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If you’ve read my book “Conquer the Chaos” or talked to me at any length about entrepreneurship, you’ve heard me emphasize the importance of your Life Vision and your Rhythm of Execution. Nailing down these aspects will produce calm, confidence and consistency as you contribute to building and growing your business. It’s what will empower you to achieve your goals and dreams smoothly and predictably.
Related: 10 Ways to Build Your Entrepreneurial Confidence
But, while it sounds great in theory, what does it actually mean in practice? And how can you become a master? Here are some quick tips.
1. Connect to your life vision
To establish your rhythm of execution, you need first to define your life vision. This includes your professional identity, purpose, values, mission and goals, as well as five areas of your personal life: spiritual, physical, social, business and financial. Once you have this framework, you’ll create a plan to execute those goals, which is what the execution rhythm is all about.
It’s more than a collection of habits, though. Instead, think of it as a recurring pattern of habits designed with great intention suited to your strengths and weaknesses to help you achieve your important business and personal goals. It will help you connect your days and weeks to your life vision in a balanced way that helps you achieve your goals. If you ask me, it beats the heck out of the chaos most entrepreneurs settle for.
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2. Set your rhythm of execution
Now, let’s dig in on a practical level. Your rhythm of execution is the rhythm of essential morning, daily and weekly activities that drive your goals in the five areas of your life. In other words, it’s a process of intentionally designing days and weeks that are exciting to you.
As you stack these days and weeks on top of each other, you tie them into your monthly, quarterly and annual goals. Then, you connect those annual goals to your three-year goals, which, you guessed it, ladder up to the 10-year and lifetime goals in your life vision. The three most important parts of the rhythm of execution for you to get right are your morning mastery, your weekly winning and your quarterly retreat. If you master these, your business and life will transform. Here’s a little more about each:
- Your morning mastery is where you wake up early and nourish your mind, body and spirit.
- Your weekly winning involves designing winning weeks that you love, in which you evaluate the past week and plan the following one.
- Your quarterly retreats are where you take time away to evaluate the short term and connect it to the long term. They’re your bridge from day-to-day execution to long-term execution.
3. Make it exciting
If you’re an entrepreneur, your eyes might already be glazing over. Look, I get it. Most of us started our own businesses because we detested structure and wanted to answer to no one but ourselves. This is why you must make your execution rhythm something that you love, something that’s exciting and draws you back every time.
If you rely on discipline to get through this, good on you, but it’s going to break down. Instead, aim for desire over discipline. I’ve lived this personally. I love my routine. I love the things I do because I’ve made them fun, exciting and rewarding. There’s payback in it. Why would I not do it? By the way, this is why it’s called a rhythm and not a routine. No one wants routines and ruts. No one wants rigidity. So, this needs to be something that keeps you on track but does so in an enjoyable and beautiful way.
Related: 9 Habits That Will Make Your Life (and You) More Interesting
4. Eliminate the excuses
Whenever I talk about morning mastery, I get a lot of pushback from people, mostly the refrain that “I’m not a morning person, Clate.” Well, here’s the deal. Mastering your morning is what has been proven to be successful, and I’m just the messenger.
Even so, you don’t have to wake up at five or six o’clock if it feels soul-crushing to you. If you’re not a morning person, you can still master your earliest hours by rising a little earlier than you normally would. Invest in yourself and get up 10, 20, 60 or 90 minutes earlier than you used to. You can even create different versions of your morning mastery and do whichever one you make the time for on a given day. Just make it happen – and see if it doesn’t change your life.
Mastering your execution rhythm is essential to designing the life and business you envision as an entrepreneur. There’s not one single prescription for exactly what you should do, but the principles here are solid and tested and will take you far.