The Four steps to Intentionally Creating Success

Does this sound familiar?

You know you need to do SOMETHING, but you’re not sure what
Your success has almost happened by accident, and you don’t quite know how to repeat it
You resist creating a plan because it feels like it will limit or pigeonhole you
You’re a little lost and you don’t know where to turn for answers
You have too many options and you struggle to decide about where to go
You spent money on previous “systems” that didn’t produce any viable results

If this is you, then you’re not alone.

Nearly half of new businesses fail within the first 5 years

And one of the top reasons? No plan. Running a business without a plan is like trying to travel to a new place without a compass, a map or GPS. As a result, you can get off track very quickly, and mess up dreams, your business, your personal finances.

To avoid all this, and to turn my own dreams into reality I run every opportunity, idea, or tactic that comes my way through a simple process. I use it in my own business (and help my clients do the same) to determine whether it’s a direction worth pursuing. It saves you months of agonizing and headaches.

Why does this even matter?

Once we understand how to create a sustainable, intentional direction for our businesses, we feel empowered to make decisions that are aligned with what we want and what our business needs. It created excitement to move forward, instead of feeling lost and overwhelmed.

Creating success intentionally requires you to have a map that allows you to find your direction, and work toward it. This is what you need to do first to create this map:

1. Figure out what’s important and why
2. Write out your goals that leads to fulfilling your why
3. Build your benchmarks (does it move you toward your goal, is it accessible, is it simple, will it get done?)
4. JOMO

Step 1: Figure out what’s important and why

Understanding your priorities keeps your business in alignment with who you are. Anchoring your decisions to your priorities allows you to emotionally connect with the decisions you make. When you’re focused on the bigger reason behind what you do, you’re more able to push through difficulties.

You may have heard these things before – but for whichever reason you haven’t been able to stick with it and implement it? Most people STOP at this step and then wonder why they’re not able to sustain the excitement they have at their new direction.

Step 2: Write out your goals that lead to fulfilling your why

Your purpose (your why) is the big reason behind everything you do. Your goals are the specific things you want to achieve in a set timeframe to bring this purpose to life. We’ve all heard of SMART goals – and this is a good framework to use when considering these. These goals become the targets for you to work toward. They become the priority. This is where having support of a business strategy coach can make all the difference.

It’s also important that you create an opportunity to monitor your progress. Hold yourself accountable for these goals and recognize that YOU are the one in charge of whether you’re able to meet them. Do you need to alter your decisions to help you achieve them? Do you need to reassess what you spend your time and resources on?

Be careful not to set TOO many goals. When you overextend yourself, you risk overwhelming what you’re capable of achieving and then you’re more likely to miss your targets. Instead, choose the top goals that will get you the closest to where you want to be in the shortest amount of time.

Step 3: Build your benchmarks

There are four distinct benchmarks for every decision you make from here on out:

- Does it move you toward your goal?
- Is it accessible: do I have the means and knowledge?
- Is it simple: or is this just overwhelmingly complicated and will suck up all my attention?
- Will it get done?

An example: you are thinking about using this new social media platform to reach potential clients. Ask yourself the four questions: Does it move you toward your business goal? Well, maybe it does, because if you succeed you will make business with these clients, which helps you reach that growth milestone you set for this year.

Is it accessible? Well, you might be a solopreneur or run a small business. Your subject matter expertise might not be in social media … Is it simple? For someone with the required knowledge, yes. But you don’t want to spend the money on an external resource… but if you do it yourself, it would suck up all your attention.

Will it get done? Under the given circumstances, other work will be more important, thus it’ll likely not get done… You see the point. Let go of this idea and focus on what truly matters.

Be careful and don’t allow yourself to slide. The trouble comes when you think that you can add questions to those four, like “Will it be fun?”, or ignore a “no” answer when you’re asking these questions. Following these benchmarks is essential to staying focused and on target.

Why Doesn’t Everyone Do This?

I’ve got you excited about steps 1-3. It sounds great, right? But if it’s so great, why isn’t everyone successful? Here’s the problem: you still haven’t worked on your mindset. You still haven’t hit the last step – which admittedly, is the most difficult part for most of the people I work with.

This is the part that is going to require real work on your part, and the part that my clients ask me to support them with more than anything else.

Step 4: JOMO – Joy Of Missing Out

This is the mindset shift that will allow you to create laser focus on what will move you forward in a way that does not make you feel like you’re losing the fun part of your business. It creates clarity and ease when using your benchmarks to say NO to opportunities and decisions that don’t align with your goals and the reasons behind them.

You discover the JOY of saying NO because it allows you to say YES to the direction you have set for yourself. Once you are clear about your why and your goals, your BS detector is on! Using the four steps allows you to say no to things coming your way, because you immediately see whether they are just a shiny object.

This is the most liberating feeling! Instead of fearing that you miss out, you decide for or against something. And you are happy with your decision without feeling that you are pigeonholing yourself.

Be careful of forcing “the justification”. Sometimes we have opportunities that sound good… until you measure them against our benchmarks. BUT people sometimes bend and twist to justify why we still want to do it – why we want to say YES.

This is your opportunity to exercise your JOMO muscle and say NO even if it’s hard or you’re anxious. Because you have set forth your goals and benchmarks for a reason. If something doesn’t make the cut because it doesn’t fit the path to where you need to go, abandon it and don’t pursue it.

Some real-life client examples for you

I recently worked with a client who was frequently saying YES to any and every speaking opportunity that came her way – even if she knew that it had zero chance of creating income for her. After we worked to create her intentional strategy, she felt secure enough to say NO to some high-level speaking engagements that didn’t align with what we set out for her to achieve. She did this because she knew those opportunities would take attention away from the YESes she would want to say later.

I worked with another client who had nearly 50 domains in her GoDaddy account. Accumulated over the past 7-9 years of business. She was spending OVER $1300 a year to maintain those domains on the off-chance she either built a business around them or sold them. After we went through her vision and values and developed the plan to scale her business, she saw that those domains were NOT part of her growth strategy and began to pare them down to the CORE domains needed. She now has 3.

What could you achieve?

What could you achieve if you had someone on your side to help you create this shift in your business? Imagine what your business could look like in 6, 12 or 18 months if you not only knew where you were going – but had the confidence to stay the course.

Imagine how much different your business and life could look if you FINALLY set and achieved goals that align with who you are. I will work with you to help you create your vision, turn that vision into actionable goals, and understand the steps you need to take to make those goals a reality.

This is the same process that I used with my big corporate clients that helps them create billions of dollars in revenue, employs hundreds of thousands of people, and delivers products and services to millions of people… I’ll help you take the essence and use it for your business!

It IS possible. Your first step is this conversation.

Go to Brueckmann.ca/30