Business Advice from Birds
Have you ever noticed that business lessons can pop up in the most unexpected places? And when you least expect them?
I was sitting in my backyard the other day enjoying the sun and two hummingbirds caught my eye. The birds would flit this way and that. They would stop suddenly to check out a flower, and then be on their way to their next inquisitive stop.
All this action caused me to think about how a hummingbird can do that. How they and other birds (or airplanes for that matter) manage to get and stay airborne.
It all comes down to the basic laws of aerodynamics:
Lift + Thrust must be greater than Load + Drag.
When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, birds fly. So do planes.
The same thing applies to your business, doesn’t it?
Your lift is your enthusiasm, plan, knowledge, team, coach, mentor, systems and all the tools that support your business. The thrust is your focused actions that create momentum toward your goal.
Now consider the load and drag…distractions, busy work, fear, resistance, conflict, toxic employees, procrastination.
When load and drag are greater than lift plus thrust, your business stalls, stagnates or fails. You miss opportunities, fall short of your goal, and probably lose money.
When lift plus thrust is greater than load plus drag, your business takes off and prospers. You become airborne, reaching, or even exceeding your goal.
Now is a good time to make sure that you will be airborne for the rest of the year to reach your goals.
Time to boost your lift and thrust and cut down on the load and drag. It’s the time when you really must simplify what you do, laser focus on your end-of-year goal, and step into the prosperous life you wanted when you started your business.
Half the year is almost gone. Take time now to close your revenue gap or accelerate beyond your target. Put aside the things that are “nice” to do in favor of only the critical things to do.
Before you take off for a summer of sun, make sure that those critical actions that will lead you to where you want to be are clearly identified and that they can be sustained even with vacations. You know where you want to be, right??
Your plan for the next few weeks is simple. We call it the Critical Success Factor Formula. Maybe we should nickname it the Hummingbird Formula:
- Write down your goal (measurable)
- Determine the (no more than) 3-4 Critical Success Factors (strategies) that MUST be done to take you to your goal
- Only do the actions that put the Critical Success Factors into play; everything else gets put aside. We mean it! If it doesn’t support a Critical Success Factor, take it off your list.
If you break every other rule in business, follow this one. Think “lift plus thrust.” And eliminate the “load plus the drag.”
You can do it. Take a lesson from the hummingbirds and fly!
Blessings,
