As the world is in lockdown, possibly for another few months, take this time too:
Reinvent Your Business:
There are two essential pieces of advice here:
If you have not digitized your business yet, now is the time!
Figure out what services, processes, products, and systems are still not digitized and figure out how to get them digitized, or even better, automated.
Digitizing your business will allow you to see your business from a new paradigm and free up manual tasks that could be taking up to much resources/time. Additionally, it could open a unique opportunity that you may not have been able to see.
- How the Digital Camera digitized film
- How Netflix digitized Blockbuster;
- How Google digitized the library;
- How Zoom is digitizing in-person conferences.
Second, if your business, product, or service has been struggling and you’ve been in a state of burn out, now is the time to rethink if this is the right business for you. By doing so, you can reinvest your resources (knowledge, capital, employees) into an emerging market.
How we run our business is a reflection of how we run our lives. So take this time to make some critical level-ups in your own life as well. You may never have this much free time again.
Create New Habits/Traditions:
Take the next sixty or so days to develop new habits and routines that will stick with you for the rest of your life. Think about practices that will serve your health. Doing so will strengthen your immune system, which will play a critical role not only during this pandemic but future ones as well (And there will be more…)
Sleep. Create a new sleep routine that ensures you are getting 7-8 hours of sleep. Sleep is critical for us to recharge mentally, physically, and emotionally. Sleep is truly a game-changer, and now is the time to establish a schedule.
Exercise – Exercising has been proven over and over to change every aspect of our lives. Nothing in the pharmacy can come close to the effects a good exercise routine can give you. Remember, exercising could be as simple as getting some fresh air and going for a walk.
Meditation: Meditation is the super hack for entrepreneurs wanting to step up their business. I recommend Headspace or Calm, especially for beginners. By maintaining a meditation practice, you’ll see a significant reduction in your cortisol levels along with countless other benefits, which will also allow you to minimize tension on your immune system during these times.
Diet: If you haven’t heard all the hype, you really need to google ‘intermittent fasting.’ Intermittent fasting is eating only during a 4-8 hour window each day. I won’t go into all the mechanics here, but the information is clear: intermittent fasting increases vitality, energy levels, and your mental clarity.
Family Traditions: Studies have shown that one of the biggest regrets in late life is the regret of not spending time with family. When you get to the end of your journey, all the money in the bank won’t matter, those smiling and supporting faces will. Don’t take your family for granted and take this time to develop new family traditions, to connect deeper, and to make the most of this situation.
Quit Smoking: Finally, this is a no brainer for all the people still smoking or vaping. Now is the time to give up. There’s never been a much better excuse to hunker down and stop the practice (particularly as it increases the severity of a COVID-19 infection).
Learn New Things: It always amazes me that the vast majority of us let years pass without reading or learning new things. Remember, readers are leaders. The average CEO reads 50 books a year. If you are an entrepreneur in today’s world, you are doing yourself a huge disservice by not reading. Go to the book store, and you will find answers to almost any problem in dozens of books.
“Nothing in life is to be feared, it is only to be understood. Now is the time to understand more, so that we may fear less.”
