Life Lesson

A quick cop-out to opening a new door for yourself is that no one will notice you walking through.

That extra load you took on? No boss isn’t watching.

The fresh ideas you shared? No client listened.

The project you took on? No one asked you to.

Again, those are cop outs for not acting as if you’re in the position you wish to be promoted to or acting as if you’re the artist you grew up admiring or acting as if you have a bigger heart than anyone can imagine you having.

The person you want watching might not be, but that doesn’t mean no one’s watching.

And it certainly doesn’t mean you shouldn’t act as if you’re the bigger version of yourself you want to be.

 

Stay Positive & Carry On, We Need You To

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If you made a size 16 shoe, you could promote it to 99% of those on the planet.

After all, their foot does in fact fit in the shoe.

No doubt there are some serious consequences and turn offs to that.

Same with any business that tries to create an umbrella product for too many people.

Bernadette Jiwa relates it to a pie: At some point you eat too much and get sick.

Better to find what size is right, not what size fits all; better to make an impact with some than annoy a lot; better to build a tribe than a mass of minions.

Things need to scale, yes, but only to the right size.

And the best part is you get to choose that size.

 

Stay Positive & Scale With Intention

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Creating something that is easily sharable is simplified action.

It’s less work you have to do to get it in front of more people.

Not less work over all – Turns out it’s just as much work to create something that’s remarkable than it is to push something that isn’t shareworthy in front of the same number of people.

Might as well make it easier on yourself in the long run by making your work more shareable.

 

Stay Positive & Achoo

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It’s tough to be completely prepared for anything.

The only guarantee of a plan is that it won’t go as planned.

And being totally mentally prepared for something? Fat chance.

But that doesn’t mean it’s not worth doing.

Mentally preparing yourself for a conversation or a day’s list of tasks does a lot to keep the lizard brain away. It applies pre-focus, which prevents distractions from entering your line of sight.

With enough mental preparation, you understand the objective and that nothing is going to get in the way of you completing it.

In a sense, it becomes a game (even though it’s been a game from the beginning, but now you feel like you’re winning).

 

Stay Positive & Think About It (Then Think About It Some More)

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If you’re not in it to be the best, then what the hell are you doing?

That phrase has been stuck in my mind for sometime. It pushes me to always find ways to improve, to make the work better and to give more.

When it comes to breaking the phrase down a bit, there’s the obvious layer of watching your competition, staying ahead of the curve and trying new things.

Then there’s the other layer of reality that it’s the journey and not the destination; it’s about the chapters in the book and not the end; it’s about the gladiator games and not the crowned victor.

Working to be the best is work. Are you up for it?

 

Stay Positive & Yesterday Was A Great Time To Start, Now Is, Too

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It takes roughly 50,000 steps to complete a marathon in one day.

If you wanted to complete a marathon in a month you’re looking at just over 1,500 steps per day.

Way easier than the 10,000 they advise on a daily basis, right?

That’s because the advisement is wrong. They say you need to have this grand feat in a day, that you should push other things aside to make it work and move your life around so you can complete way more than most.

It’s sorta how we view a lot of work we create.

We convince ourselves that to write a book, we need an entire day dedicated to writing.

What if we broke that 120,000 word novel into days. That’s 1,000 words per day for a few months.

Way easier.

Truth is that those who write a novel in a day, run a marathon and create the work that you admire don’t do so in a day, in bulk or all at once; they go after it a little bit every day.

Step by step by step.

 

Stay Positive & What Matters Is You Keep Moving Forward

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Structure, process, logistics … it doesn’t matter what you label it, what matters is that it’s more important to focus on than the work that leaves the port because that work is a direct result of all that leads up to it.

Have you heard of absolute value? What about perceived value? Absolute value might be what you need to sell something at to offset the costs of making that something. The perceived value is a cost reflection of the experience a customer receives.

For example, a group of beer geeks have complained about the pricing at a bar nearby. It’s not that the pricing is off; it’s that they don’t have a perceived value above the absolute value. The bar isn’t creating a remarkable enough experience.

And that experience can come from a greater display of the finished product, sure, but more often than not it’s about the structure, process and logistics of getting that product to them (and them getting to the product) that makes the difference.

What story do you have to tell about the making of the product? How about how the staff is trained? Can you showcase the folks who actually make that product get from point B to C? What about the technology you’re using for quality assurance? Can that have an influence on the perceived value of the customer?

People don’t wake up giving a damn about the “what” of your brand, but people do wake up giving a damn about “how” and “why.”

 

Stay Positive & Time To Start Showing Them That Value

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