Thinking on the future
I am ready to start a business but I want it to be chill. This is gonna be my 2026 adventure.
How do you keep your business in chill mode?
time management
Diving into a December Detox
I’ve been reading a book called Results by Jamie Smart. At first I thought it was going to help me find some management techniques to ensure that when I work with small businesses or large enterprises, the goals they set bring provable results.
Woops! Judged a book by a cover, but it seems the universe had bigger plans for me in mind. The book Results was actually about how our minds, our very thoughts, can get in our own way of finding the true innate results we can deliver as humans. *Mind blown* It seems simple, but this concept really attempts to get the reader to accept that clarity to a human is as real and pervasive as gravity is on this earth. We did not invent gravity, it just is, and we discovered and name it. We do not create our own clarity, the clarity is there, and sometimes our thoughts can keep us from tapping into it.
As someone who loveeeesssss to think, I still struggle to embrace this concept, but I would like to get closer to stepping into clarity. As a challenge for myself, and this blog, I am going to be embarking on a detox in December. As a way to clear some of the “contaminated” or even “cluttered” areas of my life. I’ve put together some areas to detox and hope that writing will help me commit to this journey over the next 21-days.
So here is a list of 21-day detox ideas that I will be building together.
- 21 Clean Eating Detox by Fit BodyRock (Food)
- 21 Day Yoga Challenge by Yoga with Uliana (Fitness)
- 21 Mind Makeover Challenge by Gravity Life Coaching (Mind)
- 21 Day Digital Detox Checklist by But First Joy.Com (Tech)
While there are a dozen of ways to detox, I hope these areas hit on the global areas of the self! Here are the details on some.
21-Day Clean Eating Detox by Fit Body Rock
I am choosing level 2, since I am fairly close to level 1 on this. Giving up dairy products will be hard especially during egg nog season!!
I love yoga and it’s been months since I’ve done it in a dedicated way. By releasing the stress and tension from my body, I can definitely open up space for clarity!
21-Day Mind Makeover Challenge by Gravity Life Coaching
Honest, I found most of these challenges on Pinterest 🙂 This one seems to lead to https://www.erinsonlinecoachingcamp.com/
Finally the 21-Day Digital Detox challenge! It’s easy to say that social media can be distracting, especially when you’ve worked in marketing or adjacent to marketing for years! Now that some of my responsibilities are coming to an end I feel comfortable deleting some social media apps, even if its just for a week! I just love this one from But First, Joy.com
So that lays it out! From December 1st to December 21st, I’ll be retreating into myself and practicing these challenges!
Have you ever done a detox? What would you recommend?
Here’s a sneak peek of Week 1, which is underway!
Guest Post:3 Things to Remember As You Build A Successful Business
Hey all!
It’s been a journey since I’ve written my last article! Getting an MBA has been the major focus of my writing free-time. Articles coming back and a special summer series for my small business owners sisters is already in the works. For now, I am sharing a special guest post from one of my readers: Chelsea Lamb, author at, https://www.businesspop.net/
Photo by fauxels from Pexels
Are you considering starting a new business or branching out with your current venture? Ready to take that next step into small-business ownership or looking to hire more people for the business you have already forged and made successful? As we come out of the pandemic and consumers are looking to spend some of the savings they accumulated over the last year, you may be considering (or reconsidering) a foray into entrepreneurship.
Let’s take a look at a few things you should remember as you build a successful company following the COVID-19 pandemic:
1. The numbers are on your side
Now could be the best time to start a business thanks to the assistance and incentives being provided by the U.S. government to small-business owners across the country. For instance, there are programs that will help companies maintain their payroll so that they can continue to pay their people throughout the crisis. Around six weeks into the pandemic, U.S. economists were shocked to see a boom in the numbers of new business applications.
In fact, the third quarter of 2020 is the quarter with the highest recorded number of applications since 2004. New businesses are springing up from the old ones that had closed during the pandemic — more now than ever before. So it may just be that now is the time to start a new venture.
2. Consult the experts
Talk to people who know how to build a successful business. That includes social media and marketing experts, networking specialists, and business success coaches. Keeping a metaphoric rolodex of people who you can consult when you have questions or concerns about the business is a huge way to set yourself up for success in the long term. It’s hard to do this alone — and if you’re a solopreneur and doing everything on your own, it is still essential to have a group of folks you can turn to in times of need.
