The happiest and most successful entrepreneurs know that keeping their confidence high on a daily basis is an essential ingredient for success. When you’re confident, everything else seems easier. Creativity flows, and getting through the day is energizing rather than draining. One easy way to keep your confidence consistently high is to focus on progress.

“Progress, not perfection” is one of Dan Sullivan”s favorite sayings.

Around Strategic Coach®, it has become somewhat of a mantra, reminding everyone, including Dan, to stay focused on forward motion and to not be discouraged by the fact that big goals may still seem far away. Perfection has a place as a beacon to keep us moving, but if we measure ourselves against it, we can only fall short. This leaves us less confident, less energetic, and consequently less well-equipped to achieve our goals. A better strategy is to focus on how far we’ve come, and use the energy that this generates to overcome the next set of obstacles standing between us and what we’re trying to achieve.

To maintain this focus on progress, we encourage our clients to use a tool called The Positive Focus™, which helps make a habit of acknowledging progress on a regular basis. In doing so, you constantly remain aware of the many ways you’re growing, including some you might have otherwise overlooked. This exercise provides a constant sense of achievement, which is a great foundation for further growth.

In a recent interview*, Tony Miller, a Strategic Coach client and very successful and innovative entrepreneur, discussed with Dan how he had his first dose of this kind of thinking at a young age:

Tony Miller: Basically, for much of my childhood, I was unable to read. I’d moved to a bunch of different schools, and I had this secret. The secret was that I couldn't read ... One day my teacher came up and said in front of the entire class, “Oh, my! You can’t read.” She didn't do that to be mean. She was genuinely surprised because, for all that time, she thought I wasn’t doing well because I didn’t try hard or was lazy, when in fact I couldn’t read.

Dan Sullivan: So she found you a tutor.

Tony Miller: That’s right. This tutor taught me that the most important thing anyone can do in life is simply “show up,” regardless of their situation. And she rewarded me for showing up at her house. She always had Oreo cookies, and you got one if you showed up, one if you tried hard, and another one if you succeeded. What she was basically trying to teach me is that if you want to gain the fruits of the world, you need to show up and try. If you fail, you need to get up and try again.

*The story of Tony Miller’s experience and growth as an entrepreneur, along with those of eight other Strategic Coach clients, appears in Dan Sullivan’s brand new book, Industry Transformers.