How I’ve Sacrificed Results By Refusing To Choose
I’ve been dealing with a fitness conundrum lately.
Over the last year and a half, I’ve become a pretty committed runner, climber, hiker, and weight lifter. I love each discipline in its own way and I legitimately look forward to each “running day,” “climbing day,” or “lifting day.”
As a competitive, ambitious type of person, I have goals for each pursuit. I want to get my 5k pace under 8:55/mile. I want to consistently climb V5s. I want to conquer hikes like the Highline in Glacier National Park, Razor’s Edge at Mt Katahdin in Maine, and Angels Landing in Zion. I want to tackle barbell back squats and push my deadlifts to the limit.
So, I’ve been on the look out for a trainer or training plan that can accommodate each of these goals so that I don’t have to sacrifice my ability to enjoy each endeavor.
Not surprisingly, I’ve been coming up short. It’s easy to find training plans for running faster, climbing harder, or lifting heavier. But none of them accommodate my schedule for the other sports.
For now, I’ve stuck with my regular routine of running about 4–5 times a week, lifting 2 times per week, climbing 3 times per week, and hiking whenever I get the opportunity.
During my long run this week, I had an epiphany.
What I’ve done with my fitness goals is exactly what I caution small business owners against all the time.
I’m sacrificing results because I’m refusing to focus.
The truth is that even with solid sleep and nutrition, my performance suffers when I “accidentally” go too hard when I hit the gym, pavement, or trail. I have to carefully balance my energy, stamina, and strength to allow me to continue to maintain my current level of performance in each of these pursuits.
And, there’s certainly value to that.
But it means I’m not making substantial progress toward my goals in any of the things I do. I’m simply creeping along with small victories along the way.
I’m not necessarily saying this is a bad thing.
But I have to ask myself: is this what I really want?
Am I personally satisfied with incremental progress over a long period of time? Or would it be more rewarding to make a big leap over a 12-week period?
For me, bigger leaps tend to excite and motivate me more. And, to make a big leap, I need to focus on one pursuit.
Focus doesn’t have to mean giving things up — but it does mean that I need to decide what I’m going to prioritize for a period of time.
That might mean training to climb a grade harder for 12 weeks. Or, it might mean training to shave time off my 10k pace for 6 weeks. Or, as the case actually is, committing to training pull-ups for the next 6 weeks so I can knock out my 2018 goal of doing 10 unassisted pull-ups in a row. So close.
Either way, I don’t have to stop lifting, hiking, climbing, or running… I just need to fit it around my main priority — and protect my top priority as just that.
The same is true in growing, managing, and running my business.
When asked what my 2018 goals were, I’ve been replying that I wanted to keep doing what we were doing but do it better.
Now, I know that’s a terrible way to set a goal and that approach doesn’t even match the truth of the situation. There were real challenges that needed to be solved and I haven’t been willing to put my focus on them because I’ve tried to maintain a global view of our product, operations, marketing, administration, and customer relationships.
Like most small business owners, even with a team of people helping me to realize my vision for CoCommercial, I still wear a few different hats.
I have my hand in most aspects of the business and, in addition to my role as CEO, I’m in charge of marketing. I’ve wondered why I haven’t been able to find the traction with marketing that I know I’m capable of creating, even after doing customer research, honing our messaging, and adjusting our sales process.
In fact, I was getting really down on myself for failing the business in this aspect of my role.
And then, it dawned on me: I simply wasn’t prioritizing it.
I wasn’t choosing to focus on marketing.
Now, just like you, I can’t really give up my other roles right now. I’ll continue to have a hand in product delivery and I’ll maintain my main job as CEO. But that doesn’t mean I can’t focus.
So just like all of my strength workouts start with 5 sets of pull-ups now, my goal each business day is to start off by making our message and mission visible in some way. It might be an Instagram post, a video, a new article, or a podcast episode — but whatever it is, it’s making what we’re doing visible to the right people.
There’s no more fitting it in when I have time.
There’s just hitting publish over and over again until I reach our singular marketing & sales goal.
Inevitably, yes, I am having to pull back on other places I’ve been putting my effort and energy. But I don’t have to give them up. And, it’s for a period of time.
Just like focusing on pull-ups for 6 weeks will help me bang out a big goal while allowing me to make long-term improvements to my abilities, focusing on marketing for 12 weeks will allow me to create systems, habits, and visibility that doesn’t go away if I want to put my focus on a different priority for the next 12 weeks.
Initially, choosing what to focus on feels like a sacrifice.
But ultimately, choosing to focus helps me to create the results I crave. And, results feel good and stick around for much longer than the pain of making the choice to prioritize in the first place.
So what about you? What are you juggling right now and how would things be different if you chose to prioritize one thing for the next 6 or 12 weeks?
