The 7 Things That Made You Successful But Are Now Holding You Back

To get to your next level, you must become a new person. The next version of you. To do this, you must let go of old you. They served you well, they brought you to here, but they don’t have a place in your future. Moving to the next step, levelling up in your life and work, requires an upgraded, better approach. You’ve earned the right to do this.

If you feel like the methods on which you used to rely simply aren’t working anymore, you probably need to change them. Here are the 7 things that you did before to make you successful, and what you need to do now to move forward.

Before: default to action

Now: default to delegation

At the start it was all go. You made your plan and you got on with doing it. Execution, every day. Your to-do list was things to make happen, people to follow up, proposals to write, work to finish. Every idea that popped into your head meant another line on the list. You were creating your art and personally delivering. On the ground, doing the stuff.

To unlock the next phase, the approach needs to change. For everything that needs to be done, the answer is a “who” not a “what”. Who should do this? instead of What shall I do? The level up requires that you fill someone else’s to-do list, leaving yours clear. Leveraging, not sweating. Default to delegation, have the right people in place to deliver, but don’t do it yourself.

Before: rest to recharge

Now: rest to reflect

Rest takes a different role depending on where you are in your business. In your execute phase there is only you, so you rest to recharge your batteries and go again. You rest before you need it. You rest to avoid burnout. You can’t afford to burn out because you’re the linchpin.

But with the resources you now have, you should no longer need rest to recharge. Your people are in place, the plan is being followed and your business is growing. Now you rest to reflect. Relaxation time is booked and taken ad hoc, whatever you fancy. You can visit coffee shops with just a notebook, you can meditate in the park in the middle of the day. Follow your natural impulses and go down rabbit holes of thought to come up with the ideas and insights that you just needed space to find.

Before: in the detail

Now: in the helicopter

You used to know and oversee every detail. You were in the weeds, checking the nuts and bolts, dotting every I and crossing every T. You created the standards on the fly, deploying case by case and making it up as you went along. The first in and the last out, you checked everything for quality and liaised with team members and clients every hour.

Now, your beady eye should be surplus to requirements. Your head of operations handles quality control. Your standards are documented and adhered to far more formally than in the beginning. With this in mind, zoom up and board a metaphorical helicopter. Picture your business from afar and notice its place in the world. Why it exists, who it helps, how effectively its mission is being fulfilled. You cannot do this while responding to emails, only with distance and perspective.

Before: rushing around

Now: patient and poised

You wanted everything done and you wanted it yesterday. And because you had the energy, you made it happen at lightning speed. Your deadlines were ambitiously self-administered, you were booked back-to-back with appointments, and you hurried your way between them. Fast and responsive and getting stuff done.

Now, rushing is not required and does not serve you on your journey. Poise and patience will become your friends. Instead of jumping into a task, idea or obligation, you hang back and consider. You sit patiently in wait for the answers and trust they will arrive. Your subconscious doesn’t let you down. Unflustered and unfazed, the answer arrives when it’s ready to be found.

Before: working hard

Now: thinking hard

Stumbling out of bed and straight to your laptop was once your jam. Before even eating or dressing you’d be firing off emails, checking your reports and hurriedly producing output and shipping your art. By all accounts, you were working hard. Whether long hours and weekends, while you were meant to be on holiday, or snatching moments in between commitments, you were on it and nothing could stop you.

Now, rather than working hard, your role is to think hard. Redefine what work means and reassess where your value lies. In the place of actions filling your day should be blank spaces and moments of calm. Ponder thought experiments, consider all the moving parts and dig into the processes your business takes for granted. Learn from the past and predict the future. Analyse and project. Speculate on likely scenarios and journal about who you want to become. Think hard, question everything, and see what comes up.

Before: being everywhere

Now: choosing your moments

In the first phase of business you couldn’t have missed me. I was at breakfast, lunch and evening events, meeting prospects in the gaps. I was tweeting non-stop, never off the phone, always having someone to respond to or someone else to chase. Sound familiar? In those glorious days filled with people and projects, you woke up raring to go and went to sleep happily exhausted. Team members could reach you at any point, with any question at all. You didn’t mind being used as Google because you were keen to assist, and you had better answers, anyway.

Progressing to the next level and stepping up your game requires unlearning and relearning what it means to be effective in business. Omnipresence is now not the goal. Being too available is worse than being unavailable. Speaking gigs, networking events, meetings and actions should all be carefully considered and assessed for their worth. Leave your trusted team members to do their jobs. Your time now has a different value, and what was once an opportunity could now be a complete waste of time. Now hyper-selective, you choose your moments and commit to far less.

Before: repeatable tasks

Now: projects and empowerment

Not only were you busy, but you were busy doing things that repeated every day. Keeping the wheels turning was your job. Daily actions, ongoing responsibilities and things you had to do because you were hell bent on execution. Although you enjoyed them and did them well, keeping hold of those things will keep you playing small. It’s time to hand over and let go because your energy and wisdom is required elsewhere.

The next phase doesn’t mean you can’t work in your business. It does mean, however, that you can’t create yourself repeatable tasks. Maintenance mode is no longer your job. Rather than dream up a project and manage its upkeep, you sit in your helicopter and strategize, heading in only when you’re sure it’s right. Then, you unpick the product or improve the process, train someone else and get back out. No ongoing tasks, no repeating obligations. In, improve, out, done.

The success you now seek requires a different approach. You’re off the ground with all the assets and now it’s time to leverage them. You’ve worked insanely hard for your unfair advantages. Forgetting this means defaulting to the norm, scrambling around and competing instead of remembering you have earned the right to take a new approach. Less doing, more thinking. Less being everywhere, more being nowhere. Less clutter and rushing in favour of space and answers.