Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
Idleness is the problem. Paralysis is the problem. Standing still is the problem.
Fear isn’t the problem.
Fear is something you can dance with; it’s a sign that you’re on your way to something meaningful.
The fear you feel before taking a leap isn’t the problem because the only solution to it is to not leap.
And we have enough people not leaping, don’t we?
Stay Positive & Unstill
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Are you making that design choice because it’s what you like or because it’s what your target wants?
Are you adding new product options because you think you’ll make better margins or because your target has asked for them?
Are you hosting a pop up to draw attention to yourself or to offer a new experience for your target that they’re craving?
Is the deal you’re thinking of offering so you can make some fast cash or because your target will appreciate it beyond it being a deal?
If you’re in business, it’s worth gut checking every decision – big and small.
Who is the decision for?
Stay Positive & Make The Answer Consistent
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If you’re giving something away for free, consider not giving it alone and not making it about the free-ness.
Why?
Because free doesn’t hold much value, but surprising and delighting, adding to an order, giving without an expectation of your generosity does.
Add that free t-shirt to people’s orders, unprompted.
Offer free samples to those you talk to and hear that it’s their first time visiting your establishment.
Give the free item away to only a handful of subscribers to your newsletter as thanks for subscribing.
Free might work to get a certain kind of person in your door, but free works much better on elevating the loyalty of someone who is already inside.
Stay Positive & Free, Free, Free, Free
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There’s more than the loss of quality or care or widgets that others have to now deal with because of your short cut.
There’s also the time and energy spent searching for the short cut: Precious resources that could have been put toward making the work better instead of looking for a short cut.
Not to mention, a short cut is short. You may, from time to time, find one that helps – but it only ever helps in the short term (it’s in the name for a reason).
Stay Positive & Don’t Bother Looking, There’s No Long Cuts Out There
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Putting junk food in a space you don’t see it will reduce the amount of junk food you eat.
Removing a contact from your phone will limit the chance of you reaching out to them.
Turning off your computer’s notifications will eliminate you getting distracted as much.
If there are things weighing you down, it’s worth figuring out how to remove them or at least hide them from view.
Of course, this works the other way around, too.
Putting a mantra on your bathroom mirror makes it more likely you’ll have a positive attitude throughout the day.
Having a booklet open with a pen right there makes it more likely you’ll actually write.
And so on.
Stay Positive & Notice What’s There? What Doesn’t Need To Be?
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A thoughtfully written email can make a difference.
So can handwritten letters. And eleven minute and ten second songs (thanks, Metallica).
And a carefully built custom motorcycle.
The sad part is that these meaningful creations take time and taking time doesn’t scale – There’s not enough time to do all those things for too many people.
But the happy part is that if you’re happy keeping it small, then keep it small.
Not everything that matters has to scale for the masses.
Stay Positive & Go Ahead, Take Your Time
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What if – now hear me out – we made a list of all the things we want to do, but don’t often do.
Things like read or write or create or experiment or start.
And what if we made a list of all the things we do currently.
Things like watch TV or look in the fridge for food every hour or surf Imgur.
And what if we connected the two so that every time we went to watch TV, we actually chose to write more of our novel? Or when we look in the fridge for food, we read 15 pages of a book instead?
Habits don’t change with a flip of the switch. It’s far easier to integrate a new habit into our life by swapping it out with a habit that doesn’t help us as much as we’d like it to.
That way we’re not trying to create more space or more work for ourselves; we’re investing as much as we were before, but in a new direction.
Stay Positive & It Starts With Your Lists
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