Weed your own yard
The art of tending to your own yard.

yard

Carson City is a small town. It’s not tiny by any stretch of the imagination. In fact, there is plenty to do (as a visit to the I Love Carson City Facebook page will quickly show you). Although it is a capital city, 55,274 is just small enough to run into at least one person you know when you go to the grocery store (or an ex boyfriend when you are having a girls’ night). It’s also just small enough to magnify an issue most people struggle with anyway, digging around in other people’s yards.

Tending to your own yard (your own business, relationships, personal issues) is an art. It takes a lot of practice and willingness to not to look over the fence and compare, contrast, judge, or copy what your neighbor is doing. Many businesses tend to do exactly that. They cookie-cutter their competition by mimicking promotions, product offerings, and business tactics. What you must realize is this – it’s what makes you unique that will bring customers to your door, not your ability to pay attention to your competition and do what they are doing.

To tend to your own yard, you need the following tools:

A mower: Take some quiet time to yourself to gain some perspective on yourself. Don’t take anyone else into consideration. Just focus on YOU. Cut the overgrowth caused by expectations, negative self-talk, naysayers, and other things that have gotten unmanageable over a period of time.

A pruner: Get out a pen and paper and start snipping. Write down what makes you happy, what makes you unhappy, what you are looking for in life, and what people, places, or ideas in your backyard that need to be snipped so the weeds don’t choke out the beautiful flowers of your life.

Some weed killer: Once you’ve identified those people, places, and ideas, spread some weed killer on it. Give yourself permission to, as Queen Elsa says, “let it go.”

Some fertilizer: Fertilize the good with positive, intentional, actions. Don’t attack it all at once. Fertilize what you can handle, as it will surely grow.

When you do this to your own yard, versus focusing on others (what they are doing/have done to you, their lives, their businesses, their state of mind) you will find new landscape for growth, prosperity, and profitability.

Today’s Exercise: Try it! Take a notebook and dedicate one page to your mower, one page to your pruner, one page to your weed killer, and as many as you dare for your fertilizer. What did you come up with? How will you use what you have learned to tend to your yard versus someone else’s?

If I can be of any assistance with this exercise. Just contact me.

Give a Man a Fish
What costs less, learning to do it or having it done?

GiveaManaFish

If you’ve read the story about What Works, you know that our firm used to be all about taking over the reins – being an installed executive, doing your email programs, web sites, marketing plans and marketing campaigns for you. Can we still refer you to people who can do it for you if you need it? Absolutely! We do that every day. But what we really prefer to do is coach you on HOW to do it. “Give a man a fish and you feed him for a day. Teach a man to fish and you feed him for a lifetime.” That old Chinese Proverb is actually very true.

Think about it. If we teach you What Works for your unique situation, than you have the power, the knowledge, to continue forward and repeat that process if your issue should ever recur again. However, if we say – “here, let’s just do that for you, charge you this nifty one time fee and its done,” what’s the result? Sure, its done for you. The issue has been handled – THIS TIME. However, the next time you need something done, you are stuck in the mud. At that point you look for a new solution, a new vendor,  or a new whatever.  Why look for something new over and over again when you can participate in the development of your own trusted, tried and true tools? At What Works, we give you the tools to be unstuck.

Today’s exercise: Think of past situation where something “stuck” in your business. How did it get there? Where did you shift things to unstick it? What guidance would you give yourself now that it’s unstuck? Did your solution teach you how to fish or was it a Band-Aid to get past temporary pain?

When you see an issue, you need to fish for lasting solutions or rush for a quick fix?

Tell us all about it in the comments below and, if we can help, contact us.