Do you have the right shoes on to run a franchise?

Every Saturday morning I go to a Weight Watchers class and to date have dropped two and a half stone. It’s been slow but I have had a goal and every week, despite the various hurdles of life, meals out, traumas and celebrations, I’m steadily reaching the goal.

It was during one of these recent sessions that our coach had several different types of footwear laid out on the table in front of us – wellies, slippers, flip flops, baby booties, high heels and trainers. They were all very symbolic and got me thinking about franchising and the day-to-day, week-to-week slog of reaching success and your goals.

In my get healthy, weight loss journey I’m most certainly wearing the baby booties most of the time. In my business I could choose the baby booties, take baby steps, get very little done in my business, enjoy the journey and regularly have breaks along the scenic route to the goals. I would still achieve them but it would just take longer and for me that isn’t the right option.

I could get the heels on and dance the weight off to accelerate weight loss, however, I’m not much of a dancer and prefer a lovely meal out on a Saturday night for hitting the dance floor these days. In business, taking this route would mean I enjoyed every ounce of my working week, see it as a party and be so much happier rather than carrying the weight of the world on my shoulders. But the dancing shoes aren’t the choice for me in business or in the weight loss battle.

With slippers I could slouch at home, never exercise and indulge in chocolate on the sofa, have the laptop on the knee, be distracted with housework, TV programmes and general social media noise and still be on the journey to my goals in health and business. Although I would definitely be fooling myself with the level of my productivity in slippers and the speed at which success would happen. And my goals always have short deadlines.

I could choose to have lots of holidays, work at home and abroad, leisurely and happily saunter through the workload not letting anything raise my blood pressure with flip flops on. Have a scenic route of ups and downs to my weight loss and embrace the work challenges as they come but in all honesty I’m happier at work than on holiday so flip flops are not the answer. Occasionally, yes, I like the odd holiday from work and flip flops are in abundance but not all of the time. I have certainly learnt that I need to switch off when I’m away and forget work.

I could wear my wellies and get stuck in the day-to-day rubbish that falls on my desk, busy myself with the easy, mindless stuff but never keep an eye on what matters and procrastinate, not getting the right things done. I could do some gardening to lose some inches and go through every little detail and intricacy – like digging every weed up in every bit of the soil – but the garden isn’t my haven and if I get stuck in all the detail of every ounce of my business I lose focus and the route to the goal.

So the better choice for me every day for both business and health would be to get the trainers on. Choosing to run, stay focused, on track and working only on the stuff that moves me to success in the quickest way. Running regularly to lose the pounds and also passing the finish line to my goals in a record time in business but this demands a massive amount of focused energy, determination, mindset and discipline. I can’t allow distractions and this comes at a price with family, friends, relationships and all sorts of things.

Which shoes do you wear? The fact remains that every morning we have a choice. We run our own businesses and we can choose the footwear for that day, that week, that month, that year.

The facts are the seasons change and we need different footwear, different contingencies and flexibility. We have that choice, we have that flexibility and we need to embrace that.

Our choices and actions will determine our fate and that’s something I love. I’m in control. It’s all down to me. You have the tools, you have the knowhow, you have the systems and support, especially in franchising – you just have to get on and do it. But how you do it is up to you. You choose the shoes. And the shoes don’t need to be the same every day. Go easy on yourself, set the goal first and then choose the footwear.