Something about a sparkling brand new year inspires us to new beginnings. We envision greater things for ourselves, and this is healthy and good. We resolve, therefore, that January should be the month of resolve. The timing of this idea, however, could have been better. All of our days are merry and bright, and then blam! All of a sudden, we are not what we should be. How does this happen? Does it happen only in America? We suddenly desire a whole new outlook. We desire a whole new look. We feel empowered to take new opportunities when they arise. We seek to become all that we should be. And herein lies the trouble.

Should is a dangerous word. What, exactly, should we be?

The word resolution is a little easier. The root, of course, is resolve. Resolve is the firm determination to employ a specific course of action to accomplish a particular thing. Resolve is the very substance that gives birth to goals. Fortunately, we humans rarely run short of this commodity. It is rather the perseverance that is too often in short supply–and that is the stuff required to follow through.

But somehow in January we get a wild hair, and envision our future selves more courageous, more disciplined, thinner, and smarter. In our honest moments, it is quite clear that we are not that yet. But this angst of all that we should be is the very reason we resolve to become something different in the first place. How can we become something more without feeling like an impostor all the while we are becoming? It is the picture of the skinny lady taped to my refrigerator door that compels me to keep that very door shut. I still hate her.

Small businesses do not behave much differently from humans. They aspire to change as well–and not just in January. The wise entrepreneur holds change as  a continual strategy. It is evolve or die. To be or not to be. That is indeed the question. Very few companies survive the challenges of the marketplace for any length of time and remain the same as they were in the beginning. Fortunately, change is much easier for small business than it is for the large enterprise. The ability of the small company to turn on a dime will forever remain one of its strongest advantages over the corporate freight trains of the world.

But how do you remain an authentic business while you are becoming? How can we become something more without feeling like an impostor all the while we are becoming? We all know the value of authentic brand. Authentic means real. Authentic means an original. As in not fake. As in not pretending to be something you are not. How can you be authentic when you are in the now and the not yet? How can you believe the story yourself when do not yet know the end of that story? How can you be all you have yet to be? 

Here are three bolsters to get you over the hurdles on your way to becoming:

Accept change as a way of life. Remember we are all works in process. None of us is all that we should be. We must change to survive–both personally, and in our businesses. The healthy enterprise seeks information, but they do not accumulate data and knowledge simply to do it. They gather that information in order to use and apply ittoward continual improvement. 

Continually face forward. Successful businesses are not preoccupied with their strengths and weaknesses, as clearly as they may know them. Companies that go the distance focus on all that they can and will be. So you have had a some bad circumstances that have threatened to derail your progress. Now what? Successful entrepreneurs do not waste time looking down at their shoes or back over their shoulder. The future vision istheir reality. They live there, as if it were already here. They ask the question, “In light of this, what next?” They focus on the target.

Make the process the goal, and not the goal itself. In our moments of honesty, we understand that we are not always disciplined, not always brave, and we are not always willing to step outside our comfort zone. To achieve our goals, we must become something that we are not now. How have we ever learned anything new? We mirror the behavior of others who are all that we want to be. We do something new. If we find that we are always behind, we get our behinds out of bed a bit earlier. We have already learned the hard way that staying in it makes us a big behinder. We prepare the night before to accommodate the change. Real change lies in the process, not in the goal.

We have all met fake people, and we have all been disappointed by fake brands. Fakers are the ones who are pretend to be something they are not. Making an effort to become something more than you are at present is not at all in the same category. Making an effort to change for the better is called growth.

Do not allow what and where you are now to stop you from becoming all that you are destined to be.

Jim Rohn said, “If you do not like the way things are, you can change. You are not a tree.”

Thomas Edison said, “If we did all the things we are capable of, we would literally astound ourselves.”

Raising my cup to you. May 2016 be your year to become The Real Deal. Clink clink.

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Why do we at etc!graphics inc, a graphic design company, care about your business strategies?  Because no matter how beautiful we make your visuals, your graphics will never make more sense than the clarity of your own vision. The clearer your target, the more lucid your marketing will be, and the better connection you will create with your visual graphics. We want to help you become the best you can be. Join us all this month as we share ways to help your small business sustain and grow in a crowded marketplace. Etc!Graphics is devoted to helping you, the small business owner, think like a marketer.