Category Archives for "planning"

When it comes to business planning, the inner voice in your head voice can be seriously annoying, and powerfully influential.

You’ve probably heard of the importance of making time to work ON your business, specifically focused on planning. So you think about it, and that’s when your inner voice really kicks in.

It probably sounds something like this…

“I know making time to plan is important for the business, but I’m super busy. This just isn’t the time. After all, what I’m doing now seems to be working pretty well. I know things aren’t perfect, and sure, planning could help. But I don’t even know how to get started. There’s got be an easier way to do this. For now, it’s probably best to just stick with what I’m doing, then in a few months when things settle down, I’ll look into it.”

Once again, the annoying, influential inner voice convinces another business owner that planning can wait; that working ON your business isn’t nearly as important as working IN your business.

I hope that’s not you. I hope you are making the time to identify bottlenecks and find solutions; and analyze results and make adjustments.

But if you haven’t yet learned the importance of working ON your business or learned what you should be doing as the business leader, I’m going to simplify it for you right here.

What comes to mind when I say the word grind?

For me, the first thing that comes to mind is grinding something up; like a pepper grinder putting some fresh ground pepper on a juicy sirloin. I certainly like the thought of that!

Maybe you thought of grind as a sound. If you’ve ever driven a car with manual transmission, and you miss a shift, you’ll hear a grinding sound. Not pleasant, and not good for the car either.

Another thought that comes to mind is the feeling that, “work was such a grind today”. It connotes things didn’t go well, or it was hard, or it was long. Looking at it in this context definitely gives the word grind a negative feeling.