1% Better Every Day: Small Steps to Big Success
The Challenge of The 10X Mindset
The allure of exponentially increasing your success is undeniably magnetic. The 10X mindset encourages entrepreneurs to think bigger and reach higher. Yet, thinking on such a grand scale can often paralyze us with fear of the unknown and overwhelm. We see our peers on social media scaling those heights with apparent ease, and doubt creeps in. It's not just about setting monumental goals; it's about the daunting question – how do we even start climbing that proverbial mountain?
The 1% Strategy: Incremental Progress for Monumental Success
How do we combat this paralysis by analysis? It's simple – focus on becoming 1% better each day. Instead of obsessing over the mountain's summit, concentrate on the step directly in front of you. This approach amplifies your effectiveness, turning an insurmountable peak into a series of achievable hills. As I wrote my book, "The CEO Method", it was this very principle that guided me from concept to publication in mere months. The secret? Embrace the power of present action over future anxiety and ditch the overwhelm.
Introspection and Purposeful Action
Every action should be steeped in purpose and aligned with our ultimate goals. The act of constantly questioning our 'why' and 'how' not only instills our actions with intention but also anchors us in the present. This self-inquiry opens up a gateway to understanding our motivations, be it fear of success or the habitual comfort found in procrastination. Recognizing these patterns offers us the chance to change course and steer toward our desired future.
Time Management: The Foundation of Focus
A vital component of the 1% better strategy rests in how we manage our time. We've delved into the significance of time audits in previous episodes, emphasizing the pivotal role of choice in our schedules. Every 'yes' to a task implies a 'no' to another – understanding and embracing this can be transformative. By intentionally crafting our days, we allocate time to the tasks that carve a direct path to our objectives, often forsaking the allure of immediate gratification for long-term gain.
The Unsexy Truth: Consistency
It's the unsung hero of any success story – consistency. Knowing the numbers, tracking KPIs, and analyzing cash flow aren't typically celebrated, but they are the backbone of a thriving business. Total transformation doesn’t necessitate a complete overhaul; oftentimes, just a few minor adjustments can produce significant dividends. By continuously monitoring the data, we can refine our approach incrementally, leaning into what works and pivoting away from what doesn't.
Conclusion: The Compound Effect of Daily Progress
The beauty of focusing on 1% better every day is that it's sustainable. It aligns your daily life with your deepest ambitions, allowing for adaptive changes along the way. While the 10X vision remains a powerful beacon, our day-to-day actions become the stepping stones to reaching it. This incremental strategy can accelerate the achievement of our goals, offering a blueprint for personal progress and business growth.
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Transcript for Episode 307. How to Ditch the Overwhelm and Get Results!
Amy [00:00:02]:
Have you read the book ten X is easier than two X by Dan Sullivan and Doctor Benjamin Hardy? It's an awesome read and it's one of my recommended books that I share out all the time. It's based around this concept that doing things, thinking bigger, thinking ten X will get us there faster than focusing on two x. But in today's episode, I want to unpack this concept a little bit more because the reality is that as an entrepreneur, a lot of times when we're thinking so big, we can go into a state of overwhelm. We can trigger ourselves into feeling this analysis paralysis, and then we stay stuck and then we don't take action. So what do you do? What do you do when you have these ten X goals that are amazing, phenomenal, would change your life and will change your life, but life is happening and ten X feels scary. It feels like a lot. And in the online space, it's so easy to get sucked into the scroll mode. You know, we go down the scroll hole where we're getting triggered, we're seeing others achieving the success that we desire, and then we end up feeling less, then we end up putting our phones away and feeling really, really crummy about ourselves.
Amy [00:01:46]:
Instead of actually taking action and doing the things that would move the needle forward, we find ourselves defeated. We see this huge mountain that is ten x right in front of us. We can see it. We have that clear picture. But we're not taking the intentional actions because we're overwhelmed, because we're juggling all of the things we're doing, all of the things. It's time for a better way. And this is a conversation I have at least once a week when I'm working with clients. We talk about having these big goals.
