One of the sure ways to be successful is to actually make space for it.

It’s easy to pile more on your to-do list. You probably have a million ideas in your head.

It can difficult to take things OFF your to-do list. I bet you’re quite adept at doing it all AND adding more to your plate.

Most people resist getting help and letting go – me included!

I know there’s a correlation with me getting help and being able to focus more on what I’m best at, ultimately benefiting my clients and leading to business growth.

Here’s the bottom line:

1. Trying to do it all – while trying to grow – will simply suffocate your business growth.

2. Taking things off your list will both liberate you and be a major catalyst of your business growth.

This hits close to home in my own business. Recently, I said “yes” to a one-year business mentorship program. I’ve been searching for the right opportunity for me and in late November it landed on my doorstep.

By saying yes, I knew I’d have to intentionally say no to other things for my business to grow.

My hunch is you’re setting your own sights on new and exciting goals and projects for 2013. Do you have the “space” to grow?

Creating space to enable your business growth doesn’t have to be difficult.

It does, however, require you to take a close look at what you’re currently doing and then take intentional action to make the changes you need.

These four steps will help you be ready when the clock strikes January 1, 2013:

1. Review your 2013 goals.

Take a close look at your intentions for 2013. What are you trying to achieve? What’s different than last year? Do you want to double, triple or even quadruple your revenue? Are you planning to hire a business coach to ignite your business growth?

If you need help setting your business goals, I invite you to take The Annual Planning System^TM, my annual planning program available 24/7. You’ll walk away with your own three-year vision and one-year plan for both your business and personal life, plus much more.

2. Ask and answer the golden question.

In last week’s article, “Sorry, Canada. I’m cheating on you a bit and here’s why,” you learned about this golden question: What are you willing to let go of or get rid of to be congruent with who you really are? Ooooh, there is gold at the other side of this question when you’re real with yourself. I invite you to write down a list of what you know in your heart has got to go.

3. Do an activity inventory and delegate.

This one I learned from a business development program called Strategic Coach. Dan Sullivan, the owner, is known for helping entrepreneurs focus their efforts on their unique ability – what they love to do and do best.

There are three parts:

• Write down all the tasks needed in your business. These can be anything like writing blog articles, planning your week, organizing your expenses, creating new programs and services, talking with prospects, commenting in social media, etc.  
• Label each activity one of three categories: unique ability, excellent or incompetent. 
• Unique ability activities – you have superior skill, you love doing them, they’re energizing and you keep getting better at them. 
• Excellent activities – you’re good at but not passionate about. It’s often harder to get help on these because you’re good at them, but they take you away from unique ability.
• Incompetent activities – you’re not good at; you experience frustration and stress from doing these.
• Shortlist what you’ll get help with. Decide what you’re keeping (saying yes to) and what you’re stopping or getting help to do (saying no to). I suggest you get help with your “incompetent” activities – there are people who excel at these tasks and do them in a fraction of what it takes you. Take a close look at your excellent activities and get help for as many as you can – or better yet – all of them. And, lastly, keep your unique ability activities and focus your time and effort on these.

4. Make a commitment to delegate and do it.

This is where the rubber hits the road. You can make all sorts of lists and have all sorts of intentions to get help. As I said at the beginning of this article, one of the sure ways to be successful is to actually make space for it. The space will be opened for your business growth when you make it happen. In fact, you can get started right here, right now. There’s no time like the present, right?

Here’s your challenge. In order to create space for your own business growth, I want you to identify: a) one task you need to delegate AND b) one task you need to stop doing.

Then, hold yourself accountable by posting a comment below this article, with both your two tasks and the date you’ll make the change(s).

I’ll pop in and make a comment to support you – and who knows, maybe I’ll know of a resource to make things super easy for you.

My hunch is you’ll feel a sense of freedom by simply taking this one action alone. And, by fully doing the three steps in this article, liberation and business growth can be all yours.