Tuesday, May 06, 2008

It's not always going to be Posies and Sunshine...

Far from it really... I think for the vast majority of small business owners share similar emotional roller coaster rides. Like I think most managers/business owners, I get the most fun out of my business when working at the big picture type projects but realistically, I think it's the grunt work and basic execution that really separates good companies and great companies. A friend and fellow entrepreneur asked me the other day how I keep up the energy, and the reality is that it's tough. I think I've noted here that it's quite easy to become manic depressive - you can have really high highs one minute and then the next feeling like the rug has been pulled out from under you. I've come to believe that just to be eligible for success, you've got to have enough emotional fortitude to figure out how to plough through it.

So that's my introduction to two potentially useful links:

  • Getting over procrastination for that large project you've been putting off. (Web Worker Daily) with tips like breaking the project up into multiple milestones and doing it in small chunks over time or sprint and finish it in 24 hours, and promising yourself a big reward after you do finish.
  • The best way to break unhealthy habits (Forbes) with strategies like finding new friends (they call it changing your social norms), attack a bunch of bad habits at once since many are related, and go for the big bath effect - make a large number of changes at the same time of some other major life event.

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