For instance, business coaching provides you with guidance for every step of the way as you’re ideating, planning, strategizing, launching, and building your business. There are a lot of moving parts in entrepreneurship — and if you’re doing it all yourself, it can be overwhelming. A business coach can provide a critical objective perspective on the work you’re doing and the clientele you’re attracting, not to mention they can help you identify weaknesses in your current strategy and help you strengthen these areas for long-term goal achievement.
3. Don’t forget the importance of organization
Running — and maintaining — a successful business is all about keeping a tight ship. Part of that is making sure your organization is on point. Being able to deliver statistics on your customer lifecycle, developing a marketing persona, and paying your people on time are all artifacts of an effective organization system.
For instance, you may find yourself having trouble maintaining accurate and effective payroll records. Investing in a system that can help you keep things straight and that offers direct depositing payroll for employees can improve your ability to pay them on time and accurately. The right payroll platform allows employers to enter hours and send timely payments directly to employees’ bank accounts without worrying about paper checks.
Take the leap
Is it time for you to finally realize your dreams and start your business? As we come out of the COVID-19 pandemic and move toward the “new normal” in terms of the impact the pandemic has left, we can safely say that the new-business boom is here to stay, especially if you’re in it for the long haul. Now’s the time!
For more information about consulting services offered by business coach Zinga Hart, contact her today!
— Thanks for the tips Chelsea!
Reset
Writing is a calling, not a choice.
-Isabelle Allende
I’ve written less since spring season.
New job, new challenges, and a big focus on the day-to-day of my passions pulled me into my introverted nature to sit back and take in my new surroundings.
So I made a decision, to give myself space from writing, while I adjusted to these rapid, yet pivotal, life changes.
After a while, though, the yearning returned. My true passion, writing to draw out your success. To make you, us, the world feel the inspiration and magnitude of pleasure from doing our greatest good.
These words do not come out, they escape, as if they were always there, a kyuubi, waiting for me to tap into its infinite power. No matter how far I push it away from my deepest desire to write it pummels back to me.
What is a calling that you can not ignore?
Finding your calling may not always be easy, but following your calling is twice as hard, but you HAVE to do it for it to be realized in your life. So what do you do as an alternative to putting-it-off forever?
Take a break.
Find time to walk away in a calm, controlled, and consenting manner.
You may think …now Zinga…how could you suggest putting-it-off as a remedy to putting-it-off?
At first the idea does seem like a contradictory, but taking a break, involves some key factors to keep it from falling on the dark side of the procrastination line.
Here are some quick factors to taking a break:
Have a reset time. The main difference between taking a break and procrastinating forever is that you get back to doing what you were doing. Maybe you use an exact date and time, maybe you use an event in your life, or maybe you have a season in mind. Just know, visualize, and even write down when you will return to your original activity. Please note, the length of your timeline should be set realistically to how important it is that you get back to what you’re doing. For instance, if it’s your goal to get an A on a test in two weeks, but you need to take a break, then a two week break wouldn’t make sense.
Choose honor over guilt. Find the admirable reasons for making your choice instead of reasons that make you feel guilty. If you are in a state of rest then respect your wish to let your body restore itself. If you need to reshift your priorities for pressing matters, then appreciate your ability to adapt to new situations and see things through. Whatever narrative you build, it should be one that is from a positive perspective.
Use what you learned. During your break, try to find one-to-two learning nuggets you can implement once you reset. Maybe it’s a shift in your schedule or reaching out to form new partnerships. This sets up two bonuses to your break:
1) You can be assured your break fits into your larger master plan
2) Your break serves an immediate purpose of helping to improve your your path to success.
So…this is how am I making an honest reset with writing for this page. I allowed myself to adjust to the pace my new situation before getting back to get back to writing. I committed to a goal to write again before the year was over. During my break, I learned that given the new responsibilities to be consistent, I will give myself time to ease into it, starting with twice a week!
Are you ready to hit the reset button on something in your life, what is it?
Til the next time,
Zinga
The Simplest Way to Build a Discipline Map
Let’s say you’re starting from scratch.
Sure you’ve gotten things done in the past, but your reliability is 50/50 on your good days. You know you need to get more done to get somewhere, but life — ever-distracting life — draws you away from your personal bigger picture. It happens to the best of us, as we make room for new family responsibilities, changes in professions, a call to civic duty, or the gamut of things we have to deal with as we paint our life vision into reality.
What keeps you going?
For me, my biggest skill to develop has been the habit of discipline, which I see as doing something even though the thought of doing it brings one discomfort. Putting off that 50-page thesis or skipping a morning run all stem from the ideas that come into our heads when we think about doing them…
…ugh so many pages to write…
…but I’ll get all sweaty…
Whatever the situation or thoughts may be…it is the sensation of discomfort the forces us to choose whether to stay with the discomfort and do what is important anyway or find a way to escape the sensation by another binge session of Shameless on Netflix.
