Raney Day Talk Episode 24: Reclaiming Your Focus

Hello. Welcome to a brand new episode of Raney Day Talks Podcast. I’m Jennifer Sakowski, and today we are building off of last episode on building your authority. Today we’re going to talk about reclaiming your focus. Now, this may not be you. This may be your friend. We’ll put that out there, because you wouldn’t have this problem, but do you ever get so busy doing the work that you lose sight of why you started, that you start to teeter that line of burnout? Or maybe you’re just ready to put up the for sale sign and get out from underneath the business. Whatever it is, I think often as business owners when we step out on this entrepreneurial journey, that we start to have these feelings pop up, and I find that this isn’t new, this isn’t something that you’re dealing with alone, so I’m sorry. You’re not that special.

It is very common amongst business owners that tend to get so busy as their business is growing or that they’re in that hustle that they lose sight of why they got started and then they get frustrated. They start to resent the business that they have launched and that they used to love and they used to want to show up for. Today I want to talk about reclaiming that focus. I think it’s timely because I don’t know about you, but with everything that’s going on, it’s easy to get negative. It’s easy to pull in what’s happening in the news and in our society and just get frustrated and then take it out on our business. Well, I’m going to try to help you realign that focus back to your business, back to the beauty of owning your business and what you’re set out to do and how you’re doing it, okay? The first thing it is …

The first thing that I’m going to start with is, have you ever written down your why? Now, usually when I start talking to people and talking about journaling and writing things down and setting their goals and creating those documents or filling out these worksheets, they get glassy-eyed, and I can get that, “You know, Jen, it’s not for me.” I’m sorry. For me, and for the people who I know who are successful and that we have helped, if you don’t write it down, the likelihood that you’re going to make it happen dwindles significantly because you don’t have that thing to go back to and hold on to. If it’s just a thought, then it’s just a concept, a thought. Put it on paper and put a plan toward it.

What I want you to do is take out a sheet of paper, or jump into my Facebook group, Raney Talks Biz on Facebook and pull up our worksheet. But we want to talk about getting back to our why. I want you to answer simply, why did you launch your business?

Now, some examples … I paused so that way I can give it a minute to set in, because some examples that have been shared with me is that they wanted the freedom to build their own schedule, to be home with their kids, to have no glass ceiling, that they can just build it and grow it as they see fit, that they wanted to make more money, that they wanted to control their destiny. That seems kind of woo-woo. But you get it. I want to know why. Why? Why did you launch this business? Why are you working so hard?

Take some time and go back to that point. Go back to that time when you had such fire in your belly to build it that you were in such a hustle mode that, I mean, that was it. That was your end all. You ate, slept and breathed that business in. I want you to write that down, because once you get that written down, then I want you to write down a few, jot a few lines of, what are you trying to reach for? What is it that you want this business to be, or what goal do you have for it? If you look back and you’re like, “Yeah, I did that,” what would that be? Are you trying to bring in a certain income? Do you want to build a team? Are you trying to sell so many things? What is it? You know why you got started? What was the end goal or what was the goals that you were reaching for?

I want you to write both of those down, because when you get to that point where you’re ready to throw in the towel, I want you to have that in front of you, because too often we get so busy and so distracted that we forget. We’re so quick to throw in the towel because it starts to get really hard or really uncomfortable. And I think that if we take that time to put it on paper and to organize it in a way that it’s right in front of you, not in a notebook somewhere, not out of sight, out of mind, because that’s when the problem happens, right?

I know for me, I get squirrely, okay? My husband says it all the time. Shiny objects, right? I just get squirrely. My daughter’s the same way. And so even in business, I mean, we are hustling, we’re doing good work, but sometimes I lose sight and I get so frustrated because I’m like, “I just spent eight hours on one SEO project. What needle did I move on the business?” And that’s where … I’m not going to show you a picture of my desk, but if you looked at my desk, I have sticky notes of little goals. Maybe it’s courses that I’m trying to accomplish, whether it’s a financial goal or whatever it is, but I have these little sticky notes that when I’m sitting here that I have it right in front of me.

And then what really does it, because I get really annoyed about it, but it works, is that if you take those goals and you rework them into statements as they already happened, and then you write them out every day, I call it my goals and gratitudes page. And I’m even going to give you that, so head to my Facebook page or Facebook group. It’s in there. But I’ll start out every day, five gratitudes and then my 10 goals. And what that does, I could have a heck of a night or I could start out not in the right mindset, or sometimes I’m already making a list of the things that I know I have to do or the people who have to call on and I lose sight of that. By just the action of having to sit down and write out them dang goals every day, it refocuses me on what I’ve set out to do.

I know this might sound really, really basic, really elementary or just a lot of woo-woo, but I’m telling you, it works. If you’ve lost sight of your vision, if you’ve lost sight, just take that moment, go back to your why, write it out, write out your goals and then either put them in a place that you can look at them every single day or write them out every single day. Grab a notebook. And while you’re at it, I would love for you to write some gratitudes every single day, because if you want to talk about negativity in the world, you know what? When change happens, change happens with one little thing, because that one little thing, doing good over and over again, leads to big things.

I know, especially right now, everybody’s like, “What do we do?” Or, “How do we get started?” Or, “How do we fight this?” Personally, take it one little nugget at a time, because that one little action, whether it’s what you’re reading or how you’re showing up or how you’re talking or just that one little action will lead to bigger action later. The whole goal of this whole episode is I want you to know wherever you’re at, just start right now, because I guess part two of this talk is we keep putting things off or like, “Okay, I’m going to come back to that and write that.” No, just do it right now.

That’s it. I just want to realign you today. If you found that helpful, if you’ve went and found the worksheet and did it or if you wrote it down, I would love, tag me, Raney Design or Jennifer Sakowski, #RaneyDayTalks, and let me know. And of course, the ultimate way to help us out, hit subscribe. I hope you have an awesome day.