Tracking Little Victories Leads to Big Success!

Me - “Wait…what do you mean that my retirement funds went there?! I filled out all the paperwork for the other place! For the love of all that is holy, what else will go wrong this week?! My laptop won’t work, I have a problem client who calls whenever he feels his feelings, and my freaking pool has a leak!”

I remember this week when Murphy’s Law was doing victory laps in my head.

If you’re unfamiliar, Murphy’s Law states, “What can go wrong, will go wrong.”

This week made me think I should hang it up, do my full-time coaching only, and let everything else go.

I mean, what’s the point if it all blows up in my face? I can be miserable all on my own without any assistance.

Here’s a quick recap for you.

We just returned from an incredible vacation celebrating 20 years of marriage, and it was time to play catch-up in the office.

If you’re like me, the first day back from vacation feels like the Sunday before a test at school on Monday, and you forgot to study.

However, I couldn’t play catch up.

Why?

1. My laptop wouldn’t work.
2. My retirement savings got switched to the wrong custodian, which took forever to fix.
3. A client wanted to restart their script and video after we ultimately finished their project.
4. A voiceover artist changed pricing after the work was complete but not yet delivered.
5. A video got utterly screwed up, and unfortunately, my client saw it before I did.
6. A client demanded their money back. (Still trying to figure out why.)
7. People scheduled phone calls so they could ask me all the questions that were answered in an email I sent.
8. I didn’t get to write any chapters for my book.
9. At home, a window has mold, we have an ant infestation, and the pool has a leak.
10. Oh, and a teacher accused my child of cheating because she had poor grades, which doesn’t make sense. If she were cheating, she would have better grades.  

There were forty-eleven (a real number I made up) things that went haywire that week, but let’s settle for the top ten.

You will have a week like this when you have a business. This week will validate all the reasons you feel inadequate and bolster your Imposter Syndrome.

Imposter Syndrome is when you doubt your abilities and feel like a fraud. It disproportionately affects entrepreneurs, who find it hard to accept their accomplishments and believe everyone else will soon discover they’re a fraud.

You will have a week where everything you touch turns to sugar honey iced tea, which is an acronym I have to use when children are in the room.

You will want to quit and justify quitting.

You will have a week like this.

But…this is normal.  

When you own a business or work as a busy professional, the highs feel higher, and the lows feel lower.  

That’s the job.

That’s what you agreed to go down this road.

The key is to catch this feeling a week early and only let it last for a day or two. The worst-case scenario you can allow is a week.  

Your job is to help solve the problem your business solves.

You are doing a disservice to all your customers and people who rely on you if you let the terrible week turn into a bad month.

Yes, there are exceptions to this rule:

• A major medical diagnosis
• Important relationship shifts
• Unexpected financial losses
• Deaths

When these occur, give yourself some grace and a deadline to get things back on track.

Want to know how you recognize a bad day or week?

You ask yourself, “Why am I even doing this?”

That’s when you stop what you’re doing and take charge.

1. Write down everything that has gone wrong and why it’s bad.
2. List worst-case scenarios of what could happen because of the bad things.
3. List your victories, even the small ones.

Choose to cut it off that day, and give yourself a chance to get wins that day.  

Tackle the little to-dos so your brain knows that you are capable and can close open loops.

Then at the end of the day, readjust your plan for the week and keep stacking your victories.

You rebuild your self-confidence when you stack your wins, even the small ones. This win-stacking leads to momentum, saving your week and sanity.

Take my case, for example. Each of the bad things that happened wasn’t that terrible. They can be described as “First World Problems.”

I would be embarrassed to utter these problems to a single mom working three jobs to make ends meet. I mean, a pool leak? I have a freaking pool! Can’t I appreciate that?

But I didn’t follow my own advice: it was late Wednesday before I took notice.

I immediately wrote down all the bad things for the week and stretched it to thirty items.

Then I wrote down all the little victories.

1. I made a big video package sale.
2. My virtual assistant took on a new task I didn’t want to do anymore.
3. I made cuts to some obsolete expenses.
4. Lilly auditioned for a solo and got it.
5. Lane caught everything thrown his way in football practice.
6. Ava snuggled up to me on the couch and watched a movie.
7. Oh, and I just had the best trip ever with my wife, who has been by my side for two decades. 
8. I had four good workouts at the gym.
9. I didn’t eat like a toddler.
10. I caught this bad week before it turned into a month.

Again, this is just the top-ten list. Some are minor victories, but victories nonetheless.

After this exercise, I made a list of all the nagging but doable tasks  I had been putting off. Then I started knocking them out!

By the end of the week, I was feeling great. Then I planned to get the real work done for the following week and put Murphy’s Law back in the shadows.

You will have a week like this. It’s your job to recognize it and know that it’s just a week.  

You will be here doing great work for years!

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