My goal is to become a producer, creating things I can sell. They might be crappy but I will be pushing against my lizard brain (by the way, I need to avoid trying to waste time studying/learning). Part of this is working on my project every day and setting deadlines.
Maybe it is my lizard brain which is making me fight setting deadlines. I used to chalk it up to deadlines not working for me and me not being good at business (this is true but in a different arena then I thought)
I know one of the things holding me back is my unwillingness to spend money and my unwillingness to ask Andrea if she minds if we spend money on producing something in the business.
This year I have asked her if i can spend $500. It can be on learning to grow the business or spend creating a product.
I think I have covered all of the background of me trying to get Andrea on board.
I think I have finally gotten her to trust that I will not throw the family under the buss. My next step is to show her proof that I can make money in the business.
I have a problem which I need to admit and I just realized it. I have a problem with completing projects. I am not sure what exactly is holding me back. Some of it has to do with a subtle version of perfectionism. It is the lizard brain that Seth Godin talks about. Looking back, I read Linchpin and Seth was talking to me and I was not listening. I am such an idiot.
I have spent all this time studying business and doing things on the periphery. I have built a site and I have coached a little. Nothing real to bring in money.
I was saying I was starting a business but I was lying to myself and everyone around me, I had a hobby.
It is time to reconcile this. My goal is to produce two products this year and actually make some money on them. They may not make a lot but I will learn from the process and get better.
This is part of the reason I am doing this series, I need accountability partners and by telling you guys this I will be more likely to follow through.
I have wanted to start a business for a long time and even while Andrea and I were dating it came up in conversation. Once we got married I started talking to her about the possibilities and the things we had to do to get there.
That is when I learned about the fear. I am not sure of the history but Andrea is concerned that I will quit my job and spend years broke talking about starting a business, but not actually doing anything. Even though I have never done anything like that the fear is still there.
My way around this is talk with her about it regularly, the things I am doing, and the progress I am making. That is one of the reasons I have asked her to help me in developing the website. Her part is more the idea part. I tell her what I am doing and ask her what she thinks we should be doing. I even worked with her to brainstorm the new website name and the focus.
I want to get her familiar with what is going on so she feels she understands. Plus it helps me make better decisions.
I update my hard work page (click here). I update this page about every 90 days. It is interesting to look back at what I put on there last time. I am happy to tell you that I accomplished everything on there.
This leads me to think about hard work in general. Hard work is is relative. Take a look at James’s post about it here.
Too many people expect to have certain things in life without putting out the work. Don’t get me wrong, I consider myself somewhat lazy and I am not the brightest person. Though, I am really good at putting one foot in-front of the other. That is hard work, being persistent toward a goal, not anything extraordinary.
Many people compliment me on my physique, but they follow it with an excuse about why they cannot do it. They usually mention how busy they are or how expensive it is or they don’t know how. One of these conversations was in the lunch room where the person was eating fast food and I was eating my beans and hard boiled eggs (really expensive health food).
That individual was not willing to put in the work to get in shape where every day I was eating something that was going to help me reach my goal. I was not doing anything special but putting one foot in front of the other.
Anybody can exert a lot of energy one time, but the hard work is the small incremental steps over and over.
You should join the hard Work Network, not because you have some extraordinary goal but because you have a goal and you are willing to put one foot in front of the other every day to reach it.
When we got married, I first tried to get Andrea to go along with the Dave Ramsey plan. She was ready to stop being a college student and spend the money she worked so hard to earn. I had been paying down debt while I was waiting to get married so I was not on board with going further into debt.
I tried to push her to start paying off debt but we had to buy a house and all the furnishings that go with it. She did not like my plan.
We had a lot of debt from school and from our wedding (on credit cards) and we were saving to buy a bedroom set. Then her transmission went out. We had to spend all the saved money on replacing her transmission. She was so upset and we even fought a little (I was yelled at for not being upset enough).
When things calmed down a bit I said something along the lines of “I wish we had an emergency fund for this, then it wouldn’t be such a big deal”. My goal was to plant the seed in the fertile ground of her mind. I know it was a little manipulative but from that day on she started picking up momentum to get out of debt.
