Have you ever had one of those days where you just can’t seem to get into action? It seems like instead of steady progress your brain is stuck in stop-and-go traffic. That can actually be a symptom of a larger issue – an overfull life.
To prevent this from happening, you need to press “stop” in the right places, so you can free yourself to drive along faster toward your goals.
I call them Stopportunities.
Stopportunities are those actions that you should stop doing because they don’t help you achieve your vision. Take something off your plate for once. Free up some space.
In his book Good to Great, Jim Collins reports that stopportunities distinguish good companies from great:
The good-to-great companies at their best followed a simple mantra: “Anything that does not fit with our [primary focus], we will not do. We will not launch unrelated businesses. We will not make unrelated acquisitions. We will not do unrelated joint ventures. If it doesn’t fit, we don’t do it. Period. (p.134)
You can adopt the same approach, refusing to do what doesn’t advance your vision as a leader and for your life.
Are you ready to learn to STOP so you can GO? I’ve written a longer article on Stopportunities along with some exercises to get you started and posted it (for FREE), on my website. Go to www.TheInnerEdge.com and click on Worksheets and Audios (on the left). Scroll down a bit to the heading called The Third Practice, and there you’ll find the Worksheet called Stopportunities. Happy stopping!