After talking to hundreds of women about their businesses, I have found that many lack commitment to their businesses, feel guilty, and give up before they even really get started.
Why is this happening? Many have too many things going on in their lives to stay committed to a business. But more often, they lack the essential traits needed for entrepreneurship.
3 Traits Successful Entrepreneurs Need to Stay Committed To A Business
Do you have these traits of successful entrepreneurs?
Stamina – Confidence – Trust
Ask yourself if you do any of these behaviors?
- Being haphazard with your day
- Procrastinating on what you want to do or should get done
- Grasping at and trying every new idea instead of sticking to a decision
If this sounds like some of the things going on for you each day, week, month, quarter, then keep reading as we look at
- Why these qualities are important
- How you can deal with the behaviors that are keeping you noncommittal, and
- Offer you solutions as to how to be committed to the business God has called you into
Staying committed is NOT about your willpower but about having systems that will help you be committed and stay committed to a business that God has called you to do.
Commitment Is Not About Your Willpower
I want to tackle this lack of commitment head-on because this is probably the number one thing I see in the women I work with every week. Those who are frustrated and do not see results are the ones who lack these entrepreneurial qualities, and they are seen in the behaviors they are exhibiting.
The solutions are simple. The keys are what the Calling Clarity program brings to these women. But, you need to make the shift and create the room for growth to succeed in business or any other area of your life. It does take commitment, commitment to doing things differently than you have past and moving forward in the attitude of the little engine who could.
So let’s look at three traits to determine:
- The quality you may need to develop,
- The behavior tell-tale signs and
- The solution to helping you move forward and succeed.
Commitment Takes Stamina
Let’s start with Stamina. It is super important to have stamina or endurance in the entrepreneurial life. Things don’t just happen overnight. You need the will to keep going and stay committed to a business.
And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation. –Romans 5:4
God uses your business to grow your stamina, develop your character and make you more like His Son.
Questions to Gauge Your Stamina Level
There is one sure sign, and it is found in your day-to-day activities. So first, think through what a typical day is like for you.
- What do you do when you wake up?
- When do you get started with business activities?
- How do you fit God into your day?
- Are you able to accomplish everything you want in a day?
If your day is haphazard, unplanned, and disorganized, you won’t develop endurance because you are starting from a new slate every day. You are ‘figuring it out’ randomly and based on how you feel on any particular day. That does not build anything but confusion and most often leads to burnout.
The Stamina Solution
You’ll find the solution defined in one word, ROUTINE. We all need a basic routine for every day that includes all the essential things that need to get done. This routine includes your time with God, physical activity, taking care of family responsibilities, and working in/on your business.
Some women tell me they can’t have a routine because they are too ‘creative’ and need to work when they are ‘inspired.’ This is a fallacy. We are more creative when we plan time to BE creative.
Client Story
Lisa, my client who runs a membership group for Creative Soul-Journalers and guides others to tap into their inner artist, once told me she was too creative for a routine. Unfortunately, her life happened to her instead of her being in control of the narrative.
Now, she has a routine. If fact, she had a time when it got disrupted because of an emergency, and she lamented to me that she needed to get back to her routine so she could have the peace and space to be more creative.
Having a routine is not your enemy or boring. On the contrary, having a routine is calming and saves you a lot of grief. When you carve out space for what is truly important for your day, business, and life and follow it, you develop the endurance to keep going and solve challenges as they come up.
That’s what Lisa has discovered. She plans what she wants to happen each day. She takes care of her responsibilities and herself to grow the business that God is asking her to grow, serve those He has called her to help, and create a rhythm to her sustainable life.
Simplify Your Day With A Routine
That’s a better place to be. Do you have a routine? Are you planning each morning, the night before, or the week? Start slow if need be, write out the tasks for your day in the morning and follow the plan. Grow to create this list the night before. AND, eventually, be able to write out an entire week, a month, or more.
One of the best ways I have to help you get started in this area is with what I call Simplify your Day. This activity allows you to brainstorm what is required of you each day, what you can do to give you a return on your investment of time and energy, and the rewards you can expect when you are focused on your routine.
