Work for yourself? Stop doing this one thing.
It ain't about how hard you hit, it's about how hard you can get hit and keep moving forward." - Rocky Balboa
This thing I’m about to share, the thing you’re not supposed to do…
I’m the worst at it.
It’s a lesson I’ve tried to learn so many times, but the lesson never sticks. My only hope now is that if I share this one with you, maybe by proxy it will stick with me as well.
Stop telling people what you’re going to do. Just go do it!
Not to sound like a Nike commercial, but that’s pretty much it.
Something else that I do too often is pivot. This is me in a vulnerable moment, so bear with me, but I spend too much energy looking for the next great thing.
The problem is, I should have stuck to the original great thing.
I recently ran across a blog that I used to read quite often, back when Google Reader was a thing (I miss that app so much). The funny thing is, when I originally got into creating content, people would often put me and this other blog in the same category.
We were coming up together, except I did what I do, and I pivoted away. Now the other blog is still thriving and the owner probably making a decent income from the site, and I’m over here doing, well, something else.
I’ve pivoted so many times, I feel like I’ve come full circle at least twice. It’s the thing I do best, if I’m being honest, and because I recognize that, I’m using this skill to my advantage.
This brings me to the thing about telling people about my plans for world domination—I’m not going to do that anymore (I suppose this post is me telling you my plans, but this one is different).
Someone once said that if you tell the world about your plans, they will hold you accountable.
Yeah, they don’t do that.
Instead what they do is bail on you because you didn’t do the thing you told them you were going to do.
Totally understandable, but if you ever felt like your community would be there to hold your feet to the fire on things, there’s a strong possibility they won’t.
Here’s what you do instead.
Write down your goals, both big and small.
Post them somewhere you can see them regularly.
Make some of them immediately achievable to give yourself the power of completion (because nothing feels better than scratching something off your list).
And if you’re doing something that’s outside the bounds of what you’ve done before, and you want to pull on that string some more, do it, but keep it to yourself.
If you do that other thing, no matter how big or small, your true believers will assume it’s all part of the plan, no clarification needed.
You do not need permission from anyone to go do whatever it is you feel like doing.
Just go!
And as for me, if you catch me trying to justify what I’m doing next, just tell me to STFU and do it—I’ll do the same for you.
Cheers,
Dave
PS - I just released Poster Maker, my poster design class on Skillshare. If you’re a Skillshare member, go check it out. If you’re not a skillshare member, you can get one month of access free.