In our small businesses, which represent 85% of all new startups, we hold a lot of responsibility. We are often still filling many, if not all of these positions within our companies ourselves. Today I would like to guild you through a gratitude exercise that will help you appreciate what you do to run your business. There are three parts to the exercise that will take a little thought effort.

Your Best

First I want you to start by identifying all of what you do. Create a list of all the positions and responsibilities you have in your business: For instance, CEO, CFO, COO, marketing manager, sales director, and customer service. Don’t forget the other jobs you do, like receptionist, accounts receivable, product development, financier, and cleaner. I expect this list will be much longer than you expect if you have put a little extra effort into making it as complete as possible.

Gratitude

Now that you are fully aware of what an invaluable employee you are to your business I want you to really create an appreciation for yourself with gratitude and love for all the things you do.

In your journal I want you to write something like:

“Thank you for me, the leader, CEO, CFO, and COO. I am so grateful for the guidance and vision I provide for my company.”

Continue this type of gratitude statement for all your positions. Group together the responsibilities that meet one goal of the company, e.g. Financier and Accounts Receivable both work together to ensure the company has money in it. On another day, you may want to take it one step farther and write gratitude statements for all the people that fill the other positions in your company, but for today you are just going to focus on YOU.

Growth

You know I am about the growth of your business, so if you are the person that holds most of the positions in your business then do this last step.

Picture yourself as if you are in the future. It can be one month, one year or a couple of years in the future (not too far though). Envision your company on that day and all the people that are looking after all the positions except the ones ‘You Want’ to do. Now go back through the last step (Gratitude) and rewrite all the statements with gratitude to the person you see doing the work. They do not need to be a real person, in fact you likely have not met all the people that will fill your company so don’t try to assign the position, just envision someone. Give them a name too. Here is how this works.

“Thank you for the leaders in my business, Debra the CFO and Stephanie the COO. I am so grateful for their guidance and vision of my company.”

Notice I did not include CEO in this statement? This is because I intend to keep that position. It is one of my passions in business.

By giving gratitude for something that has not yet happened you start training your mind to look for ways to make the change you need to have happen. You cannot grow a business beyond a certain size without support, so put out the intention to yourself that you are going to get some help. It will make you a better employee right now and will lay the foundation for the future changes.