Commitment Takes Confidence
The next quality you may need to develop is confidence. But, again, God has given you everything you need to do the job and stay committed to a business. It’s just that we don’t know everything, and that’s why we need to keep learning as entrepreneurs.
Questions to Gauge Your Confidence Level
Your lack of confidence shows up in one specific way, through procrastination. Why? Because once you realize you don’t know everything, you get intimidated about what to do next, the overwhelm sets in, and you are confused about how to move forward.
- Do you find yourself starting projects but not finishing them?
- Are you wasting time doing things that are not productive? Like deciding on your logo or working on your website?
- Do you feel your days are busy, but you have nothing to show for your time? Like no new clients.
If you find yourself overwhelmed with precisely what tasks are the best for your business and find excuses not to ‘get to it,’ you will not gain the confidence to keep trying.
Most times, the excuses I hear from my clients are. “I’m waiting or am just too busy. I feel lazy.” Nonsense. It is more likely happening that they have bitten off more than they can chew.
The Confidence Solution
The key to gaining confidence is to break down every significant activity and project into smaller steps and put these small manageable actions into your routine. I have a video that may help, and it’s a process called Deconstructing the Hamburger.
When you know how to break down those overwhelming tasks and see that taking smaller steps does get the job done, you will gain confidence in your abilities and grow this vital muscle. A muscle you need to stay committed to your business. Don’t forget that big journeys begin with small steps.
Client Story
Marlene needed to gain confidence in herself when she came into Calling Clarity. She was transitioning from corporate leadership to coaching others on how to be leaders. Her focus, though, was on making everything perfect so she was stuck in the ‘what will I show the world’ instead of ‘how will I serve those God has called me to serve.’
Once she worked through, what we call the Experience module, she discovered that 12 of her last 14 positions were either in leadership, mentoring, or both. God had equipped her to step into leadership coaching. She just couldn’t see it and through all the weeds of doing too much.
Commitment Takes Trust
The next thing you may be lacking is trust. Trust in yourself, trust in God. Creating a lifestyle business that you can stay committed to a business to doing in the long term is the goal.
Questions to Gauge Your Trust Level
I know some decisions can be very scary. However, not making tough decisions for your business is scarier. If you’re changing your mind, you aren’t trusting all the information available to you to make the decisions you know you need to make.
- Do you feel like you need a new approach all the time?
- Are you grasping for the next thing that looks like it might work?
- Is there an urgency inside you, and you’re exhausted trying to figure it out?
That comes from a lack of trust because you have not decided on your business’s best course of action. And you have not implemented the decisions you have made about your business.
When you continue to ‘try’ various methods, you are not looking for what works best. You are looking for a quick fix. Are you trusting God to help you put the proper structure in place for your business?
I have found that when my clients decide to come into Calling Clarity and keep looking for other methods that ‘might work,’ they are not trusting what God has put in front of them.
The Trust Solution
The key to a lack of trust is to have a way to make decisions not based on your feelings, by not comparing yourself to others and not just hoping for the best. We call it the Values Filter.
It is one of the first activities we do in Calling Clarity, and it gives you a concrete way of looking at an opportunity and deciding if it is right for you and your business.
Client Story
When Mary came into the program, she had trouble figuring out what to say NO to because everything seemed to be a good idea. But unfortunately, she soon was too busy doing too many things in her Web Design business: blogs, content creation, email marketing, and social media management, all on top of building websites.
She now knows her top value is peace with the Values Filter exercise. She doesn’t compromise her peace for any project. Using one of her top five values gives her the peace she needs to know she made the right decision.
First, it comes down to trusting that God will bring the right resources to you when you need them. Trust that He is giving you the right ideas or putting the right coaches and mentors in front of you to help you move forward faster.
Commit to finding and working on one idea, one plan, or one program to the best of your ability. Trust that you have a decision-making process that works for you.
Stay Committed To A Business and Be a Successful Entrepreneur
Being an entrepreneur is hard, but it is also rewarding. God is using your business to make you more like His Son. To stay committed to a business takes work and working out an ever-growing muscle that will move you forward. It is not about having more willpower. It is about having a routine, tools, and systems to help you succeed.
You lack nothing in God’s economy. You can overcome those behaviors that keep you stuck with these solutions that will work for you.
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