Are you thinking of starting your own business? Have you already done so? Chances are, you are an optimist. Being an optimist does not mean you are always happy or upbeat about the future, but it does mean you can look at nearly any challenge and see the opportunity it presents.
Start With Vision
The ability to take an idea and build it into reality requires both vision and action. That’s why Eyal Gutentag, who has made a career helping new and established companies develop strategies for growth, tells business leaders to focus on their vision for the future.
While an optimist may naturally see the opportunity in every challenge and understand the vision that drives their company’s actions, not everyone will do so. As a leader in your business, it is vital that you can express your vision clearly enough for team members, collaborators, and potential customers to share your hopes for the future.
Take Informed Action
Not every optimist is easily able to transfer their vision into action. To shape reality into something more closely approaching your ideal, you need to balance vision with a clear understanding of the current challenges. Hope is great for inspiring action, but measuring the results of that action is important if you are to bring your optimistic view of the future into reality.
This is where optimistic entrepreneurs sometimes fall short of achieving their goals. If your actions are based solely on your vision for the future without taking into account your results in the present, your goals may fail to manifest. Even optimists can become frustrated when seeing their actions produce no results. By contrast, a growth marketing leader combines vision with clear metrics for performance. Actions taken in service of your vision are measured, and you can adjust the course to improve your results.
Cultivate Hope
There has never been a better time to cultivate hope, whether you are naturally optimistic or not. Optimism can be defined as the expectation that good things will happen, even without evidence. Hope is more about acting in alignment with a positive vision for the future. Therefore hope is something you can cultivate, regardless of how optimistic you feel.
Manage Attention
To begin cultivating hope, be mindful of what ideas you allow into your mind. There is a line between being informed and being inundated by information. Given the massive amount of digital media competing for your attention, it is easy to become overwhelmed by stories designed to make you feel fear, outrage, or other strong emotions. Focus on that which is relevant, turn off the rest.
Set Clear Goals
If you have seen an opportunity within a challenge, know that achieving it will still be challenging. To transfer your vision into action, set smaller goals that will prove to yourself and others that you are on the right track. Goals should be measurable based on actions (“I will write 500 words a day,”) or on results (“I will book 3 consultations with potential clients this week.”)
Find Community
One of the fastest ways to lose hope is to believe you are alone in your vision of the future. Share your vision with potential clients and partners. Find others doing similar work. You may be the reason that someone else finds hope today.