Discipline is the act of going forward anyway.
How does one use discipline?
While we can be sporadic about the ways we are disciplined (you should see me buy the whole town on Sims…), if you are interested in creating your authentic vision of success you exercise discipline in meaningful ways otherwise, you run the risk of life molding your discipline muscles for you. Creating a routine for yourself allows you to apply your discipline to your personal mission.
So here goes, here’s the simple way to create that routine:
- Figure out what you want to do with your life (i.e. write your vision)
- Write out what you want to achieve in the next 10, 5, and 3 years
- Develop goals to get done within 1 year
- Figure out what you need within 1 month
- Write down what you need by the end of the week
- Jot 3 things to get done by the end of your day
- Check 1-2 (once a year), 3 (once a month), 4-5 (once a week) and update 6 every day.
And we’re done. Sure there are tons of tools you can use, and please remember, you have to actually do the things on these lists for them to be real, but if all you had were a pencil and paper, this list is all you would need.
Build your routines around finding time to achieve what is on these lists and let life fill in the blanks.
Here’s a great article from ZenHabits on mastering discipline.
PS Posting are switching from Tuesday Mornings to Thursday mornings.
One More Move: Reset
Hi everyone!
It’s been a while as I like to step back and observe during major life transitions.
What’s the big change?
Well, I managed to land a new role in higher education! Working with the College of Communication and Information to help serve our graduate student community. A dream opportunity, I am thrilled, excited, and pumped to embrace the new waves of change.
Working with the College of Communication and Information to help serve our graduate student community. A dream opportunity, I am thrilled, excited, and pumped to embrace the new waves of change.
A dream opportunity, I am thrilled, excited, and pumped to embrace the new waves of change.
Yet, at the same time, being an INTP (and a Taurus) I find sudden instances of change to take a lot of energy from my spirit. As an act of self-care, I go into Reflection & Rest mode.
I find ways to delegate projects, streamline tasks, and lighten up on meetings and events. I use the time to connect fully with family and take in the situations as they come.
How do you approach big changes?
Before this Rest & Relax phase, I do one critical task:
Set a deadline for when your “rest” phase ends. Eventually, you should get back up to your full speed.
Rest is a beautiful gift, but it is best balanced with the energy of creation. Creating your future, your business, your brand or whatever drives you forward towards your goals.
So…here we are…
Building back up to full speed for me means taking the time to build on my mission to draw out your authentic success. To remind you of the hunger your ambitions ignite and give you the tools that satisfy your desires.
So I share one more move that gets you a step closer to where you want to be.
So my one more move is a review of how to reset after an extended period of rest. Disclaimer: This is the method I’ve observed over time and I fully encourage your customize a process that works for you. With that here are some actions to take.
How to Reset
Brain Dump
Set aside 5-10 minutes to free write or map all of the things important to you and what you want to achieve.
Organize and Prioritize
Group what you wrote in the first part into major domains and then order the importance of what you should achieve first.
Review Your Vision
Does your latest brain dump align with your ten-year vision? Use your long-term look to further refine your current priorities or re-strategize the long-term goals as needed.
Get to it.
Things won’t get done unless you do them. If after the first three steps, you’re still frozen in the act, let’s chat about it.
3 Time Saving Tools for Entrepreneurial Parents
Kids definitely have their future cut out for them. I, as a young Millennial parent, still have hope for them. Sure there is strong evidence of deep flaws in our systems of civilization, there is still hope that the human spirit will overcome, create, and innovate in response to the needs of the world. The spirit of the entrepreneur lives strong.
But what happens when the entrepreneurial spirit collides with the child spirit? Suddenly the burning obsessiveness that Napoleon Hill says we need to focus on to truly transmute our thoughts into reality, is interrupted, by tiny hands that want to type like Mommy on her keyboard. Those tiny hands love to explore, to help, and to just be, and as someone who doesn’t want to suppress her inner spirit, I have to find ways to fit in time for goal work and family time. Luckily, there are some tricks of the trade to help balance nurturing her and my purpose.
Tool 1 # Baby Gates
One big tool has been using baby gates, not to wrap her up, but to wrap up our stuff. us the baby gate to place around the entertainment systems and other places where she prefers to reach and grab. This way what is freely available she is okay to play with and the glowy electronic buttons are off limits.
