The end of every day, every week, every month, every quarter presents a finish line and with each finish line the start of a new race begins.
I was thinking recently about the other side of the finish line and what’s beyond finish lines…
It’s an interesting concept that is so important to your continued success. What is beyond the finish line that is right in front of you? What happens when you cross each finish line and how do you begin the next race?
Finishing and beginning were something I have kept in mind throughout my years in business while I was in the process of ending one year and beginning a new one.
How crucial it is to set up the new race…day…week..quarter…year while you are in the final days of sprinting to cross the current finish line?
Have you ever noticed in the moments and sometimes days or weeks after a season of sprinting has passed all that momentum is gone? Do you ever pause to consider where it vanished to? How was it possible for everything to running like a well-oiled machine and suddenly be at a stand still? The reason is because the “race” began on the other side of the finish line, but perhaps you were so focused on the last sprint, you forgot to begin again.
Wouldn’t you agree that successful business women see success as ongoing? We move from one race or deadline and accomplishment to the next. I found that the next goal had to be strategized before actually crossing the finish line of the current target. I looked at December and June as “pivot months” because they were so key in enabling me to transition out of ruts and keep the positive momentum flowing as I moved from one goal to the next. Everything that I did in the last month of any given year was the begging point for the fresh new year. This was the time to set in place details for the announcement of a three-month sales or team building challenge with the qualifications beginning the first day of the new year.
Everything I focused was strategically aligned to not only to wrap up out my current goals but more importantly to set in place the systems for accomplishing greater goals in the new year. These were activities that would continue on in the first days of the new year. This was not a time that I stopped to take a vacation or rest for you will find that if you do so, you will have to work so much harder to begin again. It may take you 3 months or more in the new year to be in the flow of positive momentum again.
So what’s beyond the finish line for you? Who are you mentoring to moving up this month? How many are you adding to your team who will start their new venture in the first days of the new month? How many appointments do you have scheduled for the first week of the new month?
Absolutely! It is crucial to play full out and race toward your finish line, but you don’t want to arrive exhausted and unable to begin the new race ahead. Wouldn’t you agree that it is better to keep going with focus and exhilaration for the next goal, the next quarter, the next year? Leaders take the lead by knowing the way and showing the way.
What’s the other side of your finish line look like?
~Barbara
