At a recent Talking Tuesday*, Gareth told us, in a funny way, of his recent repeat phone calls over the previous few days with a particularly determined salesperson of some description trying to get through to me.

In the end, Gareth said, “Look, I don’t know how else to break this to you, but there is NO WAY Conor is EVER going to take your call. He doesn’t even take my calls! If I want to ask for a holiday, I have to put it in writing. I can’t just call him. I can’t just text him. I can’t just catch him if he’s walking past. So, your ONLY hope is to email me, in writing, what this is about, and I can pass that on to Conor. That is your only hope.”

I say NO to a lot of things. And I ignore a lot of things. There are too many things competing for my time and attention so I choose what to ignore and I choose where to invest my time. And you have to too.

Over the last 12 months, a few members have graciously bowed out of OSA.

The most common reason they give is “too much to do.”

Here’s the lesson that’s unfortunately lost on them. They choose to ignore the wrong things. And they throw their time away on things that don’t matter. Things that will not move them any closer to their goals.

OSA is designed to be a source of varied input for you and help you focus on the things that WILL move your business forward and move YOU forward. I serve up a lot of ideas and strategies each month to stimulate your thinking. But it’s NOT about perfection. It’s not about getting ‘caught up’ with your to-do list. It is about moving you forward.

Unsuccessful people have a mixed-up idea that success is when you get all your work done perfectly, on time, with all the i’s dotted and t’s crossed.

Well, from experience and observation of other very successful people, that’s a load of crap. The only way you can achieve perfection is by not trying to achieve anything. If you want to grow, develop, and improve, then you need to get comfortable with mess. Success is cooked up in a messy kitchen.

So, if you’re worried about getting caught up, you should know that’s not going to happen. That’s not how it works. As entrepreneurs, we need to live a learning-focused lifestyle. It’s about giving your mind positive input and reinforcing your mindset every week. It’s not about getting EVERYTHING done. It’s about getting the MOST IMPORTANT things done. It’s not about perfection. It’s about moving forward.

(*Talking Tuesdays: Every 6 weeks or so, I take the Jones And Co. team out for dinner. On a Tuesday. To talk. To socialise. Hence the name.)