GarthBox

Your imagination isn’t something that’s simply unlocked and then your drowning in remarkable ideas.

It’s not a condition in which a task becomes easy to accomplish or, by sitting there and thinking, you’ll eventually find a new way of doing a job better.

Your imagination is a series small gifts that get opened as a reward of taking an action.

Once you begin to write a few sentences of a novel, your imagination rewards you with an extremely exciting sentence.

Once you begin DIYing a project, that’s when you begin to notice the ways you can deviate from the Pinterest guide you have open and really make it your own.

Consider that your imagination runs on a reward system–the more times you reach for the crayon, the more color your life gets filled with, but you have to reach, you have to take action.

 

Stay Positive & Waiting For Inspiration Is Worthless

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There’s an expression in the construction world of measure twice, cut once.

If you fail to double up on accuracy, you’re often cutting more wood, wasting time and resources.

Same goes for social metrics, KPIs and ROIs.

Usually in our haste to discover whether our hypothesis is correct, we miss a variable or read a measurement incorrectly.

Thinking “if something is wrong, someone else will catch it,” isn’t a valid reason for not measuring twice.

 

Stay Positive & Haste Makes Waste Too

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Credibility requires hustle.

Hustle to round the ponies before you round the stallions.

The problem is that many stay rounding the ponies. They get stuck.

If you want to write for a major publication or open your own studio or start your own restaurant, start by writing for smaller publications, training at multiple studios and hosting as many dinners as possible.

People get stuck earning credibility because it’s easy, you get comfortable, you can be a leader in a small market, and that feels good. If that’s what you want, great.

But remember what you were trying to gain some credibility for in the first place.

 

Stay Positive & You Can’t Get Stuck If You Hustle

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If you’re reading this, you’re full of ideas, you’re a freelancer or entrepreneur, you’re wanting to take risks to be a better you.

I can tell you now, you’re going to face a lot of resistance, especially from people you care about.

While my first piece of advice is to keep your projects to yourself, to prove yourself right and make it happen without telling 100 people that you’re going to make it happen; that’s not always easy.

There comes a time when you need to tell family and friends about your endeavor. You need to pitch to investors. You need to tell your colleagues that you’re taking initiative to do the thing you’ve always been talking about doing. With that, you’ll ignite a lot of fear points.

That’s why it pays to consider what they are going to be afraid of? Are they going to be afraid for your security? Afraid of their friends you’ll be competing with? Afraid you’ll fail because they don’t want to see you hurt?

I’ve learned that one of the best ways to start telling anyone about your idea is to begin with addressing their fears. Personally, for my discussions/pitches/introductions, I start with “Here’s what I want to do. Here’s why it might not work.” And then I address the reality of each of those points. Have you?

 

Stay Positive & Speak To Fears And You’ll Speak To What They Want To Know

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There are few actions more tempting than checking boxes, taking notes, and doing the minimum.

The problem (for you?) is that doing so makes you more replaceable than ever.

Being indispensable requires you to find a new way to do a task; it requires you to write and talk in a way that builds confidence both in you and the listener; it requires you to not take for granted the flexibility you have, but to leverage it.

 

Stay Positive & Becoming Irreplaceable Requires Risk Today, Tomorrow And Every Day After

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It’s easy to get sucked into your business.

Projects grow in scope, more emails come in, more fires require your attention.

The solution to ensuring your business continues to grow stronger is to spend time working on your business and less time in it.

Working in your business is when you’re completing tasks, responding to (often unnecessary) fire alarms, and doing your best to make everyone happy.

Working on your business is playing around with potential new products or services; it’s brainstorming possible new partnerships or expansions; it’s designing a new event to keep awareness high.

Working in your business often ensures you’ll be here tomorrow. Working on your business ensures you’ll be here five years from now…bigger and better, too.

 

Stay Positive & Always Make Time To Work On, Not Just In

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Just a few things that constitute as hiding…

• Doing only what you’re told
• Trying to be all things across all platforms
• Analyzing your time
• Asking what others think of your idea
• Doing your job
• Sorting your to-do list so the biggest thing is last
• Asking for reassurance
• Choosing physical labor over emotional labor
• Hoping for rejection
• Letting someone else lead, take the stage, speak

 

Stay Positive & Start Seeking

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