M.A.S.T.E.R. Steps To Balanced Success

During the last days of August, we prepare to say good-bye to lazy times with friends and family, relaxed reading, lying on the beach, and hot drinks around a campfire. We start to think more about back to school, product launches, new projects, next year’s sales & marketing plans, and more. We squeeze out what’s left of the fading summer sun while our minds strategize for a busy year of meeting company goals.

And we ask, “How can I combine the best of both worlds? How can I be successful in business and still enjoy the other areas of my life?”

The good news is that we can. To help find that balance I came up with six M.A.S.T.E.R. Steps to Balanced Success.

1. Manage time
Time is a commodity with its own life – if we don’t control it, it controls us. If we choose to spend the majority of our time on administration then we have less time to spend on money-making activities. And it’s for sure that we’ll have trouble making time for that golf game we promised our friends. Blocking out time in our calendars for what we need to do and want to do helps us measure our ROT – Return on Time. And we won’t get to the end of a day and wonder where the time went.

2. Avoid procrastination
There’s wisdom in what our mothers and grandmothers told us – “Never put off until tomorrow what you can do today.” Some of us naturally work well under pressure – but at what cost? Cramming an important project into three hours instead of the ten it deserves puts pressure on us, potentially delivers a not-as-good-as-it-could-be product, and robs our family of the time we promised to spend with them. Stress all around.

3. Set goals
This is a given for anyone in business. Without clear goals we can get lost going from one exciting opportunity to another. Focusing on specific goals keeps us on track for what we really want to achieve in both our business and personal life.

4. Take charge
Keeping our priorities in proper order puts us in the driver’s seat and gives us freedom to pursue opportunities for success. The next time you’re making your daily to-do list, try going back over the list and designating each item as A (absolutely must be done today), B (important to do), C (do if I get to it), and D (delegate to someone else).

5. Enlist help
Entrepreneurs have a reputation for being lone rangers who will do anything and everything to get the job done. What we soon realize is that, to grow, we need to have other people on our team – people to help us do the work, friends to give support and encouragement, and champions (i.e. a coach or trusted peers) to keep us accountable to what we say we want to accomplish.

6. Relax
To help master balance in our life, we also need to take time to breathe. Try spending 15 - 20 minutes every day to just be – sit quiet – no pen and paper, no book, and no computer. Just you – sitting and breathing. It’s a great way to center ourselves – and the results can be surprising.

Every entrepreneur and business leader, at one time or other, struggles with finding balance between their professional and personal life. We are driven by our passion and desire to make a difference. We set goals and do whatever it takes to achieve them – sometimes to the detriment of our health or those we care the most about. When it comes down to it, we choose where to focus our time and energy.

Ann Griffiths

PS - "Imagine life as a game in which you are juggling five balls in the air. You name them - work, family, health, friends, and spirit, and you're keeping all of these in the air. You will soon understand that work is a rubber ball. If you drop it, it will bounce back. But the other four balls - family, health, friends and spirit are made of glass. If you drop one of these, they will be irrevocably scuffed, marked, nicked, damaged or even shattered. They will never be the same." Brian Dyson, CEO of Coca Cola Enterprises.

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SMART Strategies works with people in business to help them gain clarity, grow beyond obstacles and self-imposed limitations, and succeed in achieving the results they want. To explore how you can get the results you want in your personal and business life, email Ann at coach@smartstrategiesinc.com