It is impossible to improve and grow without reflection. Two questions come to mind:
- How can you do that without taking a lot of time?
- How can you avoid creating a list so long that it is overwhelming and borderline useless?
Meet the “Stay, Stop, Start Exercise.” I invite you to do this exercise today in just 5-10 minutes.
Here is how simple it is:
Ask yourself three questions:
- Which of the things you are doing now need to STAY?
- Which of the things you are doing now do you want to STOP?
- Which new things do you want to START?
I invite you to limit yourself to no more than three items per category, “stay,” “stop,” and “start.”
Examples For Stay, Stop, and Start
Here are some examples (again, note: please force yourself to stay at no more than three items per category):
Stay:
- Focus on working with … (insert your ideal client)
- Finish fleshing out our system for providing our services (goal: we can show it more easily to our clients, and we can train new team members much faster and more consistently)
- Continue to get feedback and improve our course on … (insert course title)
- Write daily Brilliance Nuggets
Stop:
- Fractured communication
- Low-profit time-wasters (de-emphasize things we cannot delegate and which don’t bring much income)
- Giving away some of our work for free
- Lagging accounting practices
Start:
- Regular staff meetings to review progress (30 min on Monday; 10 min Tuesday – Friday)
- Focus our offer and clearly define our core offer and distinguish what we need to refer out
- Document our workflows
- Delegate accounting
- Give speeches to new audiences at least 2x per month
- Hire a social media person (increase the number of engaged people to 150% every three months)
- Get some time off (create a win-win arrangement with clients)
This quick exercise makes all the difference in only 5-10 minutes.
Do It By Yourself Or With Your Team
Do it by yourself or, better yet, invite your team to do it, too. A good practice is for each team member to consider what they see as the most important stays, stops, and starts. Then compare and discuss what each of you came up with.
I’m Curious
What do you want to continue (stay), stop, and start?
Dr. Stephie
P.S.: I appreciate you commenting and sharing this with others. Thank you!
