You may not want to hear this...

As someone who believes in integrity and tries to practice it daily, I often bump up against a conundrum: how to tell people the truth as I see it without putting them off working with me.

That sounds kind of awesome, doesn’t it?

What I mean is that a lot of my beliefs and experience of business aren’t sexy or even conventional wisdom. I don’t believe in hustle. I don’t believe in 10 quick steps to very much. And yet these are the things that a lot of people want and find attractive, or at least worth reading and trying.

It seems to me that the most valuable lesson, AND the one we resist learning, is that authentic business success – the type we feel in our bones – requires time, strength, courage and integrity.

So here’s what you’re not going to want to hear:

To get more done and get closer to where you want to be, you’re going to have to slow down and get more intentional.

It seems counter-intuitive, especially at this time of year. But when we take an afternoon, an hour or even 10 minutes to reconnect with our values and our intentions, it actually helps us stay more focused, get less distracted, and become more productive.

But if you try to skip this step of reflection, realignment and wise planning? You stay on the hamster wheel, working hard but not really getting anywhere.

It’s not all bad news.

Taking a little time out to get wiser and more intentional can:

help you identify deeper wisdom
lead to better business decisions
reduce stress, anxiety and fear
allow you to create content and offerings that really resonate
cultivate better connection with customers
improve your sense of success and wellbeing
let the whispers of what you really want get louder

Sounds pretty awesome, right?

So let’s do more of it. I’m hosting a live video chat on Friday at 2pm to talk about why we need more time out of orders, emails, and fire-fighting so that we can get further ahead.