like to spend LESS money on. We’ll get back to this shortly.
Now, that wasn’t so hard, was it? An easy task for a Thursday. Now, you’ve got the weekend to think, but in Tuesday’s installment, we’re going to delve deeper into the Intellectual Investment you have in your business and I promise you’ll have some incredible takeaways from that installment. So for now, have a wonderful weekend and get ready to further examine what you’re investing in your business from EVERY angle!
Time to make a list - business investments, day 1!
“I have a problem with too much money. I can’t reinvest it fast enough, and because I reinvest it, more money comes in. Yes, the rich do get richer.” Robert Kyosaki – author of Rich Dad, Poor Dad
OK, I know that the title sounds kind of spammy, but I promise you won’t find any get-rich quick concepts in this post. There are no silver bullets or success-in-a-box secrets. Today, we’re going to talk about business investments and this post is the first in a series of four that will run over the next two weeks. We’ll have action items each day and you’ll need those action items for the next installment. It’s like, learning! Ready? Set – GO!
Business investments are intellectual, emotional and monetary. On the intellectual side, it’s the hows of running your business on a daily basis. The knowledge YOU bring to the table to make your business world go round. This can be years of schooling or just knowing what it feels like to be “schooled” and sharing that knowledge with your audience. It’s what gives you authority, or the right and mettle to speak about what it is you know and love.
Business investments can also me emotional. There’s no shame in loving what we do. We feel joy when sales are up and get down in the dumps when sales go south. We connect with our employees and share in their personal struggles and successes. It’s part of what makes a company great to work for: the emotional investment that ownership and management have in their team.
And we all know that business investments can be monetary. This is the one we likely think about most often. It’s the life savings we’ve put into our startup, the money we spend on learning about both ourselves and our industry. It’s everything from payroll to taxes and all we can worry about at 3 AM in between.
To start your week, we’ll start with ACTION. I’m a big fan of lists, so today, we’re going to sit down and make one about your business investments. Grab a laptop or pen and paper – here we go!
Intellectual Investment: On this list, you’re going to list everything that establishes you as an authority on your line of work. School, hard knocks, experience – they all go on the list!
Emotional Investment: Make a list of how you feel about your business. When things go right, when things go wrong, what makes you happy each day at work and what causes you stress.
Monetary Investment: Where does your business’ money go? Take a few minutes and make a list of where you’re spending your business income and where you’re investing your business income (the two are VERY different!).
Now – hang tight to this list because on Thursday this week, we’re going to revisit that list and talk about some common pitfalls and simple things you can do to balance your business investment budget! Make your list, grab a magnet, put it on your fridge. We’ll see you back here on Thursday where we’re going to explore STEP 2 in The Best Business Investment You Can Make series.
Are you wasting time?
Sure, it’s easy to think of time as money. It’s a business expression older than all of us put together and an issue we face daily: finding enough time to get everything done. But this weekend, I was thinking: time isn’t always money.
Sometimes, it’s just time. And we’re pretty good at wasting it, considering it’s our most valuable asset.
Time is all we have to get through this life. It’s what lets us breathe, work, pursue our passions, raise families and love. Occasionally, we get to sleep. Rarely do we sleep enough, but when we do, it makes our time the next day more enjoyable.
When we have time, we’re not afraid to lounge on a blanket at the park and rest out head on someone’s shoulder. We’re also not afraid to pick up every candle in the store, just to see how each one smells. We read bedtime stories and have tea parties in the backyard with dolls and stuffed animals. We watch silly movies and cook dinner with friends.
All of this happens when we have time.
And all of this gets missed when we don’t.
On Tuesday, we talked about taking back your heart strings and reinvesting in yourself. You made a list of all the things that demanded your emotional bandwidth and started to make room in your life for the good stuff. Today, I wanted to show you what all the fuss about “making room” was for. It’s not just because I like lists.
Time is our most precious resource and all things come from it. If we spend all of our time running our business with blinders on, we’re going to miss some pretty amazing things over the years.
Today, I challenge you to take time. To MAKE time. Give yourself the gift of slowing down and coming to a complete stop. I guarantee you that whatever was taking your time will be there when you’re ready to pay attention to it again.
Take back your heart strings
It’s your heart. If you’re like a lot of people, it’s something you’re willing to share and you give of it freely. But are you giving to people who don’t appreciate it and deserve it?
My life and community are both filled with giving people – it’s truly a blessing to have this type of person surround me each and every day. We get caught in the trap, however, of giving when we should be saying no and then NOT taking our hearts back when we need them the most.
Now, I’m not telling you to not continue a life filled with generosity. It’s actually just the opposite. What I’m telling you to do is bring all of the wasted energy back to YOU so you can invest in the RIGHT things. Ready for a list to get you started? Let’s go:
People who don’t say thank you. They’re never going to say thank you, so stop waiting for them to say it and reel that energy back in.
Past relationships. Whoa boy, this is a doozy. If you think of your heart as something with a certain number of cords that let you “plug” in to someone else, we tend to leave ourselves plugged in to people after the relationships end. Take back your cords. Recharge yourself. They’re not giving you anything but grief.
Bad jobs. An unhappy career can take us away from the things that matter most in life: our families, hobbies and passions. If you’re truly unhappy, never be afraid to walk away from a bad job. Starbucks is always hiring and they give benefits to people who work 20 hours or more each week. It’s better than being miserable, right?
Now, make yourself a list. Write down all of the things that are taking your emotional bandwidth and then start crossing off the ones you don’t need. I love crossing things off a list – it makes me feel like I‘m getting things done! Go get something done today.
