March 4th, 2011 — 11:11am
I recently came across an article that rattled my cage. After reading the signs, I know I surely suffer from Goal Addiction…and I’m sure in deeper than I think. Like most addicts I tell myself, “I can stop anytime I want to.”
The warning signs:
Your default answer is “yes” when presented with a new commitment to sign up for – because you just know you can do it.
You’re falling behind in the things that matter (your physical health, your emotional health, and your family, for example), but you’re still cranking on things that have temporary value at best.
A significant amount of your daily stress comes from being behind on things
You think technology is going to solve your time management problems.
You are working your ass off, but not moving much farther ahead on your many goals.
You don’t actually have clear “finish lines” for your goals, so any success never feels like enough
You think of “juggling” your goals rather than focusing on them.
But like a drug, I’m drawn to it, maybe it’s the voice in my head that keeps saying:
Because “doing a million things” is impressive. “Doing less” smacks of weakness.
Because “optimizing” sounds intellectual. “Simplifying” sounds like you’re copping out.
So what should we do start saying ‘no’ to stuff?
People won’t really know how to handle it when I stop confusing anxiety with actually being productive. (Anxiety = ‘I’ve got a million things to do! I must be important!” Productive = “I’m clear about my priorities and if I get to the other stuff, fine”)
So yeah. People will think you’re weird.
It wasn’t easy for me to admit goal addiction to myself but I had to face up to it.
Still working through it. Making some progress, one day at a time.
Maybe we’ll throw together an AA meeting for the goal addicted. I know I’m not alone …
December 29th, 2010 — 8:55pm
EVERY business out there, including yours and mine, gets its revenue from the same three buckets—regardless of what we sell or do. You are going to hit your numbers and grow your business from the same three buckets of people, not products:
1. Current customers
2. Past customers
3. New customers
That’s it. Instead of focusing your marketing and business development efforts on how to push product or sell services, focus on the people who use them.
Here’s how. Customers come and customers go. They flow in and out of your business much like water flows in and out of a lake. The lake represents your current customer base. Your past customers are the run-off over the dam. When it rains, new business fills the lake.
Perhaps now, more than ever, is a good time to look at your lake. How would your marketing change if you were told that the only way you could create revenue for the rest of the year was to market to your lake of current customers. What would you do? Have you checked the dam for leaks lately? What could you do to strengthen the dam, go deeper and wider within the lake (your current book of business)?
And what about the ones who “went over the dam”? What can you do to re-connect and re-direct past customers back to the beach? Do you even know who they are and why they left?
The lake and the run-off already know you—at least to some degree. Rainmaking could take more time and perhaps more money. Why not go for a swim before you do the rain dance?