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5 Tips to Develop Self-Discipline As A New Entrepreneur by @tasminsabar

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by Tasmin Sabar | Featured Contributor 

When you’re a new entrepreneur who has made the transition from 9-5, there are many changes to your routine to adapt to. You go from the relative structure of the day job with it’s set routine, to making the rules yourself and being entirely responsible for your own schedule.

One of the main challenges is to set your own deadlines and create a productive strategy around what needs doing, which in turn, ensures progress towards your business goals.

However, without proper self-discipline, it can be easy to lose track of time, have unproductive days or just fail to make progress on the most important and impactful tasks in your business.

That’s why self-discipline is one of the key skills to develop to boost your daily productivity and achieve your big milestones and your daily goals.

Here are 5 tips to help you enhance your self-discipline.

 

  1. Realize that Self-Discipline Needs Practice

Whilst it would be wonderful if you could just effortlessly make the transition and wake up on your first day as a new entrepreneur with everything figured out and the perfect system for you in place already, the reality is that this most likely won’t be the case.

In the same way, you don’t start a new job knowing all the systems and procedures of the new organization, figuring out what works for you in your new role is a skill that needs to be practised and developed.

It might take a while to identify your strengths and weaknesses as a business owner, how you work best and what accelerates your productivity and what holds it back.

It’s likely you will try a few different approaches and have a few honest conversations with yourself about what does and doesn’t work for you.

Speaking your truth in this way helps you address excuses head on.  It also helps you identify when you need to work on the self-discipline, when it’s something that you just don’t enjoy doing and would be better off delegating or when you’re just plain avoiding something you really need to do.

Give yourself the time to develop a system that works for you.

 

  1. Remember the 80/20 Rule

Practising self-discipline with your workload is an essential part of the transition. One of the key challenges in this area is making sure that you are spending the valuable working hours you do have on the tasks that are going to move your business furthest the quickest.

Using the 80/20 rule in this situation is a huge advantage. If you haven’t come across this before it is also more commonly known as the Pareto Principle and it highlights the fact that most business owners spend only 20% of their time on the most valuable tasks within their business with the remaining 80% spent on trivial ones. Similarly, roughly 80% of the results in your business come from 20% of the efforts.

Your role as a business owner is to identify and then focus on the truly vital 20% of tasks. The remainder of them can be delegated, deferred, automated, outsourced or where possible discarded altogether.

This might sound difficult to do at first but once you are disciplined about applying this rule you will see the benefits both in terms of the results within your business and your life.

 

  1. Schedule Your Most Important Task for the Beginning of the Day

We’ve all been in that situation where we have a big task before us and it’s the most important one that is going to get us the biggest results.  But for some reason, we put it off. It might be the magnitude of the task, or that doing it will push us out of our comfort zone.

We tell ourselves that we will do it later when we have cleared our to-do list and we get to the end of the day with the task not even close to being tackled.

We tell ourselves that we will look at it “first thing in the morning. Only to repeat the same pattern the next day and have it hanging over our head for way too long. If you habitually put off tasks in this way, one way to address this is to get into the habit of tackling this type of task first thing.

Brian Tracy in his book Eat That Frog, talks about the benefits of doing this.. He described your “frog” as your biggest, most important task, the one you are most likely to procrastinate on if you don’t do something about it. It is also the one task that can have the greatest positive impact on your life and results now.

He emphasizes the importance of this task and says that your ability to select your most important task at each moment, then to get started on that task and to get it done both quickly and well, will probably have more of an impact on your success than any other quality or skill you can develop

He goes on to say “If you have to eat two frogs, eat the ugliest one first.”

In other words, if you have two important tasks before you, start with the biggest, hardest, and most important task first.

Routinely tackling your biggest most important tasks at the beginning of the day and being disciplined with this practice will increase your productivity hugely.

 

  1. A Morning Routine Will Enhance Productivity

When you first make the transition to entrepreneurship, it can be easy to get overwhelmed with the sheer volume of tasks that need to get done. It can be tempting to get into scarcity mode with your time and get into the mindset of “not enough hours in the day”.

This feeling can be more pronounced if you are not using the time you do have wisely for example working on the things that are not going to give you the biggest bang for your buck or not having a productivity routine.

Having a morning routine ensures you start your day right and focused on being productive from the outset. Hal Elrod in his book The Miracle Morning

talks about the concept of “habit stacking” which is picking the habits that you want to practice and making a sequence out of them so that the new sequence becomes a habit itself.

