Read This If You Need To Start
Why do we wait to get picked?
Why does someone else have to choose us for their team?
Why can't we just start doing exactly what we want to do?
The answer is that you don't have to wait and you can start right now.
Here's a quick story as an example from my own life:
Once, when I needed a job, I found myself filling out applications.
I hunted down a good job description and eagerly wrote up a new cover letter. I sent it off, in the web-form, with my resume, to go sit in some database with all the others. I sent it along and waited.
I sent out more and more--and I waited, still.
I wondered who would pick me.
After enough time, I was frustrated and anxious. I knew that I needed to take things into my own hands.
I walked down the street to one of the companies I'd applied to. I walked in and said that I needed to talk to the HR director about the email I'd sent. This was true.
When I talked to the HR director, I asked "what is your smelliest, ugliest, most irritating problem that no one wants to solve in your company right now?"
She laughed and proceeded to tell me about a small, but important part of an upcoming project that could use some extra support.
I offered to work for free on this small project. In exchange, if things went well, she agreed that she would write me a letter of recommendation and send it out to her colleagues in the area.
You never have to wait to do something important or meaningful.
2 Minute Action
What's something you've been putting off? Call or text a friend and ask them to hold you accountable for finishing it. Give them a clear time and day when you'll be done and offer to wash their car/mow their lawn/walk their dog/whatever if you don't deliver.
It's too hard to motivate yourself to do something.
It's easier to force yourself to do what you don't want to do by changing the environment around you.
Why I Publish Bad Blog Posts
Yes, I’ve written bad blog posts and published them.
For any of you who follow me or read my blog, this shouldn’t be a surprise.They can’t all be “War and Peace.”
The thing that’s difficult isn’t writing good content and publishing it—it’s publishing work that’s not that amazing.
It hurts me sometimes if what I write doesn’t feel massively inspiring, insightful, unique, or actionable.
The goal is to get to a place of consistent, high-quality output.
That can’t happen without publishing the bad stuff along the way.This is not a cheap, disguised excuse to pump out crummy content—that would be deliberately cutting corners to reduce the effort required.That would be consistently low quality.Seneca said something like: “in order to know and understand good wine, one must drink a lot of bad, even terrible wine.”I think you get the point.If you want to be great, you have to forgive yourself for not being great right at this very second and understand that you’re going to have to be embarrassed for a little while as you figure it all out.
2 Minute Action
Publish something today.Perform the speech that’s not quite ready yet.Implement a new lesson plan that’s almost all the way there.Unless you’re a brain surgeon, the risk of failing isn’t that high.Go for the gusto, today.
The Fastest Way To An Idea
The bar is low.
Most people are boring, uncreative, and have a hard time thinking of others' needs.But not you.
You work harder than that.
You can go out of your way to make someone feel welcome.You can go out of your way to stand out.You can go out of your way to make people remember who you are.All you need is to start.You don't even need the idea.How? Try this . . .
2 Minute Action
The fastest way to get an idea?Google it.I'm not kidding. Someone else has probably thought of this before and has written 10 articles on it.The best part is that this generally helps spark other ideas.And that's the punch line.The hard part of getting something started isn't the idea . . . it's usually getting past the thought that you can't come up with an idea.Once you can outsmart or outwork yourself, you're really onto something.