Z is for being in the Zone

OK – I have to admit, by the time I got to Z in this series, I had to be a little bit creative about the title, but actually being able to get in the Zone is an important part of running a business.

Let’s face it, we all have projects – things we want to do in our business to get us to where we want to be. And it’s really, really easy to let these things slide because other priorities get in the way.

I’ve got a ton of things that I plan to do between now and the end of the Year and it’s always a struggle to fit them in. There always seems to be something else that I need to do instead. So, in order to get them done, I need to enter the ‘Zone’ – in other words, set my mind to getting these things complete and actually do them.

And that’s the thing isn’t it? It’s all very well saying I’m going to do something like get three new training contracts, but if I don’t do anything to make this happen, these training contracts are not going to materialise.

Unfortunately, I see this happening with small business owners a lot. They say they’re going to go to 1 networking event every week, write articles, or contact 100 businesses to see if they’re interested in their products and services, but they don’t plan this activity in detail so sometimes, it never happens.

Take writing articles as a task. This requires quite a bit of thought…and more than you might think. What topic shall I write about? What research do I need to do to write the article? When am I going to sit down and write it? Now it’s written, what do I do with the article? How do I generate business from it?

Many of us wait until we have answered all these questions and more before we actually get going on the task and therefore, it’s very likely that the task doesn’t get done.

The point of this article is that in order to get things done, sometimes you have to get in the ‘zone’ and just get on with them. One of the easiest ways to do this is pick a day and decide that you’re just going to do it.

That’s exactly what I did when I decided to write this article. To be honest with you, I had been putting these last four articles off (coming up with titles for W to Z wasn’t easy I can tell you) and then on a Saturday morning, while my family was otherwise busy, I decided to sit down and write these last four.

I absolutely made my mind up that I wasn’t moving from my desk until these last four articles were written and done. And…do you know what, I’ve done it. I became focused and concentrated and all I wanted to do was complete it so I sat here until it was done.

Sometimes, I think if you make up your mind that you’re going to do something and decide on when you’re going to do it, you’ll enter the ‘zone’, become focused and get it done. And that is how you move your business forward…