Telling yourself a story about who you are is a powerful way to frame your reality. I am an athlete. I am a teacher. I am an innovator. I tell myself stories to prove it, and I back it up with actions to support my commitment to the story. When I find props (and products) that help me tell my story, I get them. Clothes I can move in help me be an athlete....
Imagine someone called you up today, and wanted to make a movie about your life. Take some time to imagine how that conversation would play out. The director is one hundred percent sincere. What are the thoughts that go through your mind? I won’t put words into your mouth. I’m sure you can see where this is going. For me, my responses are problematic. As children, we all wanted to be heroes....
You know that feeling, when after a long, hard day at work, a mind-numbing commute home, and what seems to be a mini-battle with the lock on the front door, you get to collapse on the sofa and just belong. You know that feeling of waking up late on a Saturday, sunlight creeping through the room, and there’s nothing to do for hours, so you can just look at that light creeping along....
My secret weapon if I really need to make something happen. Take someone on the journey with me! Examples: Read a book and push a report to someone every month. Work out with someone in the morning. Do only cold showers for a month Meditate daily My willpower is strong as steel, until I get tired, distracted, bored, or sad. Then it’s about as strong as overcooked spaghetti. If I want to do something hard on a consistent basis, and I have no pre-existing motivation to get it done – phone a friend....
It’s easy to get caught up in making something for others. If you wanna blog, first identify your audience. If you wanna build a business, find your 1000 true fans. Or, you could not. You could make something that’s just for you. And the only thing that anyone else can get out of consuming what you’ve made, is closer to you. This sets you free. I felt this first-hand when I switched from business blogging to personal blogging after several years of lukewarm attitude and mild failure....