Let me share with you a conversation I recently had with my six (and-three-quarter) year-old son on our walk home from school:
Me: Would you still love me if I were a zombie?
James: If you didn't eat my brains I would love you. [Thoughtful pause.] I would love the "you" I remember, not the zombie you. If you tried to eat my brains I would throw a jalapeno at you and burn you up.
I thought this was a reasonable response.
My husband agreed, and added this: You see, that's how James is going to make it through the Zombie Apocalypse, he realizes you can't get sentimental.
So what does this have to to with business? I'm glad you asked.
Do you ever get really frustrated while you're working? Do you ever get really overwhelmed by piles of business cards that haven't been entered into your contacts? Or people you've met and never followed up with? Do you ever get stressed out by the number of things on your to-do list, the number of piles on your desk, or the number of times you've written the same exact email asking someone to have coffee instead of having a template you can just copy and paste?
I have. And I know that just about every entrepreneur I've spoken to has too.
And sometimes it makes us want to scream and yell, or cry, or throw things. Or all three. And then the self-blame starts, which is SUPER-FUN! (As in, "What's wrong with me? Why can't I get this all done? Why can't I just be organized? How come everyone else can do this and I can't? I probably shouldn't be running a business. I'm going to go check Facebook unintentionally for an hour and then I'll really feel like crap because I'll see how perfect everyone else's life is.")
So, first of all, if you can relate to any of this, can you please do me a favor and take this 6-question survey right now? It will only take a few minutes, and it will help me get even clearer on the issues you're struggling with. This will help me build better solutions and let me know what resources I can share with you.
Second of all, when you start feeling overwhelmed by your email/desk/to-do list apocalypse, DON'T PANIC! Like my husband says, you can't afford to get sentimental!
This is not the time to spiral downward into self-doubt and comparisons to other people you imagine are infinitely better equipped to survive than you are. You've got to take a deep breath, call a time out, and assess the situation. And then try these...
ZOMBIE STRATEGIES FOR YOUR BUSINESS
1. Just how many zombies are we dealing with? Or, what actually needs to get done? Brain-dump it all out on a piece of paper, from the little stuff to the big stuff; don't edit, just dump.
2. Which zombies are beating down your door and which ones are still hanging out at the cemetery, several miles from your house? Aka, prioritize. What REALLY needs to get done, and what's going to have to wait, get delegated, or get nixed? (Is a client waiting to hear back from you? Do you need to notify the school that you're picking your child up today? Do you really need to tweak your LinkedIn profile today or can that wait until next week?)
3. If you know jalapeno peppers explode zombies, stock up on jalapeno peppers and set them up near all the entrances to your home. In other words, choose one SYSTEM and start to implement. Systems are game changers. Systems mean you get things done more efficiently AND you don't have to worry about everything all the time because your systems are managing your priorities. (Block off an hour every Friday that's follow-up time for new connections, or contact-info entering time, or thank you note writing time. Then all the business cards go into one box on your desk and you know you're going to address them on Friday.)
This is stuff that's taken me years to learn and implement. And it's always a work in progress. It often takes an outside brain to help me see more clearly AND make peace with the fact that I have to make choices in order to move forward.
If you want some outside eyes on your business, let me give you a hand.
(Yes, I've been totally dying to use that line ever since I found that image.)
If you want to talk about where you are in your businesses and what seems to keep tripping you up, just click here to schedule your complimentary Insight Session. We'll get clear on what's going on and open up some options to unstick you.
I'm telling you, you can totally kick those zombies' butts!