I love my dog Mojo. He is the best companion ever and he converts dog food into equal parts love and joy in their purest form. But Mojo, like most dogs, loves squirrels. He simply cannot handle it when a squirrel bounds across our paths during our walks.
When a squirrel is spotted, Mojo’s routine is ears up, big eyes, forward posture, and ready to bolt after the squirrel, every time. He never, ever ignores the presence of a squirrel and there ins’t much you can do to pull his focus from it until one of them is out of sight of the other.
Mojo isn’t someone I would want to be in charge of my business for this reason. His ability to become distracted is just too powerful and no forward motion in the business would occur.
Can you identify with Mojo in any way? I can. I’ve experienced Squirrel Obsessive Syndrome (SOS) several times during my journey building my business. It slowed me down and cost me, big time.
Are You Chasing Squirrels Or Building Your Business?
I’ve worked with thousands and thousands of clients and students in the last 17 years. A good majority of them were chasing squirrels when they came into my world. Sadly, a great number of them are still in the chase.
What shiny object chasers don’t understand is that if you don’t settle on something, you never get anything accomplished in particular. Which is fine for dogs chasing squirrels – its FUN! So is dream chasing for would-be successful entrepreneurs.
Pick a path and stay the course. Focus on the outcome you are reaching for and don’t pull focus from it…ever. Between where you are and that outcome will be a lot of details you have to work out. But they are just details and not excuses to start chasing other opportunities or projects.
Leave the squirrels to the dogs!