Raking leaves and our business - some similarities

byAllynBeekman

2.2K followers

Updated 9 years ago

Yesterday was a beautiful day in Houston. Mid-70s temperature, nice breeze - a great day to rake up some of the leaves that seem to be falling late this year.

I spent several hours working with my son and my three grandsons (7, 6, and 3). In that timeframe, we raked, picked up, and dumped the leaves from one section of the front yard. The amount we completed was probably about 1/10 of the total yard.

After we finished and I had time to relax, I started realizing that there were a number of similarities between raking the leaves and how we approach our business. I'm not talking about the manual labor part - the sweating and getting physically dirty part. Rather, I'm referring to the process we went through as we did the raking.

Here are the similarities I noted:

Develop a Plan of Attack

First, we decided where we were going to start raking. We also determined how best to rake the leaves into piles so they could be easily picked up. After all, you can't just keep raking a growing pile across a lengthy yard.

In our business, we also develop a plan. We choose a niche or decide to pursue the WA affiliate program. Then we follow a process that Kyle lays out for us in the training.

Set Short and Long-term Goals

It was important for us to know ahead of time how much of the yard we planned to rake. Setting goals - knowing what we want to accomplish in a certain timeframe - is critical to building our business and feeling we have accomplished something.

Work Hard

This is fairly obvious. If we don't work hard at raking, we don't get rid of the leaves. Similarly, in business, we don't meet our short-term goals.

Help Others Learn

Part of what we did yesterday was help the boys learn how to help us. They are still raking "newbies". Our coaching included passing on some tips regarding "best practices" of raking.

The WA community is built on this principle. We help each other as we are learning to build our own business.

Take Breaks

Once in a while we had to stop for a minute or two to rest. We also changed tasks occasionally to keep from getting bored and to stretch other muscles.

Likewise, as we work diligently on our business, we need to take breaks so we don't overwhelm ourselves. We typically switch tasks once in a while, too, switching between researching, writing, discussing, etc. Our brains need a break and so do our sitting muscles.

Review What You've Done

It's important to think about what you've accomplished at the end of the day, both in raking and in building your business. Did you meet your short-term daily or weekly goals? If not, what adjustments need to be made to longer-term goals? What's the next step?

Celebrate Completion of the Goal

This is something I often forget to do. The celebration may take on many different forms but it's an important aspect. After raking, the celebration was a thanking the boys for their help, taking a shower, and eating/drinking. Our business goal celebrations will be a bit different but they are important, too.

So What?

It's interesting how this business makes us think differently, isn't it? A lot of what we do in life requires some or all of the points I've listed. Normally, we just brush them off. So remember what George Patton said,

"A good plan implemented today is better than a perfect plan implemented tomorrow."