Over Achieving Blues?

Do you ever find yourself vibrating with excitement when you start a new project only to start fading as it nears completion?  Do you love the thrill of a new, possibly difficult endeavor only to find yourself losing steam half way through?  Is it post-elation procrastination or maybe you truly enjoy the thrill of a challenge and when it does not appear to be so challenging anymore, you lose interest?

Many successful entrepreneurs and business owners are the classic A-type personalities that live for the buzz of “newness”.  It's that drive you get when you know you are creating something fabulous but as you approach the finish line; you, quite frankly, get bored.  Yup, bored.

How can that be?  Many people would find this a conflict in terms partly because business owners are viewed as an over achieving species with endless, borderless energy and drive.  How can they get bored?  How can they possibly lose interest?

Guess what? It happens!

Here are a few questions you can ask yourself to determine if you may be on a New-Thrill-Buzz-Kill journey:

• Do you thrive on startups?
  
• Are new projects thrilling and getting your endorphins going?
• As an impending deadline approaches, do you dread the end?
• Are you handing off the lose ends near the deadline in order to look for the next thrill?  Potentially taking your eyes off the goal/end result?
• Do your response times dwindle/slow down near the ends of projects?
• Are you at your professional best at the planning stages?
• Are you at your professional worst closer to deadlines?

Everybody is good at something...and possibly not-so-good at others.

Non-entrepreneurs and self employed individuals look for jobs that highlight or match their strengths, not their weaknesses. Entrepreneurs. however, turn passions and strengths into businesses that potentially burden them with many tasks beyond their given areas of expertise. Entrepreneurs may feel like they need to do it all (especially during start-up phase), but it is critical to recognize your own strengths and shortcomings and fine tuning them to your advantage.

This means:

• Determine where you are best utilized within your company
  
• Admit your weaknesses and faults (and hire accordingly!)
• Allow others to carry the details that tie you down (and possibly are your buzz kill!)
• Give yourself permission to keep the tasks you love but do not become so far removed from the other mundane tasks that you are no longer part of the core
• Know when it is time to take non-core tasks and hand them to capable employees
• Take the time to ensure the employees you are handing off to are well trained
• Enjoy yourself!  Being self-employed has so many blessings!  Take the time to appreciate where you are and how far you have come!