We’ve all heard the proverb, ‘A journey of a thousand miles begins with a single step’. It can be applied to many things in life, but I like to apply this theory to a business journey. Here’s what I mean.
Taking small steps is something that I’ve coached my business clients on for a long time, because I’m a huge advocate of making a step change – that is, making a change that has noticeable effects on your business, how you work or on your revenue.
However, jumping from A to Z is almost always impossible, and so this is where the smaller, more manageable steps come in to play on the bigger business journey. Having ‘Z’ firmly in your sights is fantastic, but you must first go through B, C and so on…
What obstacles might we find on our business journey?
When making a step change, we will undoubtedly come across obstacles… Maybe you’ll face an imbalance of funding vs growth, you may suddenly be time poor, or struggle to keep up with marketing activities. There will undoubtedly be challenges and obstacles that make us question our offering, ability and/or drive.
While these obstacles can threaten to derail us, I’ve found that if we take smaller steps we are far likelier to be able to approach them with motivation. The bigger the step, the bigger the obstacle, the bigger the solution (or motivation) needed… I often say that a big step has many things that can stop us from progressing and the cumulative challenges can overwhelm us or fuel procrastination. However, with smaller steps they are often surmountable with a little reflection when needed.
Smaller steps are easier to approach and therefore easier to overcome.
Why else is it important to take smaller steps?
When we take smaller steps, we achieve something more frequently – yes it might be a smaller win, but it gives us an opportunity to recognise and celebrate that win more often.
I recently saw a great idea on LinkedIn… Write a short note every time you achieve something, feel successful or very happy with the result of a task – put it in a jar to look through at the end of the year and you’ll find you have hundreds of little wins that add up to a whole jar full of success!
As entrepreneurs we’re not great at stopping and taking note of the small wins. More often than not we can see the business journey ahead, comprising of steps to be taken – each step giving us more choices, challenges and failures to learn from. Rather than trying to turn those steps into an escalator that gives you a ‘I want that tomorrow’ attitude try to regulate your pace, because life doesn’t give us things that quickly and that easily does it?
I know different people get there in different ways. We all have different businesses and attitudes, different definitions of what success looks like and different desires. For example, I’m very structured in terms of ‘getting there’ with very small steps, and other people will have a bit of a zigzag going on, while some will have a larger stride and take naturally bigger steps.
My best advice to you is that you need to find your own way, your own stride, because a journey of a thousand miles begins with just one step, and it’s a very uncomfortable journey going at someone else’s pace…
I hope that my encouragement to take your business journey at your own pace help you achieve big results. Talk to me today to get some clarity on your own steps, find a sounding board or get some accountability.