5 traits to be significantly more effective

1. The goals you set create purpose

Effort without purpose is just effort. Effective people don't just know what to do - they know why. They have long-term goals and short-term goals that support their long-term goals.

Goals – goals that are truly meaningful to you – create a sense of purpose. Staying focused and on-task is easy when you truly care about what you want to achieve. But don’t just set goals…

2. The systems you follow make goals achievable

As a small business owner your goal is to build a successful business. Your systems are your processes for sales, marketing, fulfillment, operations, etc. A goal is great for planning and mapping out what success looks like, a system is great for making progress toward that goal.

Everyone has goals. The difference in people who achieve their goals and those who don’t comes down to creating the right routines and systems.

Say you want to hit $1 million in sales, that’s your goal. Your system may only be making thirty cold calls a day, every day so look at adjusting the system. 

3. Success and failure are within your control

Many people feel outside forces have a lot to do with success or failure; if they succeed then luck favoured them, and if they fail luck was against them.

Luck certainly does play a part, but successful people don't wish for good luck or worry about bad luck. Success is totally within their control. If they succeed, they caused it; if they fail, they caused that, too.

Waste no mental energy worrying about what might happen to you. Put all your effort into making things happen for you.

You can never control luck, but you can always control yourself.

Find fulfillment in helping other people to succeed, and you’ll succeed, too. 

- Jeff Haden 

4. Free time can be the best time

Keep your hand on the wheel and all you can see is the wheel – and that means you might miss opportunities to spot something new, try something different, or go off on a fruitful tangent.

Efficient people stay on-task, but effective people create time to experience new things, try new methods, and benefit from happy accidents.

You don’t always have to reinvent the wheel, especially when you take the time to look for perfectly functioning wheels you can adapt to your own business.

5. Happiness can be found in the success of others

Great teams win because their most talented members are willing to sacrifice to help others succeed. That's why great businesses are made up of employees who help each other, know their roles, set aside their personal goals, and value team success over everything else.

Where does that attitude come from? You.

Find fulfillment in helping other people to succeed, and you’ll succeed, too.