Life is full of ups and downs, successes and failures.  The landscape of business is no different.  The longer you stay in the business world, the more likely you are to see that bear out.  But, don’t hold back your entrepreneurial dreams because of potential failure.

The basis of scientific research is trial and error.  You try one experiment and it fails.  The next time, you vary one chemical or condition and try the experiment again.  Each time that you do this, the end results are recorded regardless of whether they are the results you wanted or not. 

The entire scientific process is about evaluating the outcomes of your experiments.  The failed experiments are as important as the ones that succeeded.  Here, we are speaking of failure as an outcome that was unexpected and unplanned. 

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“Decide that you want it more than you are afraid of it.”
~~Bill Cosby~~
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Failure is one reason that many individuals won’t realize their entrepreneurial potential.  One mistake or error makes them gun-shy.  It prevents them from taking another step forward. 

Anyone with an entrepreneurial spirit knows that nothing is certain in life or business.  The only way to find success is to take a leap forward and risk failure.  At the least, you will learn something about yourself in the attempt:

1.  You weren’t afraid to try.
2.  Failure is not fatal.
3.  Now you know what not to do.

For an entrepreneur, even a failure is a great opportunity.  There are many categories of failure (in the good sense).  Entrepreneurs can make rookie mistakes, trust mistakes, and poor business decisions.  No one is immune to any of the three. 

Rookie mistakes could be choosing a poor domain name, not performing enough market testing, or issues with business start-up.  If you want to stay in business, the only thing to do is begin again with new knowledge that you didn’t have the first time in these areas.

Further down the line, maybe you formed a partnership and they got the better end of the deal.  Once again, you dust yourself off and start over. 

No one said it wouldn’t be painful to deal with these setbacks, but the challenge is to profit in these areas as well.  If you scan the business information on the Internet, you’ll see that there are as many courses and eBooks on what not to do as there are on what to do.  How do you think the entrepreneur got the information for the former?  They experienced it.

People new to entrepreneurship want to know what they should and should not do.  The ones who have experienced failure are more than happy to share their knowledge so someone else can avoid hard knocks.  That, in itself, is a marketable business opportunity.

Embrace all aspects of business including the possibility of failure.  Once you dig yourself out and dust yourself off, you could be standing in a goldmine.

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Goals drive us forward in life.  They give us a purpose.  We get up in the morning and get moving to fulfill our purpose.  Achieving goals in life and in business would be difficult without self-discipline and persistence.

What is self-discipline?  Think of it this way.  You have chores to do around the house.  Your parents promise to pay you $20 a month if you do all the chores they ask you to do.  In the middle of washing the dishes, you suddenly wish you were lying on the couch watching television.  You are tempted to stop but think about all the things you can buy with that money so you stay the course.

This is a little simplified but you get the idea.  When you have a goal to achieve, there will be obstacles and distractions along the way.  No one can keep these things from coming, but you can learn to deal with them before they arrive.

Building self-discipline takes practice, especially with long-term goals.  It’s easy to forget about the success waiting for you when it seems far off.  Start by cutting a long-term goal into smaller, more manageable goals.

If you want to make a certain amount of sales by the end of the year, calculate how many that is per month – that is your monthly goal.  At the end of each month, cheerfully mark it off as done.  Now you are pumped to get on and meet your goal for the next month.  Before long, you are looking at the success of that long-term goal.

Persistence brings to mind the painting by Salvador Dali, The Persistence of Time.  Everything in the picture seems to become fluid and ooze over the landscape.  Sometimes, things seem to go on and on and on just like that.  Overcoming an obstacle also needs persistence.

A goal doesn’t cease to be when you are having trouble accomplishing it.  Actually it seems to loom larger.  Persistence is to keep trying new ways to solve the problem long after others have given up.  What keeps you going?  It’s the realization of the goal and the unwillingness to admit defeat for concrete reasons.  This is not a futile goal, but the rational man’s attempts to complete his task.  Even if there are no more options, you won’t quit – just change direction.

For a business owner, the time between business start-up and establishing a clientele can be long.  No one expects to achieve success overnight, but after a long day you wonder if the goal is worth the agony.  Self-discipline and persistence are there to give a sober answer to that question.  And, you continue on for another day.

Goals require work to be attained.  If it were easy there would be no character-building benefit.  Self-discipline keeps you on the path towards the goal, and persistence ensures that you will do everything in your power to reach it.

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Why do it today if you can do it tomorrow?  Thinking like that is the beginning of the end when it comes to getting anything done — work or home chores.  The key to being more productive at work is to stop procrastinating before it gets a foothold in your thinking process.

Why do you procrastinate?  There are several reasons and some might surprise you.  Fear of failure is one reason.  No one wants to be make mistakes but they are a part of life and they do happen to everyone.

Fear of success is also a reason why you might procrastinate.  Here is the rationale:  If you succeed you will be expected to do so all the time.  The pressure alone can stop your work.

Stress causes procrastination, too.  It is easier to deal with a problem by hiding and pretending it will go away than meeting it head on.  The problem is that the day you are ready to deal with it never comes.

Use the following tips to stop procrastination from hindering your work.

1.  Make a list. Use dashes instead of numbers so the items on the list aren’t ranked in any particular order.  Add deadlines so that you can prioritize the list.  As you finish a task on the list, cross it off with a colorful pen.  Every time you look at the list you will get a sense of accomplishment.

2.  Set aside time for other tasks. All work and no play, as they say.  Sometimes when you work, you’ll notice your mind thinking about taking a break and doing something else.  We’ve all done it.  Avoid those breaks in productivity by scheduling time to get away and take a break.  Knowing that you will get a break makes you want to stay focused on your work until that time.

3.  Don’t overload your schedule. If you have too much to do in a small span of time, procrastination will surely creep in.  No one wants to slack off at work, but biting off only as much as you can chew is not the same thing.  You are more productive when you can manage your tasks instead of drowning in them and missing all of your deadlines.

4.  Find coping mechanisms. Stress can lead to procrastination.  Deal with the stress before it affects your work.  Learn breathing techniques; take an exercise class; chant a mantra.  Whatever will relax you can also keep you working.

5.  Stay organized. A desk piled with papers, folders, and sticky notes is not what you want to see every morning you walk into the office.  Keep your desk neat and everything where you can find it when you need it.  Organization stops you from abandoning the task at hand because of a misplaced file.

Procrastination is hard to beat because it comes from within us.  Use the above tips to regain your level of productivity in the workplace.

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