All the things, and your one thing

“We’re doing all the things right now, so I guess my question is…what do I focus on?”

Had a one to one Momentum session with a client last week, and when I asked what particularly she wanted to cover, this was it.

This is for those of you who ARE actually doing things. Loads of things. All the things.

You’re proud of yourself for taking action (and rightfully so). You’re thankful to be in a place where there are many things to do, and plenty of business.

But…you have this sneaking feeling you could be focusing your efforts in just one place to make more progress. Isn’t that how success happens? Consistent action, in the same direction, day after day, year after year?

I saw this on Twitter, a “fascinating fact about a grandparent”. I sat and stared at it for a while. Three bricks a day. Every day. For seven years. A LITERAL HOUSE.

I confess I even did the math. Three per day… that’s 21 per week… times 52 weeks per year….times 7 years. That’s 7,644 bricks. Is that enough for a house? Did some googling and yep, looks like it is.

It doesn’t seem enough, does it? Three bricks a day. Seems like he needed to be hauling an entire wagonload full of bricks every day. Gather an entire family or workforce together.

The reason he could build a house with those bricks is that’s all he carried home every day in the lunch pail. Three bricks. If he’d carried other things, or skipped it now and then until he stopped doing it altogether….no house.

Back to my conversation about doing “all the things”. This particular client felt she knew what ‘category’ of thing she wanted to prioritise (for her it was their onboarding system).

It’s easy to say “I’m going to prioritise onboarding”: but what are the three bricks today? How can you build your onboarding house if one day you’re carrying bricks, the next day nothing, the next day a few small bugs and a stick, then just one brick? It’s going to take you a lot longer than 7 years.

Answer all of these questions as they relate to your one area – onboarding, or prequalifying, or hiring, or scaling the firm, or project management. That way, you’re not randomly doing something every day, but you’re identifying what your bricks are, to build your onboarding house. Your hiring house.

  • What’s annoying you or wearying you right now? Is there a question you’re tired of answering, a task you’re tired of doing every day or week or month?
  • What question do you get asked all the time? Which, if you could simply answer by sending a blog post or video, would save you a lot of time?
  • What task is being done just a little bit differently every time (by you, or different team members)?
  • What’s been on your to-do list for absolute AGES? You’re tired of looking at it, or it’s ceased to have any meaning. You don’t actually believe you’ll do it.
  • Does it have to be…? Does it have to be as big a project as you’re imagining? For example, do you actually need a full, brand new website today…or would one new page on your existing site solve 80% of the problem? Does it have to be an entire online course, or would a few quick Loom videos cover most of what they need to learn? Does it have to be a detailed PDF guide, or could it be a few blog posts? We are thinking of the house when we need to scale it down to the bricks.
  • Where are you finding it difficult to say NO? If you and the team are swamped but you’re still taking on new clients, an actual waiting list page (with a form and a video explaining how it works) could help you to say no. If you keep hiring people and not long after letting them go, creating a checklist against which to review potential new team members will help you say no. Create that.

 

Whichever one of these questions was the easiest and fastest to answer, that’s your one thing. Work on that and get it actually done (not perfect but done!). And then move on to the next and the next.

Before you know it, you’ll have built your house.

And it might even take less than seven years!

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ON THE GRAM

Popped into a fave local coffee shop in York this week and this was the mug they gave me. ❤️✨

Wasn’t feeling so superwomanny when I got it - this week was very full, plus period cramps and multiple migraines and my ankle being wonky and more travel than I’ve done in a while. I had intended to get coffee but the cramps were so bad I had to go for mint tea and just sit until they faded enough for me to walk again. 

At the same time, I also had an amazing time during this week with the @weare_pf Board meeting in person for the first time. Getting to know each other better as humans and sharing ideas and making plans and most of all appreciating that the weight of all the business decisions doesn’t rest solely on my shoulders. 

This is just one of your reminders that being a superwoman looks different at different times, and whether you’re striding along strongly or sitting weakly with mint tea, your superwoman status still applies. 

#justkeepgoing #superwoman #muglife #wegotthis #onedayatatime
Every single time I go sailing past this lighthouse on the mull-to-Oban ferry I think “this time I’ll just watch it and not take any pictures” 

And then something wild happens like A SAILBOAT GOES BY and of course I have to capture that, surely I haven’t taken that photo before (spoiler: I have), and then I have about seventeen lighthouse photos to add to my collection of seven thousand lighthouse photos from the last twenty years. 

But, I figure, what’s the harm anyway. It’s my photos and my memories and it brings me joy. I love the lighthouse as a visual of my journey from the mainland to the island (or a reminder I’ll be back soon). 

So, see you soon lighthouse. Thanks for standing there. 

#lismorelighthouse #eileanmusdile #lighthouse #lighthousesofinstagram #oban #ferry #calmac #isleofmull #sailaway #sailboat #scotland #travelscotland
I read. A lot. My list of “books to read” has over 100 titles listed, and every time I mention a book I’ve appreciated, I get another recommendation of a new one and the list gets longer. 

One of the books recommended to me years ago was “The Buddha in Me the Buddha in You”. She mentioned it had some helpful principles about how we navigate life - and whether you’re a buddhist or not, there are principles you can learn from and apply in life.

I wrote it down, forgot about it, and moved on with life. Read lots of other books.

And then when I broke my ankle, and was sitting and resting a LOT, with loads of time for reading, I went back to my list and started reconsidering some of the titles on it.

When I looked up “The Buddha in Me the Buddha in You”, the subtitle was “A Handbook for Happiness”, and that struck me.

Dealing with an injury is difficult. Sad. Wearying. It can be hard to find happiness and every day feels about the same. (Very Groundhog Day.)

So I bought the book, and put it by my bed. I started getting into a pattern of reading a chapter every morning with my coffee.

I thought I’d share some of the principles I appreciated and which are already helping me as I continue to navigate my life right now: 

[the full post on these is too long for an Insta post so click the link in bio or story if u want to read more!]

Thank the spoon - a spoon stirs up the mud in what had appeared to be clear water. Same with life: hard things stir up what you haven’t dealt with yet. So you thank them. “Thank you, spoon”

The Fundamental darkness (FD) - the “Survival Obsessed Self” who responds in a way based on survival but not growth

There’s a gift in the struggle - He describes it visually as “the lotus flower in the muddy pond”. You can focus on the mud, or on the flower, but they’re both there.

Nam - myo - ho - renge - kyo : The happiness soundtrack - I pulled out the core concepts of each of these words as they applied to me, and they are: 

Purpose
Mystery
Potential 
Bloom in the struggle
Flow of life

#karensnotes #buddhainmebuddhainyou #books #reading #happysaturday 

[full note link in bio!]
The snow is swirling the wind is howling IT’S FROZEN OUT THERE 
#snowing #happyspringeveryone #inlikealion