Tool #2 Timer
One great quality about a good entrepreneur is we could just do stuff all day. When focused, we do and do and do and the effects are amazing. Yet, balancing our time takes an accounting of our time. When feeling pressed for time, set a time limit and focus happily and completely on what you want to do. For instance, when I get home from work spending time with my daughter is a key source of happiness, but I also have signed up for responsibilities that require me to respond to people, so I set a timer for getting things done. Whether it’s 40-minute session for story time or 20-minute email crafting for my team, by setting timers I am freed from time. One of my favorites is the Pomodoro timer, which sets the time to 25 minutes.
Tool #3 YouTube
Yup, I said it, YouTube has some pretty useful educational videos for toddlers and children. One thing I like to focus on Baby Einsteins. As a double benefit, a lot of the music could double as white noise, which has a minimal distraction for a parent who needs to focus. Just check out one of the episodes below:
Of course, there are plenty of other ways to use tools to help with raising kids while living up the entrepreneurial lifestyle. What do you use? How do you balance? Like, I’d really love to know…I’ve spent 1.5 decades raising kids and have yet to find the perfect formula.
3 Paths to Clarity
I created an infographic for http://www.cultivatedvisions.com social media postings. It reminded me of how important it is to ensure you continuously seek to clarify who you are and who you will be. There are so many areas of input that can muddle up the inner voice that guides us while we fulfill our purpose. Sometimes the voice is so subtle it sounds like it’s coming from our Self.
So here’s an adapted version of the infographic to apply to any area of your life where you seek to find clarity.
7 Micro-Moves To Focus Fast w/ 3 Free Bonuses
Do you get off track easily?
From time to time, you may find that distraction is winning a lot of battles in your fight to stay motivated and push towards your success. Whether it is building your personal brand, building a business, or achieving any other goal, there is a key to staying focused and persistent.
From time to time, you may find that distraction is winning a lot of battles in your fight to stay motivated and push towards your success. Whether it is building your personal brand, building a business, or achieving any other goal, there is a key to staying focused and persistent.
Luckily, there are simple, and free, ways to quickly get back on the priority task at hand instead of logging another hour mindlessly scrolling Facebook to do…”research” . While these moves can be done alone, they also work together in a sequence. Use them as a quick routine when you realize that your are avoiding your valuable tasks for an unproductive ones.
MicroMove #1 Take a deep breath
If you are losing focus on a task you know you have to finish, then there is probably something about that task that causes you stress. This stress triggers your “fight/flight” response which turns you to your coping mechanism: distraction. This subtle behavior is rewarded with the removal of the stress, which is a positive outcome and so you are not easily persuaded away from your flappy bird marathon because it feels better than writing a 10-page marketing piece or presentation for your big pitch night. Whatever it may be, struggling through the cumbersome and complicated process that is reaching long-term success comes with no guarantees. Meanwhile, your favorite reality show comes with a very real and very now satisfaction.
That is why taking a deep, and I mean, deep breath is a micro behavior to first take when you truly want to disrupt the pleasure vortex. According to a Harvard Family Health report, deep breathing triggers us to relax, which releases the stress sensations that were eliciting the fight/flight response in the first place. So, if you wanted only one more move to help you get focused fast then you can stop here. If not, keep going…
MicroMove # 2 Check the Time
Sometimes a project is really stressful…
Honestly, you just know it is going to take forever and you have an entire to-do list to get through, plus the day is just etching away…
These are thoughts that definitely run through my mind if I feel as though I am distracted through the day. How are we supposed to fit so many priorities into such an infinite amount of waking day?
Often, when this happens, I find I really don’t know the exact time. How much day do you really have ahead of you?
By checking the time you afford yourself an opportunity to make a rough sketch of how all of what you want to do can play out, and if you are short you are forced to prioritize to the essentials. This helps focus you in relationship to your present situation.
Once you know how much day you have ahead of you, pick a priority for every 1-2 hours left.
MicroMove # 3 Set a Timer
So you are feeling less stressed and prioritized, but stiiiillllll…..getting started on that project isn’t any more motivating. No matter how calm you are or how important you rationalize it to be, the energy to get you going just isn’t sparked. So what to do next?
Set a 10 or 20-minute timer to complete the first priority. Set the timer before you are even sure what you want to do next. This creates an external incentive to commit a small amount of time to devote from the time you have left.
By incrementing time even further, you’ve placed bite-sized boundaries on this once insurmountable project.
MicroMove #4 Check Your Goal or Write a Goal
Next if you don’t already have one, set a goal or check a goal. For example, I have a command center that I created a while ago, which lists my major priorities. Helping grow a non-profit, developing my business, and contributing to the higher education profession are the top three. From there I would pick one for the next hour or two and I would work on one goal.