Amy [00:02:22]:
It's good to have big goals. I want you to dream so, so big. Whatever dream you have on your heart, you can achieve it. You can make it happen. And there's an easy way to do it. This is the way I was able to write my book in literally weeks, to get it to publication in a couple months. And do you want to know what that is again? It's one of these so simple, so blatantly simple strategies, but it's so transformational. And you know what it is? It's focusing on 1%.
Amy [00:03:04]:
If I am focusing on 1% making myself 1% better today, 1% better today than I was yesterday, I'm taking those intentional actions. I'm taking the next step and the next step, and I keep moving forward, not focusing on the whole staircase, not focusing on the whole mountain and how much further I have to climb, but focusing on right now, here and now. What can I accomplish right now? What is that one major task today that will move me closer to that destination? That will move me closer to the mountain. And this is something that doctor Benjamin Hardy talks about in be your future self. Now, you know, our goals are like a mountain. And every single time we take action, I encourage you to ask yourself, why? Why am I doing this thing I'm doing? Why am I picking up my phone to go onto social media? Am I going on social media? Because, let's get honest with ourselves. Because I don't want to do the thing that I know would actually move the needle forward. Is it a form of procrastination because we don't want to confront those parts of ourselves? Is that underlying fear of success really holding us back? Because, my gosh, what happens when we actually do the thing? It's scary.
Amy [00:04:44]:
It's so, so scary. I will be the first to admit, like, writing the CEO method book was the most terrifying thing ever that I have done in business. It almost felt like the only thing that has come close in my life has been giving birth. And I know this is such a weird analogy, but it's so true. You spend all this time cultivating, building, growing this thing, but then you give birth and you're like, oh, my gosh, here it is. What do I do? It's scary, that unknown, having that fear. But when you face that fear head on and you go, you know what? I see you. And I'm going to continue to move forward despite you.
Amy [00:05:36]:
So this is something that, when you wake up each day, I encourage you, focus on the next step. What is that? 1% that I can do better today and something we've talked about before, and we even dove into it in last week's episode, was the time audit. I want you to track your time, figure out where you're spending your time, because the way you spend your time is a choice. What are you saying yes to? What are you saying no to? Because remember, when you're saying yes to something, you're saying no to something else, and it's hard to say no. But in saying no, we open up so much space, we open up potential in our schedules to intentionally focus on the things that would move the needle forward. And these are often things that aren't fun. It's consistency. It's repeating those basic foundational elements over and over and over.
Amy [00:06:51]:
It's basic things like knowing your numbers tracking your KPI's, figuring out, okay, what does my cash flow look like over a year? Trend this data over time. We're often looking at these little snippets in time and when it's great, it's great, right? It's really, really good. But what happens when you have a silent lunch, when you have a month that, you know what, this was my worst month ever. Are you able to detach and zoom out and realize, okay, this is not a big deal, when we can look at our businesses with a lens of curiosity, why is this working? Why is this not working? How am I spending my time? How and why? Those are two, two extremely important questions that in your quest to get 1% better each day, I want you to ask yourself over and over and over, why am I doing this? And how? How can I make this work? How can I bring new leads? And how can I replicate the results that I had on one of those awesome months? Oftentimes, we don't need to be starting over from ground zero just because something didn't work. It's okay when it doesn't work. That's still just as valuable as those times when it did. Because what you can do is you can use that data to make and refine, make those small little adjustments. One or two things we're not talking about burn everything down.
Amy [00:08:52]:
A lot of times, it's just the small little tweaks, that 1%, again, 1%, we change that 1%, and what happens? It adds up. It starts to create momentum. And as I always say, action creates momentum and momentum creates results. But it all comes back to taking one step at a time. One step at a time. Intentionally focus in that direction. Focus to that mountain that you're headed to. And when you focus on that 1%, it gets easier.
Amy [00:09:37]:
It gets easier because now you're spending your life in a way that feels aligned. You can make those small little pivots as you go. Yes, you have that ten x vision out there, but we're realistically now able to achieve our goals faster. I am cheering for you. And until next time, cheers to making the money you want so you can create the impact you desire.