Adunke Olatunji
BY Adunke Olatunji
“Desire is the key to motivation, but its determination and commitment to an unrelenting pursuit of your goal – a commitment to excellence – that will enable you to attain the success you seek.” Mario Andretti.
Mario Gabriele Andretti is an Italian-born American former racing driver and one of the most successful Americans in the history of the sport. He is one of only two drivers to have won races in Formula One, IndyCar, World Sportscar Championship, and NASCAR. He also won races in midget cars and sprint cars.
Now, what does ‘Keeping eyes on the prize’ mean? It simply means that you should keep your focus on achieving your set goal or better still a positive end result.
Entrepreneurs wear an insane number of hats. They are CEOs, CFOs, Assistants and even IT specialists. Yet, even with their head down in various roles, they remain focused on the light at the end of the tunnel. Whatever that prize or goal may be, it’s imperative that you learn how to keep your focus engaged therein.
Here are five ways to help you keep your eyes on your goals.
1. Identify priorities and strategize.
Your business’ success is dependent upon your ability to identify the most important things to be accomplished at any given point in time. You must have a very clear sense of your priorities, daily, weekly, or monthly. This is due to the fact that an unplanned day will inevitably lead to distractions taking over. Specific, discrete decisions about every moment will help eliminate interference. This ability to succinctly prioritize and strategize every move and minute will lead to a highly productive work environment whereby goals are easily achievable.
2. Envision the end result.
Ensure that each activity or task is somehow related to attaining that end prize: The sole purpose of your business venture. Certainly, there will be business-related (non-goal oriented) necessities. Make sure those are scheduled appropriately, but don’t veer from the path you’ve marked out for your business. You set goals for a reason: to achieve them. If you’re wasting time on anything else, get rid of it to avoid distractions that would hinder the ability to achieve the set goals.
3. Manage your time deliberately.
Some people are more productive in the morning, others are late in the night. Therefore, determine when you are most alert and intense, and utilize those periods with gusto!
Also, even when things seem open-ended time-wise, it’s best to set your own deadlines. The truth is, deadlines keep us focused. They motivate us to accomplish our tasks within an assigned frame of time and will thereby enable us to stay on track to success.
4. Tackle hard tasks dead on.
We have a tendency to get the easier stuff out of the way first. Unfortunately, this is exactly the opposite of the way we should be handling our days. Remember, we’ve got a limited amount of focus and therefore should use our most intense times for the harder things. The email answering, invoicing and other more mindless tasks can be done when we really do not need to be intellectually involved.
5. Check tasks for goal alignment.
It’s essential that you use your prioritizing skills to ensure that each activity or task you take on is directly correlated to your business goals. Don’t get sidetracked by things that sound interesting or that look like “good things to do” unless there’s a direct relationship between participation and reaching your business objectives. And for simplicity, you can group similar tasks together and align them to the set objectives.
A good way to ensure alignment is to schedule a meeting with yourself and your team, every week. Go over the to-do lists you’ve designed. Ascertain what was accomplished and what worked best to meet those aims. If there are things that can be changed to make your week more productive in the future, make them. If there are things you can eliminate, do so. Always look for ways to improve your productivity.
Surely you realize that running a business is no easy endeavor. No doubt you’ve seen first-hand just how simple it is to get derailed from your daily agenda, particularly if it’s on the vague side. However, if you strategize, envision the end result, deliberately manage your time, take on your hardest tasks first and stay in alignment, you can continuously keep your eyes on your goal, and eventually achieve it.
Brian Adams, a Canadian activist and philanthropist said, “People with a strong will power will always have the bigger picture in mind. They will be able to forgo small pleasures in order to help attain bigger goals.”
Adunke Olatunji, Managing Partner, Bamy-Rem Consulting