All entrepreneurs know that results are the backbone of any business.
Get the right results, and a business can thrive. Get the wrong results (or no results at all), and a business can fail.
Unfortunately, results don’t happen out of nowhere. For results to happen, actions must be taken. And for actions to be taken, there must be a trigger – whether that trigger is an approaching deadline, a great idea stuck in your brain, or a client asking you to do something.
The path from trigger to result can happen one of two ways (hint: one of these is much better than the other):
1) The untrained, reactive way
For someone who hasn’t had training responding to a specific trigger, the path to results looks something like this:
Trigger → Emotions → Thoughts → Action → Result X
The main problem with this method is that it makes people get in their own way.
Since the response to a trigger is completely reactive, it allows emotions and thoughts to take hold before the action, thus slowing down the entire process and weakening the ultimate result.
As an extreme example, let’s take someone who hasn’t been trained in self-defense. If they end up in a situation when they need to defend themselves (which would be their trigger), they’ll first be hit with emotions of fear and thoughts of indecision. By the time they move on to taking action, it just might be too late.
2) The trained, proactive way
On the other hand, the path to results for someone who has trained in responding to triggers will look like this:
Trigger → Training → Actions → Desired Results
If trained to respond proactively to a situational trigger, people can bypass those emotions and thoughts that slow down their actions and hold them back.
In simple terms, IF someone runs into a trigger, THEN their training kicks in and they just act.
In line with the example above, let’s now take someone who has been trained in self-defense. If they find themselves in a situation that requires them to defend themselves, they won’t be overtaken by thoughts and emotions. Instead, the moment the trigger hits, their training kicks in and they act instantly to defend themselves.
The Path from Entrepreneurial Triggers to Results
Life is a series of triggers….and I think all entrepreneurs can relate.
One of the biggest problems entrepreneurs have-the famous “imposter syndrome”-can actually be overcome through trigger response training.
It starts with the entrepreneur being triggered by a new idea. The untrained entrepreneur will go quickly from being excited about the trigger, to being overtaken by emotions of doubt, indecision, and thought like “what makes you think you can actually do that?” Encountering these sort of thoughts and emotions in response to a new idea are enough to stop many entrepreneurs from taking action at all.
But a trained entrepreneur won’t let themselves be overcome by thoughts and emotions. Instead, IF they have an idea, THEN they act.
They don’t let other things get in their way – they’ve trained themselves to do something (whether that is sending an email with the idea to someone, make a next-steps checklist, or something else) as soon as the ideas come.
5 Ways to Take Advantage of Your Triggers for Max Productivity and Max Results
Identifying your triggers and working them to your advantage can make a big difference in your entrepreneurial life.
Here are a few tips that have helped me:
1- Prepare your common “IF this, THEN that” scenarios for maximum results.
Think of the types of “IF” triggers you regularly encounter. From there, consider the “THEN” actions you can use to get your desired result.
For example, I often create memes with entrepreneurial and productivity quotes to post on social media. In the past, when I was triggered with an “IF” and had an idea for one of these posts, I’d sit down and prepare it myself.
But once I realized this was slowing the process down and holding me back from creating other things, I trained myself so that my instant “THEN” action is to now send a quick email template with my new idea to my designer.
2- Consider developing a morning routine as a trigger for productivity.
I begin my morning each day with meditation and my morning pages.
These serve as a trigger that launches me into productivity mode for the rest of the day. Find what morning routine works best for you and train it until it becomes a trigger.
3- Be aware of times when your productivity suffers and train yourself to overcome them.
I notice a dip in my drive and motivation right around 3 PM each day.
Instead of letting this particular trigger prevent me from getting stuff done, I trained myself to respond quickly in a way that I know will put me back in the right mindset: listening to good marketing podcasts.
Experiment and see what works for you.
4- Get a productivity or entrepreneurial coach.
Though I may be a coach now, I had my own coaches in the past! And I still do. Two, in fact.
Coaches can help keep you accountable with your training, make you realize what your most problematic triggers are, and give advice on how you should handle them.
5- Mentally rehearse the trained reactions you want.
Think about what your ideal response is to a trigger, and visualize it. See yourself doing the work. When you do it enough times, it’ll become a trained reaction and habit.
So, if you want better entrepreneurial results and to put those nagging entrepreneurial doubts to rest? Then it’s time to dig into your triggers!