The moment you realise that growing a business is a very long-term event – i.e. when patience jumps in – is where the magic really starts to happen.
I say this because without patience comes frustration, anxiety, ill health and worry. Worrying why things aren’t moving along as quickly as you expected causes the momentum and compounding to take effect on your current mood. This means you get more and more frustrated, affecting your physical and mental health.
This is why, for me, patience is just as important as momentum. Being patient is so important for keeping all emotions and expectations in check. It goes back to what I was saying previously: most people, when they start out in business, go at 100 miles an hour and expect it to happen overnight. Then, when it’s not happening overnight, the frustration kicks in.
Patience is a state of mind
It took me many years to come to terms with the fact that things aren’t going to move as quickly as I want them to. It wasn’t easy for me, and it ended up with me treating it like some form of meditation. Stick with me on this one.
For me, patience is a state of mind. The quicker you can get your brain into that patient way of thinking, the healthier and more successful you will become. This literally changed everything for me: my frustration levels dropped, my stress levels dropped and I was a whole lot less anxious than I was in my impatient twenties and thirties. It’s crazy to look back at what I put myself through just because I was pushing myself too hard – but I just had no grasp of expectation. I just had this ridiculous confidence that it was just going to happen overnight, and it’s just not the way it is.
Little and often
I also make sure I do something every day that is building momentum. This means repeating activities from sales prospecting, training and coaching my team, working on business strategies and so on. I keep adding to each task and seeing what happens. Momentum and compounding can start with you simply repeating a task or activity, expanding on it then delegating it to someone else.
It goes the same for your productivity and time management: the more often you do something, that momentum starts to build up and it becomes a habit. Furthermore, the ‘first contact’ idea with a client is similar for changing your habits. The first step is focusing on something – and I believe the smaller you can make that first contact, the more effective the process will be.
Take my attempt to improve my health as an example – I’m doing it in little chunks. So, for two weeks, I’m not eating much sugar. Then, I’m going to do two weeks of getting up early in the morning and going for a walk. Then, what happens is momentum and compounding start to build. I’m now doing all these things, and in a year’s time when you add up all these weeks, it builds this huge picture. I believe it’s the same in business.
I’m hoping those analogies and metaphors made sense!
It’s down to you and how you respond to mistakes
Finally, it’s simply up to you to keep going and not give up. I’ve seen this in action, and I’m really starting to see the momentum and compounding effect across the whole of my business from many, many years of effort I’ve put in. Not all of it is positive – there’s been mistakes, too, and that’s had an effect on momentum. For example, we’re still managing debt as a business, so we’re trying to control momentum to ensure it goes in the opposite direction.
Thank you for reading this chapter of the Diary of an Entrepreneur. I must stress, I’m not trying to teach you anything. I’m just sharing my journey, and if it motivates you, then great – job done!
If you want to hear more about my entrepreneurial journey, check out the Diary of an Entrepreneur podcast on all available platforms – I talk all things business in terms of my OWN journey and experience. It’s not one to miss!
If you’d like to chat more business, feel free to get in touch with me here or you can email me directly at dannylacey@stadamedia.co.uk.