Do You Love the Game?
A few years back I worked with collegiate athletes at a well-known university on Mental Peak Performance.
The kids were talented and well trained, and many were on scholarship for their sport. If there was a glitch in their performance, I was called in by their coach to help them get their mindset right so they could compete and win. Consistently, when I helped the student athlete erase the mental and emotional blocks that were upsetting his/her competitive performance and apply that to a sensation of winning, s/he began to excel. Some ran their best time in races, others began to win their competitions, and several became team captains and made Dean’s List for the first time in their college career.
Very often at the end of a session, the athlete would say to me, “Gosh, I had forgotten how much I love the game. Now I can go out and enjoy it again instead of being stressed about how well I am going to do.”
This attitude went a long way to making these athletes the winners that they had the potential to be. Their love of their sport got them through hours and hours of practice, made giving up social time with their friends worth it, and spurred them to do their very best when they competed.
How can we apply this lesson about the Love of the Game to Your Business?
Let’s look at what you really LOVE about your business.
Is it Service Delivery – do you love to coach, do massage, or help someone with her financial plan?
Is it Networking – do you enjoy meeting people, getting to know them, and connecting them with other helpful people?
Is it Administrative – does creating processes and systems that make the business run better and tracking data float your boat?
Is it Public Speaking or Training – do you get a boost from giving a talk or leading a workshop?
Is it Creative – does writing a chapter in your book, making a new piece of art, or designing a new corporate identity make you sing?
Is it Technical – are you most comfortable setting up a website, implementing a social media campaign, or keeping a database optimized?
Is it Marketing and Promotion – do you have fun cooking up a new campaign, writing copy, or publicizing your business?
Is it Financial – do numbers speak to you so much that you love working with them?
The truth is that in your own business, you must wear many hats -
- Marketing & Promotion
- Networking
- Sales
- Creative
- Technical
- Public Speaking & Training Facilitation
- Administrator
- Financial Management
- Service Delivery
- Customer Service
Some of these hats will fit you better than others. The ones that don’t fit as well depend on your skills and interests.
If you’re on the more creative side, dealing with money and details will not make you as happy as crafting a new program.
If you are more technical, talking to people may not be your favorite thing to do.
If you love details and consistency, change and uncertainty will make you miserable.
If you are shy, networking and selling will make you want to hide in the corner.
Unless you can outsource some of the tasks you don’t like right away, you’re going to have to address them in the most resourceful way you can.
Here’s the key:
Identify what you love about the Game of Your Business.
What do you love so much about your business that you will get through the rejection, discomfort, and feeling incompetent that comes with everything involved with running your own business?
Look at this list and rank the three things you LOVE doing MOST in your business:
- Marketing & Promotion
- Sales
- Networking
- Creativity
- Technical Set-Up and Trouble-Shooting
- Process and Systems Development
- Public Speaking
- Training Facilitation
- Administration
- Financial Management
- Service Delivery Specialist
- Customer Service
Now go through the list again and rank the 3 things you HATE doing most in your business.If you are a solopreneur and don’t have much help yet, you must address all these areas, including the ones you hate, to have a successful business.
Knowing what you love about the Game of Your Business will keep you doing the tasks you don’t enjoy so much so that you get them done and keep growing your business.
When you know what you love doing in your business you will keep looking for resources to help you get better at what you don’t like so much. For instance you could:
- Ask a friend’s teenager to help you with social media
- Find an inexpensive class on bookkeeping at the local community college
- Use a designer at a reasonable rate on an online site
- Make friends with a techy person and cook them a nice meal in exchange for some help
- Join a Toastmaster’s Group to get better at public speaking
- Find a networking group that has your ideal clients in it and show up so that you become a “regular” and your shyness dissolves
- Check out the free business classes that SCORE offers online and in person in your community
- Use a college student for copywriting, marketing, and promotion in exchange for college credit or a low hourly rate
- Create a Mastermind Group of colleagues and meet monthly to discuss issues in your business and get feedback, advice, and support
Remembering what you love about the Game of Your Business will keep you playing instead of being on the sidelines.
You are not going to be great at every aspect of your business. That’s normal, and it’s okay.
The goal is to get good enough at all the necessary parts of business so that you can afford to get help with the activities you don’t like or aren’t good at sooner rather than later. Knowing that there’s the payoff of playing your favorite part of the Game of Your Business will keep you moving forward.
If you hate doing any aspect of your business, don’t fall into the trap of dreaming that someone will come and rescue you from having to do what has to be done. The Calvary is not coming over that hill.
You, your smarts, your courage, your drive, and your talent are what you’ve got. Plus your love of the Game.
And that’s enough. Game on!