The wildest dream you have will take the most commitment, focus, and planning. Average results begin with average behaviors. To get what most people haven’t achieved, you’ll have to stand apart from the crowd. You have to give up what most people aren’t willing to give up. You have to act in ways that most people aren’t willing to. Typical acts beget mediocre results. Forge a new path and start some newer, better habits. Starting with your inner life.
01. Trying to control things you can’t change
You can’t change everyone else or really your environment. Your mind controls your body… and that’s about it in reality. Other people’s viewpoints don’t typically change the first time we present a newer, better idea. Worrying doesn’t change the direction of the wind. The mental vigor you experience from worrying can make you feel like you’re busy and can present some stress issues. However, ruminating only takes up valuable mental space that can keep you from focusing on the goals that matter. Mental preoccupation =/= goal crushing performance. Effectiveness comes from focusing on what’s within your control. You can control your reactions, your preferences and standards, and what you’ll tolerate otherwise. If you own a business with employees, you can control who you hire and fire, but you can’t control how your employees value your business within their own career trajectory. Your brand could be your baby, but could very well be a stepping-stone for an outsider. To be effective in this sense, you could control your hiring process to ensure that you bring on folks that truly get your mission and vision. If someone refuses to work with you based on competition in industries, you can’t control this. You can control your reaction by not personalizing the decision and collaborating with folks who don’t mind working with other people in their industry. Declutter your mind and uproot the ingrained by refusing to control things that are uncontrollable.
02. Absorbing the noise
Your schedule is the site of your priorities. Are you spending more time scrolling on Twitter? What about falling into the YouTube downward spiral? There’s nothing wrong with a little entertainment. No maturity police are going to come and get you for partaking in activities that bring you joy and pleasure. But are these activities taking up more space than running on your own creative juices? Consumption culture makes it difficult to prioritize your own goals. You can buy all the courses and do all of the research, but you can also reach a state of analysis paralysis from all the consumption. Create more than you consume. You are the only one who will cheer yourself on, good day or bad. When no one’s listening, you’ll have yourself and a select few to care about your cause.
03. Starting with the easy thing
Sure, you can chip a corner off of a brick, but don’t you want to put a decent dent in it and make each chip count? Just because it’s easy to get done, doesn’t mean you are actually being proactive and effective. Your wildest dream will require that you slay the day, starting with the largest task on your list. Critical and imperative to your goal planning, For instance, the easy thing on your list could be to create a newsletter or social media posts. But do you have your business plan or marketing strategy set up? Do you have your system flows automated or streamlined? These tasks are more likely to have an impact on your operations than anything else when you’re in the process of building. Don’t skimp on what matters.
04. Worrying about failure
Failure is an inevitable part of the process. What looks like failure in the beginning is simply growing pain. In entrepreneurship, everything is new. Like a newborn or teenager, there aren’t many situations that you’ve experienced soon after the point of starting your side hustle. You have to build connections and patterns in your mind by experiencing and making mistakes. You have to give yourself space to be a beginner because you’ll have to learn something new to overcome a new challenge. Fear of failure can make you rigid in your decision-making processes. Being afraid of putting yourself out there, being afraid of losing money, being afraid that you won’t gain any traction; are all real and valid fears. However, take some time to reframe your fears about failure. If you’re afraid of losing money, you could reframe the thought to one focused on investing money and take into account the results you get. You should take affordable steps, of course. There’s no sense in spending rent money on crypto, or utility bill money on classes that you won’t use. But create a new set of positive reframing thoughts that will help you build a growth mindset.
If you want to know what you need to do, look at what the average person squanders their time on… and then do the opposite. You can’t grow into a new you without giving up the well-tracked path. Step out from the herd of masses and sacrifice crippling habits to launch yourself into achievement.