Do you have the “Bright and Shinny Object” Syndrome?

Article written by Jama St. John, owner of Gulf Coast Office Support,  http://GulfCoastOS.com

This syndrome can appear in many aspects of our life.  It can drive our friends, colleagues, virtual assistants and business partners crazy.  And it can drive us crazy and leave us feverishly spinning our wheels and feeling drained and frustrated.

Shiny Object Syndrome.

Do you suffer from Shiny Object Syndrome?  Imagine going to the mall with a friend for the purpose of buying a new pair of shoes.  But as you walk through the mall, you look at the new clothes in the window of The Limited and the jewelry in the window of Kay’s – oh, wow, look at those boots!  Wait…you’re not there for boots.  You’re looking for heels.

Do you do this in your business, too?  Are you always searching (and trying to follow) the latest, greatest idea for making millions in your business?

Here’s how Shiny Object Syndrome looks.  You’re on a webinar with Business Coach Ann, and you get some great ideas to do this, this and this…  Then a week later you listen to a teleseminar by Business Coach Betty, and oh, wow, you get some great ideas on that.  So abandon Coach Ann’s ideas and jump on Coach Betty’s brilliant ideas.  Oh, but wait…now Coach Caroline is doing a teleseminar and, oh, my gosh, what great ideas you learned on that one!!  Forget Coach Betty, we’re now doing what Coach Caroline says.

You get the idea?  Does that describe you?  Following all these ideas without a clear goal in mind causes a loss of productivity, time and dollars, as well as a lot of ideas started but nothing completed.

Now, learning new things and getting fresh ideas is great.  That’s a must for growing your business.  But if you never finish anything and are always changing directions and shifting the priorities, you end up wearing yourself out.

In addition, your support staff – whether it’s a Virtual Assistant, Online Business Manager, or in-house staff – will always feel like they’re running in circles.  They’re wasting time starting and stopping…and never getting anything accomplished and finished.

I work with horses and just like in the entrepreneurial world, there are many horse trainers who teach what they know.  The end is always the same – a quieter, well-behaved horse.  But how you get there can vary by trainer.  As a responsible horse owner, I must decide whose presentation and techniques work best for me and stick with that trainer’s method.  If I switched from Clinton Anderson to Pat Parelli to Chris Cox to Craig Cameron, my horse and I would be totally confused!!  Doesn’t mean I don’t watch any of the others because, yes, I might pick up a tidbit of information from Craig Cameron (I personally follow Clinton Anderson), but I don’t change my whole technique based on what Cameron said.

It’s the same in your business.  It’s important to have a goal in place and a plan to get there.  You can add to it and make slight adjustments as you need to, but switching completely multiple times a month is just asking for confusion and frustration.

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself:

• Does this fit into my plan?
• Is it appropriate for my target audience?
• Do I have the time, support and money to effectively execute XYZ?
• What do I have to give up to successfully implement XYZ?

How do you avoid or keep Shiny Object Syndrome in control?  I’d love to hear your thoughts!

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