In the last 2 weeks, I realized I had gotten off track.  You see one of my greatest strengths is my ability to do about 100 things at a time; but if you’ve done any self development at all, you know that strengths when over used, become weaknesses.  Let me assure you that I am REALLY good at over using my strengths.  So how did this manifest recently?

It started during my breakfast meeting with another coach.  He is a coach to entrepreneurs and sales people, and our discussion gravitated to the topic of numbers.  We talked about tracking our activity as a business owners and market developers.  We talked about analyzing the results to move forward.  Afterall, if you are not moving forward in today’s economy, aren’t you are really moving backward?  There’s really no standing still.  When I was at the top of my game as a recruiter…when I billed $400k plus…I tracked EVERY activity of EVERY day.  And at any given time, I could tell you exactly what my earnings were and what they would be.  This breakfast meeting made me realize that I had gotten off track.  I had stopped tracking my numbers.  I had stopped holding myself accountable.  My coach friend and I agreed to call one another at the close of each day to review our goals, our results, and our plan for the next day.

My next realization of being off track came during a meeting last night with my financial advisor.  She asked me specifically what my plan was for the next 6 weeks of my business life.  And you know what?  I didn’t have a solid answer.  No wonder I was feeling overwhelmed and unproductive.  I had fallen into the same trap that I coach my clients about.  I had stopped working “on” my business (by setting specific goals and tracking my success) and was just working “in” my business which looked like a mad frenzy of unplanned, unorganized and unproductive activity.  Well, I did get some things accomplished using this approach, but it was taking a toll in the form of lost sleep, heightened anxiety and continuous random activity.

So, I did what my trusted assistant told me to do once before.  She had prefaced her remark with, “I may lose my job over this, but…”  She went on to say, “Therese, take out your book and start applying all the things you tell people to do at your workshops.”  She was right.

Needless to say, she didn’t lose her job.  I guess sometimes you have to get off track in order to get back on.