Why do we lie to ourselves? Do you ever tell yourself lies about your business life? Your personal life? Of course you do. Every small business owner, entrepreneur, executive, manager or sales person on occasion tells themselves little lies to make them feel better in the short term. How often do you truly look in the mirror and face your reality? If you avoid your reality then greater difficulties lie ahead.

Overwhelmed but Empty

What is your ideal future? You need to take the time to write it down your ideal future and make it tangible. But the fact is that you first need to gain clarity about where your life is today both professionally and personally. The lack of clarity about your current situation (the good, bad and ugly) will continue to allow you to fool yourself. Today is the day that you need to paint a clear picture of where things truly are for you. If you continue to lie to yourself you will continue to feel empty.

Build a strong Foundation

You have to understand the truthful foundation that you are on so that you can truly progress to make your business foundation one that can be built on to withstand the rough weather that the world can send your business world. Then you can quit simply thinking day to day but instead you can think about your vision long-term. Or you can choose to run very hard on your figurative treadmill and realize that you aren’t really going anywhere. That results in massive frustration and burnout. You must learn to own the truth about your situation, the good and bad. Don’t hide from your true reality, own up to it so you can start running a race that is truly going to where you want it to go.

Face your Reality by answering these questions

• What do I like and dislike about my business?
• What do I like and dislike about my role as owner?
• If I had to start my business over tomorrow, what/who would I keep and what/who would I let go?
• If someone were to buy my business today, what would scare them (weaknesses/risks) and what would excite them (strengths/opportunities)?
• What is working great in my business that I should leverage (multiply, replicate, etc.)?
• What is broken in my business I need to fix now?
• Am I mainly working “on” or “in” my business?
• Am I functioning like a leader or doer?
• Do I own a real business or simply work a crazy job?
• If I could change one thing about my business, what would it be?
• What are some unresolved issues/”messes” in my business or personal life that need to be cleaned up?
• What is broken in my personal life I need to address now?
• If I could change one thing about my personal life, what would it be?

Start Fresh Today

What do your answers reveal about you, your business and your life? Can you accept the truth of your answers? If so, congratulations. You can now move on to develop solutions based on truth and clarity. Again, as a business owner, try to live by the motto, “Truth Today for a Better Tomorrow.” You won’t regret it!

Business Owner, Travis Thie, shares some of the value the he gleaned from Growth Coach Sioux Falls

“All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them.” Walt Disney

Walt Disney had tremendous struggles in his quest to do great things. He was fired by a newspaper for not being creative enough and went bankrupt with his laugh-o-gram studios venture . His struggles basically left him homeless for a time. Yet he knew where he was and never lost focus of where he knew he was going.

Do you know where you are? Do you often doubt where you are going? Do you know the #1 reason that most people don’t get what they want in life? The #1 reason that most people don’t get what they want in life is that they don’t know what they want in life.

Are you fulfilled?

Do you ever have a feeling of emptiness? Are you making first things first? Are you allowing yourself to be dominated by things that take your focus off of the difference making actions that you should be taking? If so CHANGE! Life is very short. Focus on the actions that make a truly positive impact on your family, your company, your employees, your co-workers, your boss etc.

What are your dreams?

What things do you want to accomplish? You owe it to yourself to slow down, reflect and understand truly where you are, where you want to go and map out exactly how you are going to get there.

Look at your life as concrete and be proactive

Everything that has already happened is now dry concrete. Everything in front of you is wet concrete. How are you going to put your initials into it? Too often we decide that we need to do something to improve our lives and we decide that we are going to get to that right away tomorrow. Then tomorrow becomes next week and next week becomes next month and next month becomes next year and next year becomes ten years and ten years becomes disappointment wondering why we didn’t do the things that we have always known that we needed to do. Are you doing the things that you know you need to do? What are the most important things in your life? Are you taking care of them? Are you taking care of yourself? “All our dreams can come true, if we have the courage to pursue them” What are your dreams? Are you pursuing them? This is not a New Year’s resolution, this is a new YOU resolution.

Look at each of these vital areas in life:
• Family and Friends
• Career
• Play
• Mind
• Spiritual
• Financial
• Health

Now commit to 3 actions in each area to make each of them stronger. Review each area everyday and map out actions for each area week by week and enjoy the success that will follow. Let’s see how Big Ken Sproles followed the Growth Coach of Sioux Falls to guide him.

“Your mental attitude is something you can control outright, and you must use self-discipline until you create a positive mental attitude – your mental attitude attracts you to everything that makes you what you are.”
– Napoleon Hill

How we think is critical. Our mind controls everything in our lives. Our beliefs control our thoughts our focus. Our thoughts control our feelings – our fears, uncertainty, doubts, suspicions, hopes, desires. Our feelings control the actions, and the actions that we make lead us to our results. It really is that simple. So please ask yourself, what are you thinking about today?

Throughout my nine years as owner of The Growth Coach of Sioux Falls, I’ve often heard leaders express negative thoughts about how things are going or how they are looking. And these thoughts happen in our personal lives as well.

Last fall, I was coaching a girls fast pitch softball team. I tuned my ears into what the girls were saying, and I commonly heard things like “I just can’t hit,” “I’m using the wrong part of the bat” or “I just did horribly.” After hearing those consistent negative statements, it was pretty clear why we were having negative results. I asked a few of the girls to do themselves a favor. Instead of saying to themselves” I can’t” or “I hope I don’t,” I wanted them to think and say out loud that “I can” and “I will” have great success. I even asked one of the most serious and competitive players to smile. She did, and her smile truly changed the energy she felt inside. When these teenagers started having empowering thoughts as opposed to very limiting beliefs, they became successful.

Take a moment to ask yourself what you think about. Are you thinking about your dreams and how to achieve them, or are you thinking about your fears? Remember, the acronym for fear is False Expectations Appearing Real. Ninety-seven percent of our fears never happen, yet we often allow them to devour us.

I often share with my Growth Coach clients an audio clip from the original “dean of personal development,” Earl Nightingale, and his message about “The Strangest Secret.” He boiled down the secret to success into a simple statement: “You become what you think about.” Your dominant thoughts, which produce your feelings, determine your actions, which lead to where you are right now.

So again, let me ask you what you are thinking about. Success or failure? Opportunities or obstacles? Thinking about yesterday or looking forward to tomorrow? Your blessings or your burdens? Everything you think about sets off a chain reaction that affects your results. Your thoughts are ridiculously powerful. Discipline yourself to control them.

A few times a day, adjust the dialogue in your head to better ensure that you don’t let your mind take you to the places that you don’t want to go.

You become what you think about. What do you want to become? Challenge yourself right now and commit!!!

Sara Tims, co-owner of Christoffels Hair Replacement has some positive things to share: