If you’re an online entrepreneur with a website, are you totally in control? Are you the jack-of-all-trades type or the face of your site while others manage all that techie stuff?
One of the tenets underlying the idea of business success is the need to be productive. Increased productivity implies controlling as many facets of a business as possible. While this is a good business concept, the actual degree of control may be more of an illusion than an actual productive strategy.
It’s human nature to believe we can create success by controlling as many elements as possible. At the same time, we overestimate our ability to get it all done. Any seasoned business person will tell you, there is only so much you can control. The more one attempts to micromanage, the more productivity declines.
When you try to control so many elements, your focus is scattered and taken away from what’s most important. It would then seem logical to direct the focus of control to what’s most important in your business. Or, should you?
Here’s the dilemma. Even if you focus on what’s most important in your business, it still doesn’t mean your sphere of control is enough to be productive and successful. Well, if it’s not enough then what is?
Let’s for a moment step back and figure out what you’re trying to control.
Normally, your focus of control is on the aspects of your business that will make it successful and how it measures up against niche competitors. According to John Brubaker, author and performance consultant, the error is in being competitive with your perceived competitors rather than yourself. Now, that sounds counterintuitive!
Brubaker explains it this way. Top level competitive golfers knowing that despite their skills there are many things they can’t control in a tournament. The edge for elite golfers is to focus on competing against themselves rather than on other competitive players.
In other words, you are attempting to control aspects of our business by focusing on what you think is important in order to compete in your niche market.
What you should be focusing on first is what you can control about yourself that will make you more productive and successful.
The Top 8 Areas You Have Productive Control Over
These are the top 8 areas you have control over that will have the greatest impact on your productivity and success.
- Attitude. What are your thoughts in response to problems and challenges? Where is the focus of your thinking? Is it on possibilities or is it stuck in uncertainty and the fear of not being able to control everything. Founder of Tiny Buddha, Lori Deschene, suggests that even a minor change in thinking can move you out of a fixation of control and into what she calls a “major change in reality.”
- Emotions. No matter how logical and fact-based you want to be, feelings will come into play. Different circumstances trigger different emotional responses. Your brain is naturally going to emotions related to your personal beliefs, preferences, and biases first. While some emotions can be motivating, most are ones of frustration, stress and overwhelm that interfere with your productivity. Consequently, you have control over how you want to respond in terms of what’s best for keeping you productive.
- Decisions and Actions. How you decide and what you finally decide, along with motivation and commitment, shape your actions. It’s your final actions which in turn control what leads you to your goals and desired results.
- Reactions. Success is not a stress-free, problem-free nor obstacle free. It’s your choice how you control your reactions to these conditions and in-the-end how you will proceed in the best interests of your business.
- Time. You’re the master of your time. Philip E. Humbert PhD, succinctly puts it in perspective “The new year will last twelve months. You will have 52 weeks in which to choose your priorities. You will have 365 days to decide where to focus your time, your attention and your efforts. You will have thousands of opportunities to choose, to try, and to learn. Twelve months is a huge amount of time! In twelve months you can achieve miracles.”
- Energy. In the same way, you’re the master of your energy. Greater productivity will ultimately depend on how well you fuel your body from healthy resources, the quality and amount of your sleep, tuning up your body through excise, how much downtime you give yourself away from the electronic world, and how much time you allocate to reconnecting to the natural world. And finally, how you control and channel that energy into a committed effort of creating a successful business.
- Environment. This is your productive space. You control its appearance, who and what has access to your attention and the atmosphere which is most conducive to the execution of your success plan.
- Learning. Your world is changing at a faster rate than ever before and on-going learning is critical if you want to maintain control. It requires focusing on new aspects of your business and its technology, as well as, being able to integrate new marketing trends and changing consumer behavior.
Ultimately, your productivity and success are all about how you exert the control you do have and how you use it to show up in your business.
Question: how are you showing up in your business?
Resources:
https://www.entrepreneur.com/article/247641
http://www.dumblittleman.com/focus-on-what-you-control-let-go-of/
https://www.psychologies.co.uk/focus-things-you-can-control
http://www.habitsforwellbeing.com/focusing-on-what-we-can-control/
https://trans4mind.com/counterpoint/index-success-abundance/humbert2.shtml
http://tinybuddha.com/blog/50-things-you-can-control-right-now/
Image: Pixabay 432665, CC0 Public Domain
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Time management seems to be the most difficult for me…especially working with many different tasks etc.
I can understand Katarina. You’re dealing with a lot of information and sharing it in multiple ways across social media. Take my word for it. There will be a point when you’ll develop a system. Things which once seemed so time-consuming actually can be done rather quickly.
Understanding that we can exercise a measure of control over certain areas of our life is the first step to control as you beautifully outlined in this post, Joyce. Well-written and very informative. Thank you.
Thanks for the compliment Yvonne. It makes us feel better when we know what we actually have control over and not all the other things that we assume we do.
These are all important points. I feel that reactions and attitude are the most vital. As you mention..we cannot control it all but how we react and bounce back makes all the difference. My clients know that if something goes awry (which is bound to happen on occasion). That I will take care of it. That’s worth everything
Alene, thanks for commenting. Yes, that part about how we react and bounce back is key. Lucky clients, have someone like you to count on.
Time has been the biggest area of focus for me the last 2 years. Guarding my time, making the best use of my time, being more intentional with the time I have, being keenly aware of what deserves my time and energy. Great insights here and a reminder that I still have some areas to work on.
Agree, April. Time is a big factor and being able to control what you need to accomplish is huge. Being intentional about it is a good way to frame it, and it makes your focus more meaningful. Thanks for sharing.
I love this post, Joyce. I am so called to work collaboratively, and release areas of control, and this speaks to that so well, and to the pieces we really do have control over. Thank you.
Reba, you raise a good point about working collaboratively. It has its challenges but also has a new dynamic in being able to accomplish more. Interested in learning more. Hopefully, there will be a blog post about it.
As a deep feeling person who has a hyper-active nervous system, I find I am highly influenced by the world outside of myself. I am still working on being less ’emotional’ about things that matter to me, as often I find I am triggered by injustice and feel somewhat helpless on how to contribute to positive change. This trickles down to how I find I’ve been spending my time lately. I have been learning as much as I can and participating in new ways I never felt called to before. Not sure how that will ultimately impact my ‘business’ world, as I find that seems to have taken second place to more pressing issues I see emerging in our world now. Thanks for the interesting read, Joyce! I am strongest in energy and environment…will keep being conscious of the others too. And I do believe time is malleable and somehow I always get done, all that needs to be done.
Being hypersensitive makes for being more acutely aware than most people who may need more time to catch on. It can flood the body and mind with more information and be difficult to control. The dramatic turn of events is certainly causing an overload for many, myself included. I have to remind myself to step back and not get emotionally caught in the frenzy. Commit right now to what I can and be an observer of the rest. Thanks for your sharing how this is affecting you.
Yes Joyce we have the choice each day to show up in a may that either empowers or disempowers uo. like the 8 ways we can action this xx
Definitely, the choice is ours as to how we want to show up each day. What’s great is that we have another new day to empower ourselves. The feminine energy is continuing to light up the world!
Great topic, Joyce, thank you for bringing it to focus. Trying to control all parts of business enterprise is an exhaustive endeavor! 🙂 Business owners need to choose their battles, which, for the most part, happen in the background of our minds!
Ah, a good way to phrase it, Millen. Battles that happen in the background of our minds. Love it!
Joyce,
An excellent article and what popped into my head is the locust of control and how much do we think we have and other areas we don’t. I really received a message you were talking about what we want to control and what we cant. This made me think and I appreciate the clarity. Thank You!
Lori English
Thanks, Lori. It’s natural to want to control as much as we can and very frustrating when we find we can’t. You’re made me think there are other ways – possibly influencing circumstances without having to control them.
I am happy you shared these eight areas of control especially your emotions. I agree with you that your brain naturally goes to emotions related to our personal beliefs no matter how logical or fact based a situation is. Thank you for this beautiful piece.
Thanks for commenting Apolline. Emotions do play a big role, and most like to still believe they are operating on a rational and logical basis. If you can be aware of the emotional part, it goes a long way in making better decisions.
Well said Joyce! As someone with control freak tendencies, it would be easy for me to quickly allow my focus to spread in all the wrong directions, which is why I work hard on one simple strategy – to be better than I was yesterday. Thanks for the motivation!
That’s a wonderful way to approach your business as well as your life. We don’t need to make massive changes. Little changes along the way are far more effective.
Loved this post Joyce! We definitely have full productive control over ALL of these areas! Thanks for sharing 🙂
Thanks for the positive feedback, Joan. It really helps when I know someone is getting something out of my posts.
Great article! I get so tired of others trying to ride on the coattails of others success. They would do so much better to work at their own success.
Good observation Robin. I think success scares a lot of people and they try to copy others without realizing the success they attempt will never be authentically theirs.
I appreciate you sharing these 8 areas of control – it all comes down to the fact that we really do have control of ourselves. We want to be conscious of how we make think we don’t – but it is our decisions and what we are consciously and unconsciously bringing into our lives. Nice read, thanks Joyce.
Your welcome, Teresa.
So true in that we have complete control of our attitude and emotions. Business-owning and entrepreneurship is VERY challenging and it comes with many ups and downs. Sometimes several in one day!
Finding a constructive way to deal with them is the difference between success and failure IMHO!
So true, Anne. Ups and downs come with the territory. When it starts early in the morning, I know to start pacing myself for the rest of the day. Having constructive resources helps, but sometimes a good drink helps. Of course, only under very trying circumstances.
There are so many things we cannot control and I love that you’ve focused on what we can. The golfers have it right – compete against yourself and focus on the things you can control.
Yes, isn’t the visual image of the golfing wonderful. I could really buy into the example, and it taught me something I can use when talking to people who play golf!