When you’re up to your arse in alligators…

..it's hard to drain the swamp (thanks to Drayton Bird for that one)

A lot of what we talk about will seem blindingly obvious. Well, I'm sorry.

However the reason is simple. Although we all know a lot of things, far too often we don't do them.

So I've already talked about how important it is to have a goal for your business (and your life).

And I wasn't talking about needing to put together some detailed, involved business plan - just starting with some simple goals as to where you want to be short-term and long-term.

Well, the truth is, even if you have set your goals you probably won't achieve them.

Why?

Because you won't take action.

And there are two reasons why this is true:

1: What you need to do to make a difference will be outside your comfort zone.

Sometimes way outside. So you'll put off doing it. Make excuses. Do something else.

...And all the time, you'll be falling further behind.

2: You'll want what you do to be perfect.

And there will always be a little tweak, a small change, a tiny amendment before you think it's perfect.

However as Voltaire said, over 250 years ago, "The best is the enemy of the good." Jeez, you'd think things would have changed since then wouldn't you?

So, I want you to do two things over the next 30 days.

Firstly, I want you to take the 30 in 3 challenge.

Set up 30 meetings in the next 3 weeks which will help grow your business. It could be meeting up with customers who can refer others to you.

Or potential customers that you'd like to sign up (I'll go through how to get them to agree to see you in a future email).

Or a contact that could be good for your business.

It doesn't matter. What matters is that you start making the contacts.

And in every meeting, think first about what you can give to them, rather than what they can give to you.

So go on, make a list and start phoning.

And secondly, over the next 30 days, if you're writing an email, or a marketing piece, or a letter, think about when what you're doing is good enough - not perfect.

You'll be amazed at how much time you'll save and how much more you'll get done.

And if you make a mistake? Well, learn a lesson from one of my clients.

He sent out an invite to his restaurant to watch the Olympic torch go by - and he set the whole event up for the wrong day! So he sent another invite to the proper day and still ran the event on the wrong day - which he called his non-Olympic torch day. And he got almost as many people to both events!

And if he'd worried too much before he sent anything out, he'd probably never contact anyone again.

So go on, jump out of your comfort zone, take action and see what difference it makes.

PS Confused about the alligator quote? It means if you're too busy dealing with urgent issues (the alligators) you don't get round to doing the important issues (draining the swamp).