GarthBox

What if you decided now that all you would ever talk about would be meaningful.

If you could only say what would help you or others move forward, what would you talk about?

It’s difficult to answer. Uncomfortable, even.

Your lizard brain considers that kind of talk to be risky.

Surely you don’t want to put yourself out there. You don’t want to make yourself vulnerable. Conditionally speaking, there will always be outside resistance when you talk about what truly matters. (An Amazon Go depot on campus sounds like it would be beloved by all, but the idea springs conversations around money and available space. All the sudden there are naysayers everywhere. Better to not even mention the depot, huh?)

If you find talking about progress to be an uphill battle, what if you decided now that you would simply pay attention to what you say and realize when it’s not worth talking about.

We can all agree what you had for lunch doesn’t matter so much. The weather, traffic and certainly a broad assortment of political conversations don’t make an impact.

If you concentrate on the language you use, there’s no doubt you’ll overcome the lizard brain’s power and you’ll begin to say less of what doesn’t matter and more of what does.

Anyway, you’ve never seen a remarkable project completed by someone who only talks about what the temperature was last weekend, have you?

 

Stay Positive & Choose Your Words Wisely

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Not everything you create needs to be for the marketplace.

Creating a product everyone will pay you for isn’t the only way to make an impact.

You don’t need to have a book published to be considered a writer.

Better to maximize what really matters like spreading ideas horizontally, giving thorough and honest feedback to other makers in the world with a review, reflecting on what has helped you make a meaningful dent in the universe so others can follow suit.

There’s no blogging just for you, there’s only blogging for others…
you just happen to benefit from it.

We’re getting close to a new year.

You might consider blogging.

You might even consider starting now: https://wordpress.com/

 

Stay Positive & Why Wait?

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With any new venture, its first about surviving, showing proof to a concept, breaking even so you’re not in the hole.

Then it’s about growth, scale, leverage, profit, expansion, market domination–a tall order.

There’s a critical shift in thinking between these two endeavors and many-a-business fails because they can’t retain alignment on what the business is there for through the transition.

• The new manager you hired at your second store thinks you’re in it for X when you are really in it for Y.
• Your sales team thinks they have all the right answers because they’re interacting with the customer.
• The marketing team thinks they have the right answers because they’re aware of the latest tactic in messaging.

This is why a business needs a mission statement. Not the generic “we make things accessible, easy, fast, cheap or reliable,” but the detailed job a customer is hiring you specifically to do.

Once you’re aligned, it’s likely you’ll also be unstoppable.

 

Stay Positive & On The Same Page

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People don’t buy a quarter-inch drill, they buy a quarter-inch hole.

It’s an interesting adage that is often either misinterpreted or forgotten altogether.

A better question (HT Clayton Christensen) that gets you to think more: What job is your customer/patient/client hiring you to do?

 

Stay Positive & It Starts With The Target, Not The Product

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What can you do before you’re asked?

What does your boss need before she sends you an email asking? What does the customer need before they send you a Facebook message complaining? What does your audience need before you wrap up your speech?

Empathize by thinking of what others need before they do, and then acting on it.

 

Stay Positive & Get Ahead By Feeling Ahead

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You don’t have enough time, money or knowledge as others.

Nor is it likely you have enough experience, bandwidth or connections.

That’s how everyone starts, though.

The paradox about enough is, if you wait until you have it, you’ll never have it.

 

Stay Positive & Onward Anyway

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The trouble with many creators is they apply the polish too early.

During layout, during planning stages, during the what-ifs of a project.

Polish is meant to coat a project once the big idea is realized.

Until then, all you’re doing is preventing an idea from becoming big.

 

Stay Positive & Polish Later

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