Why Try To Get Out Of Your Box, When You Can Use What's In It?
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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You’ve heard the expression that if you stand for nothing, then you’ll fall for anything.
But have you heard the expression that if you stand for something, then stand for it everywhere?
Standing for something–truly standing for it–is an action that will constantly be questioned.
You’ll be pressured to side step your values for the sake of appealing to someone else or because it’s practical or it saves money to skip out on your value.
Simple example is the coffee shop who uses plastic creamer containers when they should be using mini-metal jugs of creamer because what they say they stand for is urban comfort food. Costco coffee creamer cups don’t align with the shop’s posture, what they say they stand for.
It’s worth looking at any action you take as either standing for the same thing you have been standing for or if you’re settling, deviating from the core values and confusing those who buy your product/service.
The brands we remember are the ones who stand for the same thing … everywhere and every day.
Stay Positive & Gives A New Meaning To Standing Ovation, Doesn’t It
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It matters who you surround yourself with.
You’d never play a game of tennis with someone who consistently says you’re not worth their time or that points out every one of your faults even when there are none and that tells you to get back up when you flop from true exhaustion. Yet we hit our work back and forth with these people.
Or consider the adage that you are the average of the five people you spend the most time with. We all believe it, but have you actually written down the five people you spend the most time with? Is the average of them who you want to be?
What about when someone tells you “That doesn’t sound like you.” What an alarming phrase to hear from people like you. It’s a gut-check moment of who you want to be. The person before the thing that doesn’t sound like you or the person after?
You decide who enters your kitchen. Don’t forget that.
Stay Positive & Surround Yourself With The Best Of ‘Em
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