Do You Have Boundaries?

Boundaries apply to all of us in everything we do. A boundary in this context is defined two ways: What you create it to be and what you allow it to be.  This leads to the concept of who is in charge of your life and your success.  According to Dr. Cloud in his book Boundaries for Leaders, You are ridiculously in charge of both the direction of your life as well as your behavior. So what will you do with this power?  Will you concentrate on what you cannot control, thus being controlled by it, or will you focus on what you can control, and thus become a success?

To be successful in any endeavor, we all need to start with an overall goal. A goal that is really meaningful to you and one that you feel you deserve to achieve.  I have a very clear mission statement for my practice as a partner with B2B CFO®.  I also have very clear values as it pertains to my achieving this mission.  Within the mission I have further refined goals.  All of this keeps me focused and motivated toward the achievement of my overall goal.

To be successful we need to continuously execute on the following three areas that Dr. Cloud terms “Executive Functions.” If we follow these, it develops a boundary within our minds that frees us to be creative and motivated for the achievement of the goal.  The three are as follows:

1. Attend to what is important
   1. What three things will you do today that move you toward your goal?
2. Block out anything that is unimportant
   1. As Stephen Covey said in the 7 Habits of Highly Effective People, it is easy to say no when you know the more important yes.
3. Retain and access all relevant information needed to work your program

The first two points are pretty easy to get but the third point may require a little more unpacking. How effective are your business practices?  Do you plan every meeting with a perspective customer?  After a meeting do you evaluate how it went?  Are you retaining and refining what works or are you just doing the same thing over and over?  Focusing on creating boundaries helps you stay focused on your overall goal.