This helps you adopt multiple good habits, automate your behavior to do the entire sequence and as a result, helps you start the day with intention, using a variety of powerful tools such as meditation, visualization.

Beginning the day in this way means you start the day with the right mindset – essential to achieving self-discipline and focus throughout the day

 

  1. Self Care Is An Important Part Of The Puzzle

Just as starting the day with a morning routine helps set you up for a productive day, prioritizing self-care also helps with self-discipline. When you’re busy, it can be easy to miss breakfast and get straight onto the computer, or on the phone checking your emails.

Before you know it, half the day has passed, and you’ve forgotten to eat, you’re feeling tired, unproductive and start to make mistakes. You might think you’re working but, you’ve been distracted for most of the morning on social media.

To perform at your optimum, taking time to rest and time for scheduled mealtimes is essential. It’s also a great boost for self-esteem as you tell your brain and body that they matter just as much as your clients and customers do.

Likewise, taking time to switch off from your business is key to achieving self-discipline, productivity and reducing burnout. Switching off is a foreign concept for many new entrepreneurs but many of the most successful ones take time to shut the office door at a certain point every day. Switching off helps us to ensure that the time we do spend in our business is productive.

Arianna Huffington says “We think, mistakenly, that success is the result of the amount of time we put in at work, instead of the quality of time we put in.”

Working in a focused and disciplined manner ensures the time you spend in your business is quality time. This, then leaves time for the essential task of self-care.

Self-discipline is only hard if you keep telling yourself it is. Make it a practice, work on what matters, be disciplined with your time and see how much difference that makes. In the end, self discipline brings multiple rewards in both business and life.

6 Success Tips When Starting Over In Your Career by @tasminsabar

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6 Success Tips When Starting Over In Your Career

by Tasmin Sabar | Featured Contributor 

There are a few things in life more nerve-wracking than starting over.

Whether that’s starting over in life following a divorce, the death of a loved one or restarting your career in either a different field or starting up a new business, these new starts all have one thing in common.

They put you “out there” and make you feel vulnerable in a way that you could have barely tolerated thinking about beforehand.

The sorts of changes that if you said to yourself “imagine if?” you would find it difficult to actually do the imagining. It’s as though that part of the brain suddenly becomes inaccessible.  But once you’re in there, you have no choice but to go ahead and live it.

The scary thing about changes such as these is that there is no blueprint on how you should be living and it’s often a case of facing many fears and limiting beliefs as they arise.

All the while, having to deal with the ego rearing its head and telling you what you can and can’t do. Questioning your ability to do this thing that you are moving towards.

Who are you to start over?

Make a change?

Push through your comfort zone?

Live life on your terms?

It can be difficult to start over and even if you do, it can be tough to make real progress towards creating the life or career that you really want.

During my own personal starting over moment – leaving 15 years of a corporate career to start my own business, I experienced first hand what a rollercoaster beginning again can be. But, when you have the courage to face these changes head on, they can also carry some of your biggest lessons and/or opportunities.

Here are 6 success tips for starting over in your career.

  1. Accept Where You Are

However you find yourself starting over, start by accepting where you are and make peace with it. If you’ve left a job recently without something else to go to, or are finding that your new business is not taking off as quick as you might have expected, just acknowledge that. Tell yourself “I am where I am and that’s okay”.  Just doing this simple step, helps you evaluate your position without judgment, and encourages self-acceptance.

It keeps you optimistic while you work on improving things.

2.  Appreciate How Far You Have Come

Once you have made peace with where you are, take some time to reflect on how far you have come. Sometimes we can make lots of progress but fail to acknowledge this progress as being enough. You might be starting over, but you are doing it with all the extra skills and experience you have gained and you will be taking all of that with you.

Chances are if you take the time to reflect, you will see that you have come further and achieved more than you thought, and in doing so will give yourself renewed confidence to go back at it.

3. Keep Yourself Uplifted

Keeping yourself optimistic and in a positive mindset is crucial. This might not seem easy so to help you through it, be proactive about seeking out inspiration. Follow people on social media who are already doing what you want to do, read the books that those you admire have written, create a vision board, write out your affirmations, keep a gratitude journal.

There are many ways you can keep yourself uplifted. Choose what works for you and go for it.

There is a quote I love by Zig Ziglar which says “people often say that motivation doesn’t last. Well neither does bathing – that’s why we recommend it daily”.

