Hey Friend…..
When was the last time you took a planning day (aka CEO Day)?
- A day of zero disruptions?
- A day to think about, write down and review your goals for your business?
- A day that you schedule in advance and hold precious.
- A day you protect from getting pushed aside?
- A day to look at the next 3 months and create bite size pieces?
Never?
Me either.
Until a few months ago when I listened to a *podcast that spoke about having built in “CEO days”. It was a novel idea. So, I sat down that very day and planned quarterly for the next 12 months. My first one is coming up in a few weeks. I’ll let you know how it goes.
I have all kinds of thoughts and concerns like:
- Will I actually get enough accomplished?
- Will I stick to task and not just jump down random rabbit holes?
- Will I walk away feeling like it was worth my time?
- Do I know enough to even get where I need to go?
- Will I sit staring at the wall and actually not plan anything?
- What will the agenda look like?
- Do I even know how to create a workable agenda which instills progress and success?
Here’s the conclusion of all the above thoughts. If I DON’T have a CEO day, nothing will change.
Let’s be honest here. As entrepreneurs, we’re excited about what we do UNTIL it becomes monotonous. Am I right? I will continue my day to day routine without keeping my focus clear and then I begin chasing the shiny objects that catch my attention. Those shiny objects tend to get us off track and onto a totally different path.
I read this quote yesterday and it fits nicely with my thoughts on this subject.
We can stop.
Create a break in the routine.
Rest, refresh and plan.
If we do this quarterly, we won’t chase the shiny objects. We’ll remember our purpose, talent and what brought us here in the first place.
We’ll work the plan.
We’ll stay in our lane.
We’ll stay consistent.
And half the battle of reaching our annual goal is ….. consistency.
I want to remind you of a really important fact here…… WE BECAME ENTREPRENEURS to have freedom and to chase our dream. We tend to forget the ‘freedom’ part of this equation. Because we’re entrepreneurs, we…
- Get to make the rules.
- We get to plan CEO days or
- work by the pool or
- work from home or
- work from the local coffee shop
- or from the coworking space.
- We get to plan CEO days or
If we’re NOT utilizing our freedom to take control of our businesses, it’s controlling us.
We have the freedom to block out a day or two for a CEO day. It will be the thing that keeps the big picture in view. It’s not all the little minutia that gets us to our goal. It’s keeping the big picture in focus. A quarterly CEO day is the perfect way to do this. Do we have all the answers for preparing for one? No. But we also didn’t have all the answers when we jumped head long into this deep end of the pool we call entrepreneurship. If we want to see things we’ve never seen in our business, we have to do things we’ve never done in our business. That’s what I’m doing. I’ll let you know how it goes.
If you were going to plan a CEO day, what would it look like?
*I believe the podcast was Biz Chix but I can’t find the episode.