Startups are not always easy. Most of the times bring a lot of problems and frustration. And questions. A lot and lot of questions. With doubts and sometimes guilds of what would have happened. This is the normal process. A circle of excitement, at first, before the kick in the rational side of yourself, of what is best (for you, your family, your life, etc).
But this is normal. The most of the times, during a new beginning, you find yourself in a roller coaster moving circularly between excitement, depress, despair, energy, enthusiasm. And then, again, the circle begins all over again.
Why Are We Startup Anything, At All?
Why we have to make new startups. Is it your choice or something imposed by outside conditions?
The answer is different for every person, but, at the bottom line, it can be summed up in only one, little statement. “Because you have to“.
Either you realize it or not, you made new startups all the time.
- The moment you pick up a new idea, product, service, book, paper for “broadening our horizon“,
- The moment you commit time and effort to a friend, a marriage, a relationship,
- The moment you keep your word towards a friend, a colleague, a partner,
- The moment you start a new hobby, learning a new skill, leave an old habit, adopt a new attitude,
- The moment you wish to change career, work, life, house, car,
- The moment you dream of your self, your family, and your society,
- The moment you criticize something against another thing,
- The moment you put up new life goals, business goals, personal goals, health goals, financial goals, social goals in front of your horizon,
- The moment you uphold your value, self-respect, personality, character and you are not drifting aside,
- The moment you avoid exploiting someone weaker from you,
- The moment you select new partnerships, associates, collaborators, groups, and teams,
- The moment you try to form new win-win strategies for yourself and your clients
- The moment you start to consider your clients as colleagues and collaborators rather than income resources,
- The moment you commit to the creation of a new business, a quality service or product, a value-added network, a value enhanced community/
All the time and everywhere you do new startups. Whether you realize it or not, all that “moments” direct your attention to new fields and prepare a new behavior that changes old habits (in our behavior, thoughts, ideas, approaches).
Sometimes these startups are intentional. Other times are not and are enforced to you by external conditions (a job loss, the death of a loved person, a sickness, a life or death problem, etc.)
But the point here is that each startup brings a new set of rules and conditions, for which, the most of the times, you have not prepared for.
Start Up On Empty
Change, today, is becoming more and more a constant in our personal and business life, rather than an exception, it is imperative:
- To acknowledge its existence in everyday life,
- To embrace it, and
- To channel it in more desirable areas.
It is not easy of course! It needs a lot of a preparation, commitment, creativity, out-of-the-box thinking and a proactive state of mind. And there are no quick fixes or patches, there are no magic solutions.
There are just different approaches for different people.
[A Startup Machine]
My, temporary (until to be reviewed!!!) approach, says:
- Observe, monitoring and watch the trends as they formed, think about where the output may result to, and design your appropriate responses, by adopting new habits within your thought framework, values, and long-term goals, employing baby steps towards short-range mini-goals and review the process in order, if have to, to change it
- Educate yourself in the new ideas, business, lifestyles, social trends, tools, select the most appropriate and implement them in your everyday life
- Cultivate a proactive state of mine and life rather than a reactive one, in order to be ready to cope effectively with the changes, may arise
- Startup on empty every time you monitoring a change in patterns that may affect you. i.e:
- Vision your objectives, leads, prospects and perspectives within the new conditions, how these might match your long-term goals and how the new conditions might be exploited in favor of your desired or intended future outcomes.
- Align the new desired behaviors against your long-term life goals, and make appropriate adjustments
- Evaluate your strengths and weakness, their effect in the new conditions, enhance the most suitable traits that would help you in the new conditions and either try to remedy your weaknesses by eliminating them (if you can) or use them as base of reference for the things you have to work with yourself
- Plan from the start and create a pro-active and flexible course of action and a strategy towards the new objectives, creating accordingly S.M.A.R.T. goals, “life tasks” and timetables.
- Abandon old ideas, beliefs, attitudes, that may become a problem
- “Declutter” your mind, ideas, attitudes, tools, office and home environment, habits and beliefs are no longer of serve and organize what worth keeping in a new context and content, appropriate for your “new model of living and doing business“
- Set short terms landmarks against which you could check your progress and timetables for their accomplishment
- Check always their validity against your goals and vision
- Review the results, monitor your reaction towards these results and amend accordingly if needed
Just an approach, of course! My approach.
I hope my approach help you develop your own unique approach in order to not to have to start up on empty every time!
Do startups concern you? Do you believe that you can employ successful startups in your life and business? Do you think that you have what it takes, to start up on empty? Please comment.
