Posts Tagged ‘Angela Dion’

Do you shut down at all for the holiday season? Do you
take any time toward the beginning of the year to regroup?

Some of you may be thinking, “How foolish to have your
office closed to “regroup.” Yet, you should! Every organization should take
some time to retreat, re-evaluation, and rejuvenate for the upcoming year.
Perhaps your year starts in April, July, October, or like mine in January, time
off is essential.

This weekend I took time away from my normal routine to
retreat at the Wilderness Presidential Resort with my friend, Angela Dion,
owner of Dion Communications. We not only had fun laughing, but we also got a
lot of work done. We did lots of collaborating and forward thinking about our individual
businesses. We took the time to create our 2010 goals, list of tasks, and
opportunities we want to seek out. We spent time running new business ideas
past one another, and that was most helpful to me. 

Retreating to consider how your business is growing,
going, and getting along is crucial, especially if you are a solopreneur, and don’t have a board to guide you. Make an event out of this business retreat, like my friend and I did. Take a like-minded business pal
along to help you think through your business hurdles and brainstorm solutions to
combat them. The best thing is you’ll walk away with a detailed plan for the upcoming year along with a full first
quarter of calendar events. I guarantee it!

This is a familiar sentiment of mine. I find it myself
saying it when I want to start something new that feels way big, you know like a
new exercise routine, diet, project, or something just way outside of my
comfort zone. My latest incantation of this fateful sentiment was just this
weekend. I had made the decision to avoid eating sugar throughout the week. I
have a dear friend, Angela Dion, who has been very successful with this new
lifestyle change.  Well, for me, it’s
only been a few days, and I find that I am completely and utterly drawn to
everything sugary. So, I’ll wait and start again tomorrow.

Why do we procrastinate on things? Why to do we put off
for tomorrow things that we can, and should do today? A few reasons why I do
are: 1) It feels overwhelming, 2) It feels hard, 3) It feels scary. I’m sure I
can come up with many more excuses. Just recently I was asked to do update a
client’s website using the HTML codes within Dreamweaver. I remember pacing my
office, drawing a diagram of how to start, sitting at the computer checking emails
just in case the client changed her mind, and then it was lunch time. Final the
day was over. You get the picture!  The
next day I decided to just get it done because I was bumping against the
drop-dead deadline. I was amazed at just how easy it was, and astonished that
it only took 30-minutes or so to complete.

This will serve as proof that procrastination just
prolongs the inevitable; getting whatever done! And, it further supports the
notion that the mind is tricky! We make things harder, bigger, and more
complicated than they really are sometimes.

What are you procrastinating about, and therefore,
causing yourself to stress? Do you recognize your procrastination triggers? If
so, how do you work through them?

Here's a great article I found on procrastination.