Now she lives being out of debt and is always telling her coworkers about it and how to do it.
So I learned to begin planing seeds of ideas in her head way in the future of when I want to take action on something.
I know I keep changing what I am doing with the blog but oh well, it is my blog.
Have you ever wanted to get your spouse to go along with an idea but could not get them to come along?
A thought keeps popping in my head about one spouse trying to get another spouse to go along with an idea. For instance I have wanted to start a business for a long time and whenever I bring it up to Andrea she gets uncomfortable thus I have needed to figure out how to get her on board.
I have found many spouses are trying to do something similar.
I am going to share my story of trying to get Andrea to go along with starting a business and everything I learn from this. The benefit I get from this is that I will be more accountable to making money in this business and maybe what I learn can help you.
This series will not be scheduled and it will come out when I have something to share.
Let me know what you think.
Photo Credit: ewen and donabel
To be a superhero is to be a vigilante. All vigilantes fight tirelessly to correct the wrongs in the world. They are not PC and they are willing to get hurt and dirty fighting for what is right. They know not going to be easy.
Are you willing to be a vigilante for your cause? Are you willing to fight for what you feel is right?
I don’t mean that you should beat up bad guys (I will not dissuade you if that is what you want), but are you willing to fight to get out of debt, to be a part of your teenager’s life, to build that business that everybody tells you will fail?
One of the ways I am a vigilante is by offering encouragement anywhere I can. When you are surrounded by naysayers I fight to tell you that you can do it. Whenever someone makes a stupid statement which they have no basis I am willing to argue it with them to keep them from spreading their negativity around me and my friends.
What are you going to fight for?
Photo Credit: Roger Iles
We all have superpowers, but some of us never learn to use them. I am constantly learning how to use my superpowers (which is one of my superpowers) better and I am taking action to increase my superpowers. Maybe you should consider some of these activities to help improve your superpowers.
Schedule time to focus on using your superpowers. You have to make this time sacred, and focus on the superpower only; no distraction. It is like working a muscle; the more you use it the better it gets.
For me, this consists of sitting for about 30 minutes every day and just letting my mind wander. I also will take walks, especially in nature (it is my Fortress of Solitude). In either of these situations I don’t have my iPod, or anybody else around except maybe when I am walking my dog. Sometimes I think of nothing and sometimes I solve a problem. I just let it go on its own without forcing it to think of something specific. This is awesome for re-energizing my brain and solving hard problems.
Another way I increase my superpowers is by eliminating the distraction. I have many systems for doing this. One of my systems is for recording my ideas as they come (idea creation is another superpower) so I do not use up my brain power with trying to remember them. Remember that your superhero brain is not great at remembering but it is awesome at creating.
What tips do you have for increasing your superpowers?
If you want to be a gift giving superhero, you need to do it right.
We have made gift giving a very difficult thing in our culture. We make it into a contest and with a pop quiz at the end (did everybody get enough stuff, did someone get less than someone else, is everybody happy with what they got,do they still like me, etc). We don’t enjoy the process, we make it a task list we have to complete (that is why there is fighting every Black Friday).
Gift giving should bring you joy, not a stress (finding and buying the gifts should also be a joy). The goal is to find a gift that will put a joyous look on the person’s face, and you get to enjoy providing that feeling. By the way, joy does not come from getting things.
As a gift receiver, you can add to the joy by giving a sincere thank you to the giver. Do not ruin the value of the gift by feeling the need to give something in return. Enjoy the gift for what it was, the giver trying to bring you joy. Don’t take that away from them.
Finally, if you find someone who feels they didn’t get enough or they deserve something else then don’t get them anything, you cannot make them happy.
This is my buddy Jeremy. He is a true superhero for doing this.
One of the most fun times I have had was giving a gift to a forgotten angel (click here). You probably know the angel trees; a forgotten angel is an angel on the tree that does not get picked. Please visit the site (http://angelskc.org/) and see if you can help. It is a blast going to the toy store for a kid you don’t know and finding something they will love.
If you are not local to KC you probably have forgotten angels in your area. If you want to start something in your area send me an email and I will explain how you can help.