Seeking out different inspirations on a daily basis when you are starting over is extra crucial. When you are at the beginning of the journey it will keep you focused on where you are going, stop you dwelling on any negatives in your situation, keep you going on a bad day and help you keep the big picture in mind.

4. Set SMART Goals and Get Accountability

Get clarity around your next steps by setting SMART goals. Take your time to think about next steps, where you want to go and where you want the new start to take you.

Setting goals give you structure and a plan and keep you moving forward without which it can be easy to drift.

Break your big goals down into weekly, monthly and yearly steps and put them somewhere visible to help you stay on track. Be flexible as to your methods of achieving your goals and open to course correcting if necessary.

It’s not enough to just set the goals, you must put the plan in place – taking action on the plan is the secret sauce. As Stephen Covey says “Goals are pure fantasy without a specific plan in place to achieve them”

Build in some accountability and support into achieving your goals through working with a Coach of Mentor.

5. Celebrate the Small Victories

If you are the sort of person who only thinks they’ve achieved something when they’ve got to the end result of their big goal, you could be doing yourself a disservice and failing to recognise all the steps that you took to get there. Chances are whenever you are starting over, there won’t be just the one singular step to get to where you want to be, particularly if you decide to start your own business. There will be projects to plan, tasks to complete, to-do lists to get through.

Be kind to yourself and celebrate the small victories as well as the big ones which you deem more worthy of celebration. This will not only keep you motivated and show you that you are on track to your goal but it will be a reminder of your successes on the way to getting there.

6. Don’t Forget to Enjoy Every Day

This is the one thing that will transform the starting over period for you. Often, when you are embarking on a new beginning, you can be so intent on getting to the end result that you miss out on the joys of everyday life that are before you.

So take time every day to be truly present in as many moments as you can. Whilst you are working on your new start, life is still there to be lived and it is oh so beautiful.

Take time to bask in the sunshine, take the long walk in the park, turn up the radio and sing along at the top of your voice – do the things that make you happy and revel in the day to day.

Whilst the process of starting over can be challenging, if you embrace it, you will find new ways of surprising yourself and find new resilience shows itself to you.

And the absolute number one reason why you should not be afraid to start over? Doing so provides a brand new opportunity to build what you TRULY want.

And that is the most exciting thing of all.

3 Steps to Get Out of Your Own Way and Set Yourself Up for Success by @tasminsabar

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by Tasmin Sabar | Featured Contributor 

Back when I was in my corporate job and looking to start my own business, I had a lot of fears and limiting beliefs holding me back.

Even though I knew what I wanted to do, I was pretty clueless about how to actually make it happen.

On top of that, I was scared of leaving the perceived safety and security of the corporate world. I had no entrepreneurial background and there seemed to be so much I didn’t know about running a business.

This meant that for some time, the fears got the better of me and led to procrastination and inaction.

This caused a lot of internal conflict because I knew I had to overcome the fears and get my head around the learning curve but I just couldn’t get out of my own way.

I really wanted to change but I was the one holding MYSELF back.

At the time, I thought this was uniquely me but since then, I’ve learnt that I’m not alone in feeling this way.

I see the same thing now with the women I work with.

Wonderful, amazing women who have gifts to share with the world but they hold themselves back and live in fear.

Fear of success, fear of failure, fear of rejection, fear of making a mistake, fear of never reaching their true potential.

Often, they end up holding themselves back so much they think it’s easier to give up on their dreams rather than tackle their fears.

Well, I am here to tell you that you should NEVER give up on your dreams.

Ever!

The world needs women like you and your dreams ARE meant for you. Building a business can seem  scary, daunting and anxiety-inducing, but it is one of the most rewarding things you will do.

Sometimes, to get where you want to be, you have to push yourself a little.

Here are 3 tips to help you get out of your own way:

Master your Mindset

Having the right mindset is crucial for success. In fact, the more I have worked on myself and my clients, I have realised that the right mindset is everything.

As Henry Ford said “whether you think you can or think you can’t, you’re right.”  Having an abundance mindset which is ready, primed, open and accepting of success is essential.

So often, a scarcity mindset can come into play and you can find your mind telling you all sorts of stories such as

it will never work for me,

there is not enough out there,

there is too much competition,

its possible for X person because she has this or that going for her etc.

The truth is none of this serves you and it stops you from moving forward.

Your thoughts create your reality so it’s essential to think the good ones to create the reality you want.

A good way to do this is to work on your mindset daily. Read inspiring books and use affirmations to program your mind for success as a starting point. Or you can work with a Coach to go more in depth.

