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Last week, a colleague called and left me a weird formal message on my voicemail to call him back as soon as possible. This was pretty out of character for him, so I started to worry. Was he upset about something? Was our recent conversation not sitting well with him? My imagination took off. (I’m not a big worrier, but my imagination can get out of hand. #VisionaryProblems) I decided to call him the next day, and I told myself that it was because it was getting late.

Avital Ungar is the CEO and Founder of Avital Tours, a culinary exploration company in San Francisco and Los Angeles that offers progressive dining experiences. She's also our 2015 Awesome Coaching Scholarship recipient.

She recently sat down with us to share a bit about her Awesome experience with our 2016 scholarship applicants.

This is the second article in our Saying No series. Click here to read the first article.

When it comes to saying ‘No’ or ‘Not Now’ the best place to start is to get clear on your priorities. Once you understand those, you’ll know why saying no or not now is the best choice for you or your business.

The next step is to write down how you plan to say no. If you’re responding via email, this might be a given, but it is important to practice - not only to feel more comfortable, but to do it in a way that strengthens the relationship, rather than pissing someone off. (We’ve all shot off the quick response that ended up not going over like we hoped.) So if you’re planning on saying no or not now in person or over the phone, write down what you plan to say in advance! And keep it short. You might choose to include a reason for saying no or not now, but don’t bog others down in your guilt—let them save their time for pursuing people who are interested in the opportunity! 

“Should I say yes or no?!” my entrepreneur client asked me.

Transitions are hard. They are especially hard for entrepreneurs because we don’t move in and out of jobs like typical employees. Plus, structure usually isn’t our thing. We’re pretty comfortable with ambiguity and, having grown companies from the ground up, we’re used to roles evolving organically.

When we do face a change that demands a transition — adding a board position, selling our company, or hiring a C-level executive to take over some of our responsibilities — it can be unfamiliar and challenging.

What is it that compels tens of thousands of people from around the world to build a city in the middle of the hot, empty desert?

Being an entrepreneur is like being a professional athlete. Entrepreneurs are high performers as well and could take a few lessons from them. The pro athlete's job is to perform at the top of his game, day after day, week after week, year after year — and he doesn’t feel guilty about taking time to care for himself physically.

How many of these questions can you honestly agree with?

• Within the past 6 months I took time off from my business to relax.
• I leave the stress of business behind at the end of the day.
• I rarely work more than 50 hours per week.
• I plan vacations months in advance.
• I have a sense of freedom in my life.

If you can’t agree with just one, OK. But if you find yourself shaking your head at most or all of them, you are probably working too much with results that don’t match your effort. 

“Turning pro is a mindset. If we are struggling with fear, self-sabotage, procrastination, self-doubt, etc., the problem is, we're thinking like amateurs. Amateurs don't show up. Amateurs crap out. Amateurs let adversity defeat them. The pro thinks differently. He shows up, he does his work, he keeps on truckin', no matter what.”

Steven Pressfield

It’s so easy to put things off until later, especially if it’s something you really don’t want to do. This is how dishes and laundry pile up. For the entrepreneur this could mean the accounting, the marketing, or really anything that drives you to surf Facebook and avoid doing.

Multitasking is the biggest myth of modern times. We are all addicted to being busy and talking about how much we have to do. Furthermore, we fool ourselves into thinking we can do more than one thing at a time and do them all well. 

We can’t. Multitasking has never been and will never be a real thing. We just think we should be able to do it because the expectation is that we, as Americans, should get the most out of every minute. We take pride in how packed our schedules are. But study after study has shown that our commitment to the idea of multitasking is hurting us rather than helping us.