Posted by Tommy Runfola | October 14, 2016
Just say ‘NO’…to Over-Committing Yourself!
What do you do when new opportunities come your way?
Most of us have an automatic response of saying “yes” to opportunities that come our way.
We somehow innately want to take advantage of almost any chance out there to prove ourselves a success. We may also tend to say “yes” out of a fear that turning down an opportunity even once sends a message that we’re not interested, and we’ll stop getting additional chances in the future.
But with success, the reality is that bigger and better opportunities tend to be attracted. We then need to learn how to prioritize the many opportunities that present themselves. We often try to do this without saying “no” definitively—we still want to keep our options open. Inevitably, though, this results in a lack of clarity and over-commitment, and we wind up disappointing people, exhausting ourselves, or simply failing. To avoid this result, we need to learn to say “no” in the right way. It’s important to make it clear that you are still maintaining the relationship, although this is one opportunity you’ve choosing not to commit yourself to at this time.
REMEMBER: As bad as you may feel in the MOMENT for not being able to commit to helping someone in a business venture, think about how much WORSE you would feel after letting them down from over-committing yourself and your resources.
For ANY human, but especially for an entrepreneur, the most valuable resource you have is your time, because it is the one thing you’ll never get back. How you spend your precious moments on this earth is vitally important, and they have to go beyond your business. Make sure you are taking time to reflect frequently on your OTHER goals in life. Most entrepreneurs value the freedom that owning their own business brings to their lives. Make sure you are keeping your “eye on the prize” so to say – keep your focus on the way you want to live your life day in and day out, the way you want to feel when you wake up each morning and before you go to bed each night. These are the REAL reasons that you are working to achieve certain metrics in your business and hit certain numbers on your P&L. Don’t get so caught up in your own self-created “rat race” that you forgot why you LEFT the corporate “rat race” to begin with!
As with anything and everything in life, there are ups and downs. There will days you can’t sleep because you’re so excited about what’s happening in your business. There will also be days you can’t wait to get to bed so the day can be over with because everything that could have gone wrong somehow did. Don’t be too hard on yourself on those days. Far too many people make rash decisions in their business or jump ship too soon because they didn’t look at the overall picture. We cannot control everything that happens to us on a daily basis, but we can control our reactions. We can learn from our mistakes and strengthen our weaknesses, both within the business and as a leader of the business.
At the end of the day, we all want to say that we gave it our all, and that we succeeded. But to succeed, remember that you will have to learn when to say ‘NO’ so that you can REALLY give the most important things in your life your ALL.
