{Labor Pains} THIS is sabotaging your intentions and zapping your energy. Change it today.

I’m almost finished with a book called Unfinished Business: One Man’s Extraordinary Year of Trying to Do the Right Things. In the book, the author Lee Kravitz loses his job and in cleaning out his office and the memorablia from over the years, he comes  face to face with pieces of his past that weigh him down.

The Aunt he hasn’t seen in 30 years. The teacher he never thanked for making such an impact on his life. The friend whose daughter died that he never called to express his condolences. The $600 he borrowed from a friend and never repaid. His high school bully who tormented him for years and led him to low self-esteem issues.

It’s fascinating.

And when I grabbed it off the shelf at the library randomly, I had a feeling there was a more powerful reason why, beyond the interesting title.

I often find myself thinking about past things I said I would do but never did. Even the silly, little things.

Like not changing the address on a retirement account so that the statement still shows up at my parent’s house each month. Like not activating my new ATM card when it comes in the mail so that I then forget and try to use it, only to be told that it was declined. Like the time I said I’d make that call, send a note, or write that email.

Details.

And they don’t affect anyone else. Okay, maybe my parents aren’t thrilled to have to continue to deal with my mail. But in the grand scheme of life, no one else really cares. It doesn’t weigh on anyone else. No one else feels the burden of tasks left undone.

But I do.

And then I feel guilty. For not completing simple things. For being so silly as to not just get them taken care of.

So now I have unfinished business AND the feelings I pile on top.

And those feelings take up valuable space. Head space. Creative space. Energy.

What a waste!

I discovered a few months ago the power of intensives for my clients and working within that short and intense framework. And this book is simply confirming what I already know to be true – unfinished business sabotages our intentions and zaps our good energy.

I saw this come up in my own business over and over again until I finally got the message. (Life will do that to for ya.)

When I was a Virtual Assistant helping entrepreneurs with everything from online strategy to website updates, there was a ton of back and forth that looked like this –

• We meet and determine what needs to be done
• I get to working on the to dos
• I need clarification, have a question, or something administrative comes up like a password
• I email the client
• I have to wait until the client can respond, sometimes the same day, sometimes in a week
• I move on to something else on the project list and the item above is left undone

And then it was all downhill from there. Because what I’m not good at is unfinished business.

Once I move on, I move on. And it’s extremely difficult for me to get my energy ramped up again to go back into whatever that project was that was left undone. The moment has passed.

So things would get dropped, forgotten, left unfinished. Eventually I would realize it and try to go back to whatever it was, only to then pile all of those feelings on top to the task at hand.

Sound familiar?

I tell ya, not very productive.

I suppose some people are good at going back and forth, but for most of us it’s called multi-tasking and we aren’t very good at it.

We’ve all heard the research over recent years that the focus on multi-tasking doesn’t actually work. We half-ass a bunch of different things instead of really rockin’ one thing at a time.

And this was never so clear to me as it was in the earlier stages of my business. And it kept showing up until I finally recognized it and addressed it.

Are you seeing this pattern come up for you? How you feelin’ about that?

My guess is not too fabulous.

My guess is that as an entrepreneur, you’re CEO, CFO, CIO, customer service, and the janitor to boot.

Which means multi-tasking.

It means distractions.

It means losing energy and focus on the things that are most important to your business success and putting money in the bank.

It means losing time and gaining headaches.

Which is why I switched to intensives and I encourage other entrepreneurs to utilize this same format.

I know that if you give yourself months to do something… you will take the entire time.

I know that for most of us, if you only allow yourself small windows of time for your big dreams, your dreams will begin to take a back seat to the other areas of your life.

I know that I wish I had figured this out when I started. It would’ve saved lots of headaches, heartaches, and frustration. I know my clients feel power within this framework.

I know it’s powerful. And I know it works.

Take the intensive format and see how you can create your own in your business and life. Whether it’s working with clients or just setting up your day, get creative with it. Approach that to do list as several mini-intensives throughout your day. Schedule your intensive to tackle that big project. Set up your inbox as an intensive with a focus on communication.

Have fun with this one! And of course don’t forget that your environment and self-care are key to creating an intensive that doesn’t feel intense!

The reason I love intensives so much is because in the end, there is no unfinished business. Everything is wrapped up in an awesome bow. There’s completion. And that feels fucking fantastic.

To feelin’ fantastic,
Amy

PS – If those projects are stretching out too far for your liking and you’re ready to wrap up your unfinished business, book a discovery session to explore if I can help.

In addition to copywriting and launch intensives, I offer strategy sessions to help you connect the dots between the scrambled list in your head and the steps needed to complete that project. {That’s why they call me the Visionologist!}