Are You Making it Unnecessarily Tough to Succeed?
There’s no rule, you know, that says you have to push shit up a hill for years in order to be successful. Or even for months.
Success is relative of course, and it stands to reason that the longer you keep at it; this process of creating your dream life, the more likely you are to succeed it and to continually better your vision and succeed again.
But really?
Most people make it WAY tougher than they need to. I don’t mean you don’t have to work hard to create your dreams ’cause you definitely DO and in fact a good way to fail fast is to assume you can have the dream 2-hour workday doing ONLY what you love before you’ve done all the stuff that comes before that. (I.e. building the foundations!)
But.
Seriously? If you’re spending your time and energy day after day after bloody day doing stuff that just plain SUCKS or you simply wish you weren’t doing? You gotta get a better plan. Not least because you’re unlikely to keep on keeping on if you’re not getting enjoyment out of your work.
And the truth is that ‘getting things done’ aside a lot of the stuff that IS consuming your every fiber is totally unnecessary!
Like comparing yourself and your work to everyone else out there, then adding new things on to your list that you know you will totally never do but yet you spend time researching them, maybe spend money on a course about it so you can learn how to do it, you let it hang over your for days, weeks maybe MONTHS and basically just send a helluva lot of energy to something that YOU never really decided you wanted or needed in the first place.
Ever done that?
How ’bout this one –
This usually happens when you’re underway with creating something that is actually going to grow your biz. Like maybe you’re putting together the beginnings of your signature program, or your book. You’re on track finally to doing something that will pay off financially and even create passive income down the track.
So naturally you decide this is a great time to – OOH! Bright shiny object! New idea! Oh my GOD – look what she’s doing! I should do that! I’m GOING to do that! I’m going to do it now! I’ll finish that course thing-y later …
Or this. (And this is the WORST) –
You have some success with something, maybe a BIG success. Something that brings in some serious cashola, helps people, and allows you to share your gifts. And then –
Whether or not you recognise it as such or not, you freak the fuck out. You’re not good enough to play at this level! You’re not worthy. You shouldn’t be charging that much, receiving that much. Somebody’s going to find out you’re ONLY HUMAN and not in fact a super person who knows everything. So you stop doing the thing, or find a way to sabotage it. Maybe you should do another FREEBIE instead! Or at least a bunch of free stuff. You really should just help people for low or no cost anyway. (Of course you know that’s not true and you shouldn’t but yet you continue to be nice and answer people’s questions or boundary-crossing private messages anyway). Which leads me to –
The Please Like Me Syndrome
You know what your gifts are. You know where your time is best spent. You know what MATTERS most to you and what you love to do.
And so you delibaretely and consistently ignore that stuff and instead deal with everybody else’s needs and problems before your own. If by chance you run out of THAT stuff (ha!) you avoid doing the stuff you reall wanna do, the stuff you really NEED to do, by making up new things to do in your business that actually don’t need to be done at all or even to exist but yet you convince yourself they’re a MUST.
And if all else fails there is this –
The Overwhelm Approach
You create new tasks out of nothing. You’re a genius at it! You read everything, watch everything, join as much stuff as you can and also spend plenty of time on email, social media, and list re-organisation. This ensures you are always busy, always under the pump, always feeling like you’re DOING SOMETHING but yet really you’re doing nothing. And you know it. And by continuing to give in to it (and to all of the above) you are once again ensuring that business IS tough.
That you struggle to get ahead.
That you sweat blood and tears for every damn cent you make, and God forbid you should be able to make money off something you ALREADY MADE MONEY OFF ONCE.
So. Here’s what we need to do beautiful.
Stop.
Just stop, yeah?
Because really – it doesn’t have to be this TOUGH. Yes business is hard work. But do the hard work that WORKS not all the sabotaging crap that you’ve been spending so much time on.
First. Decide where you most want to spend your time. Writing? Writing what? Creating? Creating what? Teaching? Yeah – what?
Next – have you already made money from this cool stuff you love to do? Can you keep doing so? Can you automate it? Do it TODAY.
Or – if you haven’t yet made money from your natural gifts and stuff you love then GET THE FRICK OFF FACEBOOK AND SHUT DOWN YOUR TO-DO LIST and CREATE that damn program. Do. Not. Stop. Until. It’s. Done. HINT: sell it first. Even to one person. That way you’re bound to create it.
And finally. Remember that it’s okay to be successful doing what you love. You don’t have to prove yourself again and again and again and AGAIN. You’re allowed to make money from doing stuff you love. And if you’re going to spend 3 or 4 hours a day worrying about what you should be doing and making half-assed attempts to do or learn something new then why not take that time and use it for something that actually moves you ahead. YES all that ‘stuff’ can help. But NO you cannot do it all and also there’s no point making headway on 6 million ideas or projects at once!
What will have the greatest impact today in bringing new leads into your biz? DO IT.
What will have the greatest impact today in bringing more money into your biz? DO IT.
What do you ‘need’ to do today to be aligned to who YOU want to be? DO IT.
Simple.
Success is hard work. But it doesn’t have to be constant overwhelm, confusion and relentless shit-shoveling. Get used to putting first things first and you WILL succeed.
Kat I loved this so much! I’ve been thinking a lot about the balance between hard work & ease lately. Hustling without loosing your mind. Or, like you said, creating stupid things to add to your list even tough they don’t really matter! I’m SO guilty of that. But I’m definitely going through this post in my journal this morning and writing out how I can hustle but do it smartly! I’m going for the simple things that’ll actually make a huge impact in my business(es). Thanks love!
Awesome Ashlee! So easy to get caught up in all that stuff and so important to step down from it!