Do you realize what you’re doing?

Do you have any idea how many habits and daily routines you have?  You know some of these habits are great and support you and your business and there are some that are draining you and your business.  Did you realize that you have habits and practices that you think are helping you but actually hurt you?

Here’s an example. Let’s say, the first thing you do every day is handle any email that came in overnight.  What’s more, over the course of the day as soon as something new comes in you deal with it immediately too.  This enables you to keep on top of the barrage of requests and messages that pour in.

The process works. You are one of the few people you know whose inbox is not overflowing so it must be a great habit, right? Maybe not.

The process clearly works BUT what is it costing you?  What was going on while you were keeping on top of your email? Over the course of the day you paid attention to other people’s priorities and not yours.  You spent your time focusing on everybody else’s needs and as a result did not spend time focusing on your needs and accomplishing your goals.  You did not spend time working on new programs or building new relationships.  There is nothing you can cross off your own to-do list other than “do email”.

I’m not saying that responding to emails is not important, but is there another way you could have accomplished your goal without the huge toll it’s taking on everything else in your business? In fact, let’s take it a step further…what is your goal?  Is your goal an empty inbox or is that just a small piece of your overall goal?  What can you do every day so that you make sure that your real goals are met?

Do yourself a favor, take a step back and look at what you’re doing on a day to day basis and consider the following questions:

• How do my habits help me and my business?
• How do my habits hurt me and my business?
• Is what I’m accomplishing through my habits and daily routines really giving me what I want for myself and my business?
• Is there something else I can do regularly to get what I really want?

Changing habits that “work” can be pretty scary but it can be even scarier to think about how these same habits can hurt you.

The first step to creating a new habit is to identify the steps you want to take so go ahead, think it out and share them with me below.