Is Your Growth Strategy Proactive or Reactive?

Everything looks like a failure in the middle. Sometimes the path to success can feel like a failure - and sometimes failure is a part of your success. 

Is your business on the right path? Are you strategizing or just "feeling your way?" Truth be told, many entrepreneurs  are in the latter category, never really knowing if their career is taking the right direction.

If you haven't set your 2013 goals, make this one now: Start to run your business proactively instead of reactively. It is a simple approach that can make all the difference. 

Growth is fundamental to Gazelle-like companies. No matter what goals you strive for, or what you would like to see changed in the future, growth is at the center of any change. There are people throughout your company who can act as poor examples for growth; they seem to have stagnated, and are on a permanent path based on reaction to circumstances.

What can you do to jumpstart a proactive approach to growth?

1. First, make your future bigger than your past. Draw upon your past experiences for learning and wisdom. Think of your past as raw material for creating the new you. When you use your past to keep creating a bigger future, you separate yourself from situations and relationships that can trap your thought process in a loop--keeping you stagnant.
2. Next, contrary to culture, concentrate on the learning, not the result. Every experience has things that worked and things that didn't. By sifting your experiences to determine which parts fall into each category, you can determine ways to maximize what worked (now you're learning) and bypass or eliminate what didn't. Remember: You don't always get to choose the experiences you have, but you DO get to choose what to do with them.
3. Finally, maintain personal connections and work with gratitude. Gratitude is the unsung hero of successful teams that we work with. Successful people recognize that every pivotal moment and celebrated accomplishment comes with assistance from others. Adopt an attitude of continuous gratitude and watch your team – and your business, strengthen in the New Year.