The real challenge of growing a business - which is staying motivated,
focused, and simply putting in the work. In short, mastering your own behavior.
Today, I want to overwhelm you with a bunch of tips to solve
this challenge that would be impossible for anybody to implement - essentially
forcing you to give up and just say f*$k it.
Just kidding. I'm not going to do that.
Instead, I want to tell you my secret strategy for managing
myself and getting myself to do anything. I want to tell you
how I'm able to remain focused, motivated, and productive - despite working
from home in a house with a four-year-old son, a one-year-old daughter, and no
boss holding me accountable.
I've been using this method for the last five years, and it
really is my secret weapon for mastering my behavior so I can grow my business
and actually enjoy my life.
And don't worry, this isn't about trying to be a better person
or attempting to fix your flaws.
In fact, it's the exact opposite.
I've found that it's far more effective to simply accept all of
my flawed tendencies and biases.
Instead of trying to fix myself or convince myself to "be
better," I just acknowledge that I have flaws that probably aren't going
away.
For example:
- I know that I tend to lose
motivation soon after starting a new project. I'm usually super
motivated at the beginning, but that motivation never lasts.
- I also know that fear is
going to creep in and some how get me to convince myself that I'm not
good enough.
- I know new ideas and distractions
are going to pop up and steal my focus, causing me to jump from one
thing to another without making real progress on anything.
- I know I have the tendency to
over-analyze and struggle to make decisions about what to do - which
causes me to waste time and miss out on opportunities.
Basically, I know that
my default behavior is just plain ineffective - and I fully accept that
fact.
But I also know that
being ineffective leads to more work, more stress, less time, and a lot less
fun. And perhaps even worse, these things lead to more ineffective behavior,
which creates a vicious cycle.So, despite accepting my flaws, I still want to address them.
I still want to make sure they don't control my behavior.
How to be effective
despite your flaws
When I started my first business in 2011, it was the first time
I had to figure out how to deal with these flaws.
Before that, I always had a boss, teacher, parent, or coach
holding me accountable. Someone else was always there slapping my hand if I got
distracted, pushing me to be better, and providing me with a real consequence
if I didn't "do the work."
I was plugged into a system that did a good job of not only
setting clear goals for me, but keeping me on track.
But when I set out on my own, and as I gained more freedom, the
wheels started to fall off the wagon.
I immediately recognized that struggle, and was always on the
lookout for ways to be more effective.
Over time, I picked up some tricks that helped me at least
fumble my way through life and somehow grow two successful businesses.
I learned things like...
- The importance of setting goals
- The
power of accountability
- And
how habits and routines control much of our behavior.
My drive to master my behavior created a deep interest in
psychology - driving me to read dozens of books to learn what makes humans
tick.
And what I learned certainly helped, but as I gained more
freedom, I noticed that despite having all of these tools, tricks, and
knowledge, I was struggling even more to control my behavior.
I was finding it harder than ever to maintain motivation, focus,
and self-discipline. And not only did this slow my progress with my business,
it made me anxious, overwhelmed, and stressed.
About five years ago, I finally reached my breaking point.
I finally got to a point where I couldn't take it anymore. I was
tired of feeling aimless, getting sucked into meaningless distractions,
struggling to make tough decisions, and feeling like I was wasting my life.
So I decided to focus my energy on solving that problem.
Long story short, I ended up creating a system for myself to
help manage my own behavior - so I could get myself to do the things I knew I
needed to do in order to accomplish my goals and enjoy my life.
I took all of the knowledge about human behavior I had gained
over the years and put it into a simple and actionable checklist of questions
and exercises.
Each question or exercise addressed a specific flaw in my
behavior, so I made sure to cover my bases and avoid falling victim to past
behaviors.
Basically, I created
the only reliable way to produce a predictable result - a system.
I wanted a system that would help me...
- Identify my biggest
opportunities so I had clarity on where to
focus my limited time.
- Create an effective strategy for going after them.
- And then master my behavior so I actually followed through long enough to get
results.
I also wanted it to be quick and easy to use, or knew I wouldn't
use it.
And after some effort, that's exactly what I created.
I created what I call an "effectiveness system."
That system is what I still use to set goals and then master my
behavior. It helps me refine my thinking, gain clarity, and then remember to do
things like implement accountability so that I actually follow through.
I use it about every 3 months, and it has changed the game for
me. Not only has it allowed me to grow my business with less effort, less
stress, and less time, it has made my life far more enjoyable.
Instead of constantly feeling like I have unfinished business
and feeling overwhelmed, most days I just get my work done, and then enjoy the
rest of my day.
It has helped me live a truly unusual life.
I'm not going to pretend like it solved all of my problems, but
it certainly helped me become more effective at solving them.
I originally created that system 5 years ago. And I've continued
to refine and use it to this day.
And for the first time
ever, I'm going to make my "secret weapon" available to the public -
so you can use it to effectively grow your business as well.
I've been quietly working on this for the last year, and I'm
very excited to unleash it on the world.
Keep a look out for that on Monday.
Until then, have an effective rest of the week, and a great
weekend.
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