How to Look Back To Move Forward

TRANSCRIPT AUTOMATICALLY GENERATED [00:00:00] He Hayes. So this week I want to dive into something that we've actually had loads of practice at. It's not actually going to be something new to you, but I want you to transition a skill that you already have. Into a strategic skill for your business. So in order for us to become established entrepreneurs, to get out of that newbie phase to survive our first month or first. Yeah. I first couple of years in business, we all know how much mind gunk we have to clear. There has been coaching. There has been journaling. There's been limiting beliefs, smashing all of the things. We talk a lot about how we work on our mindset. And how we reflect on what we want, what we want our goals to be, how we want to show up. All of these things. And what I mean by that is really taking the opportunity. On a regular basis. To reflect on how things are happening in your business. And yes, that can include how you're showing up in your business. But it also needs to include how things are and aren't working in your business. And there's loads of opportunities for us to happen. As in there's lots of circumstances that warrant it. But because we're often like sprinting through the hamster wheel of fire drills, we maybe don't slow down. And so we miss the insights and the improvements and the changes that can come from us taking a moment. To ask ourselves, how did this thing go? And we're all kind of familiar with the very like surface level. What went well, what didn't go so well, let me pull out some metrics. But the same way that you would think about that in a personal situation that you would dedicate time, maybe in your morning routine with your journal and your candle and your fresh cup of coffee. Your business needs that same concentrated reflection. It's not enough to go. We had our launch goals, hooray tech. We can use that strategy again. You also need to be thinking. [00:02:00] Did it work successfully for the business? Did it generate profit and not just revenue? How did it feel for me? How did it feel for the team? What do we want to change next time? What could we add to it? Take away from it. What are the nuances of what happened? And often we do this. Almost too late. We think that we all really great at remembering stuff as humans. I don't know why, because we all actually know that we're really rubbish at remembering things. But you wake up in the morning at 3:00 AM and you have this amazing idea. And then you wake up the next morning and you can't even remember what the idea was, or you look at your notes. I can remember waking up one morning and having some really random note about tomatoes. For a business idea. We assume that our brain is going to hang on to these ideas that we have and these nuances. And will you assume that we will never forget. Why something worked or didn't work. One of the things I always say to people is you need to talk about. When you look at your results in January, it's not enough for you to go. Oh, we're down a bit versus what I expected, because XYZ happened. You have to write down what XYZ was, because I promise in six months time, you will not remember X, Y, Z, unless X, Y, Z was like the business blew up. You wouldn't remember the nuance. So it's not enough for you to. Get to say a quarter end and look back and be like, oh, okay. Well, my business reflection has, did I meet my goals? No. Why didn't I meet my goals. That's all super surface level. It's like you trying to look back six months in your personal life and journal on what happened then. There's just not enough space in your brain for your brain to remember all of that information. So in order for you to reflect and debrief properly on your business. It needs to be a regular occurrence. We need to set aside some time to do it. And some focused time, right? And some time where we come at it with the intention. That we come out out journaling. We set aside time, we make sure we're not disturbed. We make sure that we're in the right mode to do [00:04:00] it. And then you can ask yourself those deeper questions about your business. This is so key to you being a strategic leader in your business. That when we swap on the 1st of March from coffee and converse to the five minutes strategist. Every Sunday, the episode is going to be dedicated. To reflecting on the week. There'll be some questions that repeat every single week. But there'll also be new ones each week to encourage you to dive deeper into how the last week went. For you to noodle on how you're feeling about things in your business. For you to pay attention to where there's energy Sox and your business. And to go deeper than just what went well, what didn't go so well, what am I planning for next week? But for now, I want you to pay attention to something that's happened in your business this week. It doesn't have to be big. I want you to just give yourself 10 minutes of focused time. Will you actually think about that thing? With the same level. Of intention that you would think about something in your personal life. Maybe you journal on it. Maybe you ask a series of questions and you say something and then you say why, but why, but why, but why until you get dig deeper and deeper and deeper into this issue. We need to get really comfortable with the idea, the business growth. Needs the same focus as personal growth. You already have the skill, you know how to do this? You would not have been in business. For longer than a week. If you hadn't done some kind of reflection work. So, this is not new to you. You know how to do this. All I'm asking is for 10 minutes. We just tilt the lens and we think about the business in that same way. And you'll be amazed at the insights of that focused reflection time. Gives you about your business.