Learn to live with the fears and know that you can handle them

For many women, the fears that arise from stepping out of their comfort zone and doing something different can derail them before they even get started.

I know I was the same when I first thought about starting my business.

My fears stopped me from taking action and as a result, I stayed in research mode for months.

I soon discovered that the way to beat my fears was to become more courageous and tell myself that I can handle anything that comes up and I will DO IT ANYWAY.

We can make excuses and be ruled by our fears all day long, but that will get us nowhere. So, it’s up to you to accept that fears will come up, acknowledge them, but then carry on regardless.

Think about some of the biggest fears that are coming up for you around a project or business idea and take some time to write them down and journal your exact feelings. Then say “I might be a little scared but I am going to do this anyway”.

Make it happen

Achieving success takes a commitment to making it happen. It takes action and forward movement.

Even if you’re scared, even if fears are coming up, even if you don’t know all the steps.

If you commit to making progress and taking steps (even small ones) you will move forward and before you know it, you will be where you want to be. It’s often said that “success is the sum of small efforts – repeated day in and day out” and this is so true.

It’s about putting one foot in front of the other. The more you take action the more the path clears. Clarity comes from taking action.

But if you don’t take any action – you won’t get anywhere. Simple! It’s totally possible for you to make YOUR dream a reality and set yourself if up for success

When you commit to making it happen.

When you accept that fears are part and parcel of the journey of growth.

When you decide to start and go for it with consistency and persistence.

Then there will be no one getting in your way. Yourself included.

What The Pyramids of Egypt taught me about Business by @tasminsabar

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by Tasmin Sabar | Featured Contributor 

This week a dream came true for me.

I ticked a BIG item off my bucket list by visiting the Pyramids of Egypt. The last remaining wonder of the ancient world.

To say it was a sight to behold is an understatement.

As the bus turned the corner and two of the Pyramids came into view, they took my breath away and when we got off the bus and I was standing in front of them, I felt myself get a little choked up.

The scale, the structure, the history, the magnificence, the anticipation, the early start and the 7-hour bus trip to get there from the part of Egypt we were staying in just became a little too much in that moment.

It felt extra special, because not only had I ticked off a bucket list item, it was also business as usual as I presented my weekly Livestream for my Facebook Community from right by the Pyramids!!

It felt surreal and incredible and whilst I was doing the Livestream, I was reminded how both starting my business and going to Egypt had seemed like such a big deal for such a long while.

But when it came to it, it was very straightforward. I decided and booked the trip on Tuesday and by Thursday evening I was in Egypt. Not such a big deal.

I wasn’t so quick in starting my business which I had procrastinated over for years but frequently find myself wishing I had started sooner.

Here are 3 things the Egyptian Pyramids Taught Me About Business

Anything is Possible

Staring at those huge stone blocks arranged neatly in the hot desert showed me the possibility of what can be achieved with time, vision and focus.

To think that these were transported, organised, lifted and moved into place at a time when there were scarce resources showed the ingenuity of the Egyptians to transcend the limits of what’s possible.

Likewise, if you had said to me a few years ago when I was feeling stuck in my corporate job, that I would be standing in the desert live streaming to my community thanks to the wonders of modern technology, I wouldn’t have believed you.

Thinking big can often give way to being realistic but there is great magic in being open to possibilities.

What would you do if you believed anything was possible?

 

To create something amazing may take time

The pyramids took 20 years to build and it is estimated that involved installing 800 tonnes of stones every single day.

That is some serious hard graft involved – but I am sure you can agree that the results are pretty spectacular?

Whereas timescales may vary, building your business, will also take time. As you lay your foundations, build and grow it will require that consistent daily effort to build something that you are proud of.

And whilst that might not sound sexy, keeping the big vision in mind, that metaphorical last stone of the pyramid, will keep you going.

 

Business (or bucket lists) don’t have to wait for “someday”

The Pyramids and starting a business were two of the things that were on my “someday” list. I would do it “someday” but never had a firm or definitive plan in getting there. They were to be done when the time was right.

But the reality is someday doesn’t arrive.

And just like The Pyramids felt like a big deal beforehand, so did starting my business before I took the leap. But when I had done it, I kind of wondered what had taken me so long!

So, if you’re waiting for someday to do that thing that you’ve always wanted to do I just want to give you a little nudge and a reminder that now is as good a time as any.

Ask yourself what I can do today to make progress on this?

And then go lay that first block.