Reader,
Spring might finally be arriving here in Saskatchewan. It has felt like an unusually long winter this year, and I swear the leaves on the trees are running behind schedule.
With the warmer weather comes the temptation to grow some kind of garden in our backyard.
After many failed attempts, my husband has suggested that gardening might not be my thing. I love the idea of it, but the upkeep is where it all falls apart. I think he might be right.
(though I am going to plant a few herbs in a container, I think it'll be fine, I'll keep ya posted)
Most people learn how to garden by just winging it. They pop a few seeds into the soil, water it, and hope for the best.
This can go in three possible directions.
The first β the garden grows a tiny bit, gets overrun by weeds, then stalls out. Or doesn't grow at all.
The second β the garden takes off and the growth is unfettered and wild. You end up with way more zucchini than you could ever consume in a season. Not pretty, but productive. And not the worst situation to be in.
The third β and ideal β is the perfect garden with a healthy yield and minimal maintenance required.
When we plant the seeds, we assume we'll end up with the third option.
But the only way to get there is to figure out what you're doing and stick to a plan.
Give your garden some direction.
You need to know when to water, how to control the weeds, when to fertilize, and when to harvest.
Otherwise, you'll probably end up with one of the first two gardens.
And yes, this is about your business.
Without direction, your business is going to end up stalling or growing out of control. Either way, you're going to be stressed. And you might find yourself contemplating mowing the whole thing down.
In the Business Ecosystem, direction is the "roots" of your business. It's what anchors your business into the ground and nourishes the whole ecosystem. Healthy roots produce healthy foliage. Healthy direction produces healthy messaging, marketing, offers, and systems.
This could look like clarity on your business goals, your offers, and where you want to be in a year from now β or even five years from now. It could also look like how much money you want to make, where you want to grow your audience, how you want to feel when you work on your business, or what kind of work you want to be doing.
Taking action and moving forward become considerably easier once that direction is in place.
I've been thinking a lot about direction as I wrapped up the last few days of my 30 day challenge. I went into the challenge feeling pretty clear about where I was headed, but about halfway through I started to waver.
I wasn't sure if the free community was where I wanted to focus my attention, and with the addition of video to Insight Timer, I was also contemplating whether I wanted to build my platform on YouTube or there.
Add a messaging and content revamp over the past couple of weeks, and my direction ended up feeling all over the place.
So I'm going to spend some time working on my direction so that I feel really clear about what kind of business I'm building as I move forward.
If you've been feeling stuck or overwhelmed lately, here are a few diagnostic questions to help determine if the gap in your ecosystem is related to direction:
- Where are you leading people, and what happens when they get there?
- Do your current activities connect to the same destination, or are they pulling you and your audience in different directions?
- How do you want to feel when you sit down to work on your business?
- Do you know where you want your business to be in a year from now? Five years from now?
- If someone followed you for 30 days, would they know what you're building and how they can work with you?
If any of these feel strained, it might be worth taking some time to do some visioning for your business.
Until next week,
Robin
I'm teaching another live class on Insight Timer on Saturday morning. You can sign up and join me here if you want.β