Keep Your Eyes on Your Own Work

I remember being in elementary school and the mantra from so many of the teachers was “keep your eyes on your own work.”

The (sad) truth is that I was a total nerd so that wasn’t a problem for me.

Comparison is something that is rampant in our society. Think of how women compare bodies, careers, families, clothes, hair and makeup. Men have the same problem, but they just compare different things, like cars and careers.

There is a danger in all of this, one that can stop you in your tracks if you are a coach, entrepreneur or artist.

Comparing stalls your progress because. . .

You lose your UNIQUE voice. Every one of us has a unique perspective and a unique reason WHY we do the work that we do. When you spend more time saying, “Oh, I want to be like THAT!” than developing your own skills, you lose your individual perspective. Remember, there are LOADS of people that do what you do, but NO ONE does it exactly like you do. Your clients are buying YOU!

You get distracted by projects/processes that pull you away from your vision. I talked to an entrepreneur this week who said, “I have this great idea for a product,” and then literally two minutes later said, “I also talked to someone else who was writing a book and I thought that would be a good idea for me.” So we talked through what her priorities are and she realized that looking at additional projects would distract her. Adding projects is tempting when your initial goal gets too hard or you don’t know what to do next.

Your ability to solve problems gets dimmed. When you compare yourself to others, you lose your own inner voice that will help you to solve the problems that you are facing in your business. Sure, you can get guidance from others, but the most valuable guidance you can get from anyone is HOW to make decisions so that the next time, you can do what is absolutely RIGHT for you and for the growth of your operation on your own.

Here are some steps you can take to learn not to compare:

Limit social media — It is simply a highlight reel of everyone’s life and business. Think about limiting how much you are on social media. For me personally, I stay off Facebook each weekend. It gives me a break, clears my head, and allows me to spend time with my family and friends.

Celebrate what you did TODAY to move your biz (and life) forward. Oftentimes, when we compare ourselves to others we believe that we have fallen short. The road back from that negativity is to celebrate what you did TODAY to move the vision for your life and business forward. Did you email your list and stay in connection with them? Did you write a blog post you were really happy with? Did you sit down and sketch out a new coaching program? CELEBRATE!

Set clear goals with a clear vision to keep you on track. It is really hard to get distracted by everyone else if you KNOW where you are going and what you are trying to achieve. Put up reminders in your office about your vision for your business and what you want to achieve. Keep them in front of you at all times and you will be sooo busy working on your own stuff that you won’t care so much about everyone else.

These tips make sense to you? I’d love to hear from you. Let’s connect in my Facebook group, Savvy Solopreneur. You can join here.