“I believe that hope, along with faith and love, are essential to life. Hope is what you do when you have no control. But a strategy is made up of actions and tactics that convert visions to results for those that can make things happen.” – Rick Page
As the year winds down and we all begin to put grand goals in to place for 2018, we’d like to discuss the difference between positive attitudes and positive actions. Misunderstanding the variance between these and counting on one without the other is a huge mistake, and one we’d like to see you avoid in 2018 and beyond.
First, for the purpose of this discussion, let’s define both.
Positive Attitudes
To us, a positive attitude is finding a reason to smile. Getting back up when you fall down. Motivating those around you with a pep talk. Enjoying the unexpected. Hanging on to an optimistic outlook, no matter the current circumstances. Giving more than you expect to get in return. Not letting other people’s negativity bring you down. Not complaining (...or trying your best not to..we are human). Celebrating someone else’s success. Having a good time even if you are losing. Being happy even when you have little. Lifting someone’s spirits. And generally just being someone who you would want to be around. Positive attitudes are the emotional decisions we make to see a full glass and help those around us top theirs off if needed.
Positive Actions
A positive action is the step you take past the positive attitude to achieve a certain goal or result. (We like to refer to the action as the ‘muscle’ and the attitude as the ‘hustle’ around here.) Examples of this are wide-ranging, but could include things like continuing education, new service or product lines, business partnerships or joint ventures, formalizing a business development strategy, etc. It could even be as simple as deciding that you will attend one networking event per month in 2018. You can have the best attitude around, but until you take measurable steps to turn your positivity in to tangible results, you’ll be spinning your wheels.
Hope is not a strategy. If you want to see results in 2018, it will take a healthy mix of both positive attitude and positive action. We feel the best way to organize positive action is through SMART goals. SMART stands for Specific (what do you want to do?), Measurable (how will you know when you’ve reached it?), Achievable (is it in your power to accomplish it?), Realistic (can you sensibly achieve it in the parameters you've defined?), and Timely (when exactly do you want to accomplish it?).
There are a number of tools online that can help you create your own SMART goals. However, if you’d prefer a more guided exercise that focuses specifically on your small business, let’s chat. It takes a village, and we would love to help!
