Business Matters - Part 4b - Practice the Rule of 5

So I tried practicing my Rule of 5 this week( see last week's post for info). Thanks also to Fabienne from Easterya and Nikki from the Beaded Zen for joining me. Anyone else give it a try?? It really did help to have someone to email regularly about my experiences and successes and those not-quite-successes! It made me do more and try harder.

My conclusion after trying to work by the Rule of 5 (you commit to accomplishing five specific things each and every day that move you towards your goal) is that trying to do 5 things each day to reach toward a new goal is too much!!! It was most useful to write out goals in steps - but adding 5 new things each day to my normal daily activities didn't work out. I think I'm a 5 steps a week kind of person.

It would seem that Fabienne and the Nikki had similar experiences. Here's what Fabs said:

"Well, setting targets each day to work towards a goal is great, makes total sense... But 5??? Woohoo! That's a bit steep! I guess if you are to succeed, you have to be able to dissect all the steps you need to take to achieve that goal, and I agree with you: 5 targets a week instead of a day, to start off with, feels much more manageable... This week, out of my five, I've managed only 2, so I'll keep on going..."

I know Fabs made great strides with techie things this week - like making banners and avatars so I think she gets extra points for her techie-ness - her 2 goals really equal 5 as getting to know a program for image manipulation etc is, at least for me, very slow going. Good for you Fabs!

Overall, I found the approach useful. I did use the week to get together my Songbird suite of jewelry items and I have, so far, approached one store to ask if they would be interested. They are a birding store and have just a little bit of jewelry and I think my items would be a good fit. I only emailed them today, so I'll wait and see. But now I'm ready to approach others too.

It was a good way to implement something new in my business - a specific goal and I think I'll use it again.

Care to share any "get it done" strategies you have used successfully?

Business Matters - Part 4 - Practice the Rule of 5

This week in my reading there was reference to Jack Canfield's motivational book "The Success Principles". In this book, his 23rd principle is "practice the rule of 5". This principle is that you commit to accomplishing five specific things each and every day that move you towards your goal.

So I'm going to give it a go - maybe you'll join me and we can see, in a week, what progress we make.

My specific goal is to establish a couple of wholesale accounts where I sell select piece of my jewelry, namely my songbird pieces.



Today, my list of 5 consisted of:

~ finishing and polishing my bird items for wholesale
~ started working on the rewrite of my artist statement (rewrite is a bit generous as I don't really have one at all!!!)
~ searched for possible "bird" related galleries/stores that I can approach
~ figure my price points
~ work on not being scared to try wholesale - thinking positive thoughts - by rereading a friend's email about her success with her metal clay wholesale business.

So I'll try this for a week and maybe I'll make some progress. It would be lovely to have friend or two who would also commit to their own goal and try the "5 rule" for a week...... Anyone out there game? Your goal can be anything - doesn't have to be art/work related......Do join me and see what we can achieve together ..... It would be much more fun to do it together......