September 09, 2004
How to Get Out of A Rut
They say a rut is a shallow grave with two open ends. The
good news (good news?!) is that the ends ARE still open,
which means if you act fast, you just might out of it.
How do we get into these ruts anyway? Who would voluntarily
lie down in that grave, shallow or otherwise? Dr. Edward
Debono suggests that thoughts are pathways literally
"etched" in our brain as electrical connections, that get
strengthened each time we think them -- thus limiting our
mental options. Just like cow paths...
It all begins when one of the cows wanders home from the
field along a new path. Being cows, others naturally follow,
nicely beating down the grass. The next evening our intrepid
cow is a bit less bold, and follows her own freshly trampled
path, fellow cows in lockstep behind her. And so on, night
after night, widening the path into a footpath, which over
time becomes hardened into a dirt road. More time passes and
the road is paved into a street, then an avenue, a two-lane
highway, and ultimately an interstate.
By the time you come roaring up the onramp in your shiny
SUV, your direction is all mapped out in front of you.
There's no way to turn, and no where to go but towards the
next exit. If you want to chart a fresh direction you are
going to have to grab the steering wheel and give it a hard,
gut-wrenching yank to the right.
And so it is with your thoughts and actions. Repeating them
a few times all but insures you will comfortably repeat them
indefinitely unless you take deliberate - possibly
disruptive -- action to do otherwise.
Here are seven rut busters I use with my business coaching
clients that you can apply immediately to get yourself and
your business out of a rut.
1. Shift your mindset from self to customer.
Most business people think of themselves first. They craft
product and service offers from their own perspective and
consider themselves the beneficiaries of their actions.
While that's not wrong, to get out of your rut do this: put
yourself into the mind of your customer. Who are these
people anyway? What are they concerned about? What are they
trying to accomplish? If you were your customer, what would
you think of that new product, marketing campaign, or mail
piece? Are you selling your wonderful "stuff", or are you
providing them tangible, meaningful benefits. Ask, "If I
were the customer, would I care?" And if not, consider,
"What WOULD I get excited about?"
2. Shift your mindset from customer to client.
A customer is someone who buys your goods or services. The
original meaning of client is entirely different: someone
who is under your care and protection. Now that's a switch,
isn't it? If they're customers, your goal is to get them to
buy something. But if you were to think of them as under
your care - would you approach your business from another
angle? How would you take care of them? How would you
"protect" them? What new programs would you want to
implement immediately?
3. Revisit your vision
Whenever I feel like I'm in a rut I return to my vision and
I do two things. First, I make sure it still inspires me and
that it is pointing me in the direction I want to go. Once
sure, I put pen to paper and rewrite it. Not just once, but
over and over. And I keep writing until I can't write it
anymore because I'm jumping up and down with a new idea I
must do something about right away.
4. Conduct a Survey
If you don't know what to do next, ask your clients. (They
are clients, aren't they?) Conduct a survey about anything
that interests you. Ask them what's bothering them. Ask them
what they're stuck on. Ask them what they like about your
company and what they'd like you to do next. Ask them about
new features, or new products, or new services. If you're
not happy with your current customers, conduct a survey
among the kind of people you'd like to have as customers.
And, if you can't do that, conduct a survey online. Write an
attractive search engine ad, promise something of value, and
drive people to a survey page. Ask them anything you like -
the answers will almost always provide you with a neat mind-
shift.
5. Focus on building your strengths and dump your
weaknesses.
From the time we are little children we are taught to better
ourselves by working on our weaknesses. This is often both
frustrating and fruitless, and certainly not as much fun as
practicing our strengths. Try this on: What if you focused
100 percent of your energy on being world-class in those few
things at which you are already very good, and outtasked or
outsourced those things at which you were mediocre. Imagine
if you never had to face any of those things again and could
spend all your time doing the good stuff. Would that change
the way you felt about your business? Would that bust you
out of your rut?
6. Not if, but how.
Think of that wild and crazy idea you had recently. The one
where you said to yourself, "That would be great, but
there's just no way." Well, I know there's no way - you just
said so -- but if there was a way, what would it be? Answer
that question as if you believed it was possible - probable
even -- and then get busy making it real. That's power, you
know -- turning your vision into reality. Talk about a
breakthrough!
7. What are you willing to sacrifice?
Some important things are more important than other
important things, and trying to keep all those plates
spinning in the air saps your vigor for the ones that truly
matter. Dissipated energy - lethargy -- is one of the
reasons we lie down in that rut in the first place, and
dropping a few of those plates can really help things break
loose. So let go. Make the sacrifice. Clear your plate and
give up some of those precious things you've been holding on
to. Focus your vitality on plans which will really rock your
world.
Ruts? Who needs 'em.
We've got a new program called the Turnkey Your Business
Home Study Program which is helping people bust out of their
ruts by transforming their businesses into repeatable
consistent systems, freeing up tons of creativity in the
process. Click on http://turnkeycoach.com to find out more.
Best regards,
Paul Lemberg
Posted by plemberg at 04:54 AM | Comments (0)