because next time they will be a little better.
Stay Positive & Isn’t That Enough?
Failure
The Quicker You Decide…
the more time you will have.
The quicker you decide on a theme, the more time you will have to create article topics for it.
The quicker you decide on a name, the more time you will have to brand it.
The quicker you decide on a goal, the more time you have to work toward it.
And my personal favorite,
The quicker you decide, the more time you have to either roll in the success of the decision or the more time you will have to learn from the failure of it.
Stay Positive & What’s Taking You So Long?
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Enlighten Others
It’s The Unexpected That Matters
You could easily duplicate a comedian’s skit. Memorize all the jokes, mimic all the facial expressions. The thing is, you won’t know how to interact with an audience member who interrupts your skit. What will you say to the guy that hollers out when you only ask for the ladies to say “aww.”
Any act, any entertainment, any art is best showcased when the artist is faced with the unexpected. It can be someone in the audience or one’s own mistake.
The reason why it’s suggested you fail and fail often is how you handle disruption is what matters, what people love to see, what people are fascinated by. It’s easy to follow the expected, it’s much more difficult to follow the unexpected.
Great thing about failure is people will love when you fall and they’ll love when you surprisingly land on your feet.
Stay Positive & Put Yourself In The Underdog Position From Time To Time
Enlighten Others
The Problem Isn’t That You Can’t Handle Criticism
Two hours of solid group brainstorming. A lot of bad ideas will be thrown in the air, but it’s your right and your privilege to throw as many ideas out there. Good ideas and “meh” ideas.
A friend of mine used to work at a PR agency that, during brainstorming sessions, would not let anyone leave the room until there were 70 ideas on the board. On top of that, even if their first idea was the perfect one and they knew it was, they still went to 70.
You’re a magnet. We all are when we pitch ideas. We attract the criticism and hold it with us while we shout out more ideas. The more ideas, the more criticism we hear, the heavier we feel. Finally, every magnet has its threshold and we can’t hold any more criticism. At that point, we shut up. At that point, we fail. Exhausted from holding so much criticism.
The problem isn’t that you can’t hold any more criticism. The problem is you’ve let it stop you from sharing more ideas. All the sudden you make the brainstorming session about you and not about brainstorming.
It’s two-fold. First, criticism gains weight when you take it personally. Then, second, as you take more criticism personally, you become subjective and blame yourself for poor ideas, for not moving the group forward in the right direction; you believe you’re holding the group back.
Actually, what holds the group back is your lack of more “meh” ideas.
The reason brainstorming groups work is when you share a bad idea, it saves everyone else from thinking of that same bad idea. It’s a game of trial-and-error. More specifically, it’s a game of removing all bad ideas until what you have left are the good ones. When you stop participating with your bad ideas, you’re not doing the group justice, you’re holding them back.
Stay Positive & If You’re Not Coming Up With Good Ideas Read This
Enlighten Others
Your Business Is Boring (Or Maybe Just You)
Before proceeding, I must note, personally, I never get bored. Bored is a choice, as you will read, whether you’re a business or an individual. I may find myself in a boring environment, but I keep myself entertained. It’s been three years since I said I was bored. Something I’m proud of.
The coffee shop I used to go to daily; it got boring.
The job I have; it’s gone down the hill to boring.
A big client I’m working with right now; the brand is boring. (…reason I have them as a client.)
I quit talking about an old favorite restaurant; boring, boring, boring.
I’ve let more friends I can count on two hands go; they were boring.
Dare I say, you might be boring too.
You might be boring if you’re not learning new tricks of your trade. You’re certainly getting boring if you’re playing things safe. Boring doesn’t just happen. Boring isn’t some sort of natural roadblock on the path to building a successful business. Being boring isn’t a prerequisite for making a breakthrough in the market. Boring is a choice.
You choose to avoid risks and stay in your comfort zone. You choose to remain out of the conversation of friends. You choose to show or, in most cases, hide your personality.
If you’re bored, what do you do? You do just about anything that will make you not feel bored, right? The same goes for customers, for friends, for clients. If you want to lose customers to your competitors (and fast!), be boring.
Do just about anything to not be boring and there’s no way you won’t be talked about, interacted with, referred to. Isn’t that your goal?
Stay Positive & If You Don’t Try (Something New), You Will Fail (By Becoming Boring)
Enlighten Others
What Are The Chances
The chances are whatever you tell yourself they are.
Most great work never happens because there’s a chance of failure, there’s a chance someone might not like it, there’s a chance no angel will invest in it.
The innate decision to declare what the chances really are to you is what I dub Pulling Wisdom.
When you get your wisdom teeth pulled (it’s now seven hours post-operation for me), before any work is done the surgeon tells you all the risks. He even lays them out to you in a list you have to read and sign off. He says there’s a 10 percent chance of this happening and a 1 percent chance of that happening. You may feel drowsy and some people vomit after.
How is this process (that so many people go through) differ any from launching a new project, starting a business, writing a book, creating a new mobile app?
You can tell yourself there’s a 10 percent chance this particular group of people won’t like your art and a 1 percent chance that you will get an investor to fund everything you dreamed up. You may feel fear along the way, you might fail, and yes, some people vomit after.
Pull out your notes, write out the risks of your venture, state what the chances of this or that happening are and then sign off on it.
There may be people who are more qualified to be a surgeon than you, and I would never suggest you pull your own wisdom teeth out, but no one is better at getting what you want than you. No one is better at turning ideas into actions and actions into art.
The risks are the same for everyone. You just have to sign off on it.
Stay Positive & Keep Motivated With Lots Of Iscream Along The Way
Enlighten Others
Static Confidence Is Key To Success
Everything about success entails confidence. It takes courage to tackle a piece of complexity and render it simply for others. It takes spirit and tenacity to stay in it for the long run, the long-haul. You can read every step-by-step guide to becoming an author, the next greatest blogger, an entrepreneur, an artist of any sort, but what each guide fails to explain is each step requires confidence before you take it. You may have every skill mastered to move on to the next step (if you are reading this, you likely do), but no one moves forward in ability without confidence.
From the wise words of Anna Deavere Smith, “confidence is a static state, determination is active.” Confidence is like a water pack you carry on your back while you chase your dreams, except, the closer you get to your dream, the more confidence you need, the heavier the pack gets. Whatever you do, do not drop the pack. It takes confidence to not move backward too.
Confidence makes you compelling and influential. It sends a signal to all those around you that you are an asset to the group (a group you may or may not be part of). Confidence is nothing you talk about or brag about, it’s what other people attribute to you.
The part about confidence no one talks about is mettle and moxie; the willpower centers of loss, the excitement of failure, the determination to get off the ground, knees scathed, and start running at the same pace you were. Moreover, it is the brashness to move forward after the “safety guaranteed” label is removed.
Returning to the step-by-step guide analysis, it’s worth reiterating you do not need to complete a step to have confidence to take the next. You can be void of skill to take the next step, but still take it – powered by confidence. For some, it may still be successful. For others, failure will ensue and you must use the mettle and moxie legs of confidence to either retry that step or move up on a different step. Confidence is a choice. Always is.
Stay Positive & While You’re Being Dynamic, Check To Make Sure You Still Have Your Confidence Pack