GarthBox

When was the last time you closed a door on an option?

Likely not any time recent. That’s because people are wired to leave their options open.

I recall a time that my significant other and I put off buying new dinner plates because we couldn’t decide between red or blue. We’ve all had similar situations. Getting a Ram means you won’t get the Silverado. Buying one phone means you won’t get the other and vice versa.

The problem with indecisiveness is the cost of waiting.

The old tale is that there is a donkey standing between two haystacks of identical size at two opposite sides of the barn. The donkey stands in the middle of the two haystacks, not knowing which to select. Hours go by, but he still can’t make up his mind. Unable to decide, the donkey eventually dies of starvation.

Death was the consequence of indecisiveness.

While this is an emphasized analogy, it drives home the point that every minute, hour, day you postpone a decision, the greater the consequence becomes.

 

Stay Positive & Decide

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You can yell at a toddler to walk faster, but they’ll just walk slower. This is disconnected marketing at its finest. We pull people toward what we want instead of giving them the push they need to go where they want.

The boss tells her employee what she needs to bring to the presentation this afternoon instead of giving her the push to bring her best self, that it’s her moment to shine and that she’s got the gumption to do it.

Every smart marketer is always asking where the target wants to go (and why) and, more importantly, uses that knowledge to decide what to say, when to say it and exactly how to say it.

Marketing isn’t about finding the right way to say “Quickly. Let’s go!” It’s about listening and understanding why they would want to go there in the first place.

 

Stay Positive & Read Their Map, Not Yours

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Focus applies to more than putting your mental attention toward one task.

It’s just as much about narrowing your vision. Removing what you see to your left and your right. You can’t let your neighbors and competitors dictate your next move.

The only thing catching your eye should be what you’re creating.

 

Stay Positive & Avoid Peripheral Distractions

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You’ve been going back and forth with a client about a project. You’re confused and peeved by her latest message because next steps are poorly communicated.

You forward the email to a co-worker on your team, writing that you’re frustrated, that what the client is saying doesn’t make sense, and that you’re at wit’s end.

You hit send.

Milliseconds later you realize you hit reply and not forward.

It’s my understanding that what you’d do next to treat your mistake is similar to how one ought to treat any mistake.

1. Communicate immediately and apologize (hop on the phone to say sorry)
2. Be vulnerable (admit to the client what you’re feeling and discuss a new way forward)
3. Get energized for next steps (feel determined to tackle the project in whatever way you need regardless of what happened)

What trips up a lot of people is the third step. They make a mistake. Apologize. Open up. Then shut down. Instead, any mistake needs to be followed up with an insane desire to do better…and to get right to it.

 

Stay Positive & No Sulking, There’s Work To Be Done

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Hoping for the promotion, for the external event to be invited to, for the friend to invite you over; it’s a waste of your time and energy.

It’s always better to switch from hope to focus and place it on things you can control.

Of course, it’s not a fun thing to do.

The moment you know it’s all in your hands, you begin to feel overwhelmed, anxious, downright fearful of it all. Once you know it’s in your control, you’re squeezed by accountability and expectations for yourself.

There’s no short cut out of it. All one can believe is that it’s less frustrating to do what you can than to wait for someone else to do what you hope.

 

Stay Positive & What’ll You Choose?

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When assigned a task (whether from your boss or yourself), it’s almost an impulse to believe that you’re the expert.

After all, if you weren’t, if you couldn’t do the task, then you wouldn’t have been assigned it.

Consider the ideology of doing something and doing something remarkably.

You will struggle to an unnecessary degree if you think you’re the only one who can perform the task to a remarkable level. Better, I believe, to bring in an expert – someone who is slightly better than you.

Allow them to review the work, raise the bar for you, to push it (you!) an extra level.

The best way to bring your work from “good enough” to “better than one hoped for” is to bring in an expert.

 

Stay Positive & You’re Never In It Alone (If You Don’t Want To Be)

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There are two hills to every project.

The first hill is starting, it’s the protype, it’s the FPO. It’s easy to think this is the toughest hill because then you have an excuse not to climb it. You quickly tell yourself, it’s too difficult, that you ought to wait until a smaller hill comes around.

The second hill is the “Here, I made this,” it’s the polishing, it’s the shipping of the final product. Once you make it over the first hill, it’s easy to think this is the toughest hill because what you have isn’t perfect yet. You quickly tell yourself you need to make more tweaks, you need to make it better, that you should wait until you’re 100 percent sure it’ll work/sell/change someone’s life.

Thing about these hills is that they’re not tangible. They are figments of your imagination and you design them.

 

Stay Positive & The Hill Is Only As Big As You Imagine It To Be

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