For someone writing it may be to write a chapter, edit a chapter, research 10 sources. Whatever it may be, make sure your goal contributes to advancing your priority.
MicroMove #5 Make sure your goal is SMART
One of the things that trips me up, is sometimes the goals I write are not easily processed by my mind. I teach this in many goal setting workshops. Our minds are very much like programs processing lines of code and interpreting it into action.
If I set a goal that is something like : “Create packet”
When I return to complete the goal, I can be completely oblivious to exactly what the parameters of packet creation will be. Furthermore, if it is an older goal , I may complete lose why and what I wanted when I wrote “Create packet”.
So it helps to make goals as specific as possible, and the SMART acronym is a tool used to refine your goals into a way that we can process easily.
“Create packet” becomes “Make a rough draft of a 3-page marketing packet for our latest workshop offering on MeetUp within the next 17-minutes (your timer is still going).
MicroMove #6 Say an affirmation
Affirmations are a simple way to promote positive thinking around your priority project.
Great affirmations for focus:
- I have all the time I need.
- My work is a priority and I work my priorities.
- Staying focused is easy.
Here are some more great affirmations for focus. Just pick one though and move on to your final move.
MicroMove #7 Do it
Jump in there! You have reduced stress, prioritized, specified, and affirmed! There’s nothing left to it but to do it no matter how unpretty it may be. Get in there and get it done. The clock is ticking.
Bonus moves
- Always be aware of your triggers – Brainstorm a list of triggers and build your awareness by noting when you are engaging in a trigger. Playing Call of Duty when you know there are chores to complete or diving into an hour-long debate to avoid finishing that first draft. Gently note this times and realize you can take the micro moves above to get back on track.
- Write if-then statements and keep it nearby – If then statements are great tools to use with your awareness of distraction triggers. For instance at an old job my boss had us all say the motto “If there is time to lean there is time to clean” – plug in your trigger with your priorities and use it as a verbal reminder to refocus using some of the moves above.
- Have a reward system handy – When you do get back on track and finish your work in the time you devoted know of 1 or 2 rewards you can give yourself a positive experience and reinforce the satisfaction of being focused.
The smallest steps lead us toward success. When you recognize that the small moves that you take contribute toward your overall achievements your destiny becomes much richer and simpler. You can relish in every note you write and every goal you set which will keep you motivated in the long run. Appreciate your micro moves and use them to keep them keep you focused today.
For more moves toward your success visit zingahart.com or email me at zingahart@gmail.com to discuss a personalized strategy for you.
One More Move: Sustain Your Momentum
Agendas, fundraisers, programs, networking and this is just the volunteer work?!?! As a passionate creator that presides over a startup non-profit, #LimitlessAmbition, 2 businesses, a higher ed profession, and a beautiful growing-so-fast family surfing the wave that is seeking success could easily crash, but when we do what we love…love finds a way. As entrepreneurs, we often find ourselves swimming deep in a variety of projects, responsibilities, deadlines, and commitments that could easily have us feeling burned out, overwhelmed or just swamped. Our ambition won’t let us give up and the people we serve rely on us to be leaders, mentors, and overall figures of what our purpose stands for. So how can we ensure we sustain ourselves while completing complex projects and timelines?
Here a three key factors to take into account:
- Honesty is a winning policy: Before you embark on any ambitious journey, you need to honestly assess the progress you and your team can capably commit to weekly. If you are already in your journey and are starting to feel buried, share that with your team as well. Voicing frustrations, delays, and setbacks with everyone allows for many minds (including your own) to create a solution. Journal, set up a meeting or group chat to discuss a strategy for success that works for everyone!
- Create and celebrate easy wins in your project, early and often: *Secret Alert* I have a little happy dance EVERY TIME I release a post by the end of Monday. I started it in an effort to share what I learned helps individuals craft their own success, so they can contribute to and grow a thriving community! Although it takes some time to complete, it is still a small step towards ensuring that someone will be inspired to boldly take any small step towards building their own success journey.
- Harness the power of your tribe! Being held accountable to our goals boosts our sense of commitment. There is something special about someone else knowing about what you want to do and then checking in on you to make sure you completed it! Schedule lunch dates, send a FB msg or text, connect in a Group chat, etc. etc. Find an accountability partner/group and share your goals and progress with them. Need someone to hold you accountable?
What goals are you sustaining in March? Share them in the comments below.
Zinga Hart 
You must be logged in to post a comment.