Focussing on the “Want To” Not the “How To”
ByI’ve had a complaint that, of late, my blog posts have been a bit boring. And if you’re not into the Ed Dale Challenge I can see why that would be. And, even if you are, I’ve not really made them personal. It’s been a bit a of a gallop through as I try to catch up, so I can see there’s not been much of interest.
And that makes me realise I’m trying to catch up so I can write about it on my blog because I’m being mentored by Ed and it’s his thing.
But is it my thing? That’s such an important question to ask yourself. Are your working at something because you want to or because you feel you “should”.
Truth be told, I’m not enjoying writing about the Challenge so far because most of it I’ve covered before and I’m only really interested in the new stuff, and that lack of interest is reflected in my writing. So, I will no longer write because I think I “should” and hopefully things will become interesting again.
While I’ve been busy boring readers with my Challenge renditions I’ve been avoiding writing about the more important stuff that I’ve been grappling with. To tell the truth I’ve been feeling a bit embarrassed about my lack of progress.
The “should” of writing about the Challenge is part of a bigger “should” connected with how I “do” my business. It’s been Ok reporting about my experiences of tackling CFT and the daily grind, as long as I was actually doing it.
I thought I could sustain hours of doing work I really did not enjoy because I was determined to create a successful internet business. But, it’s not working for me. I’m finding the end goal is not sufficient motivation to keep me in the grind.
So, what to do?
I could throw in the towel once and for all and feed the story that I will never be successful at this, or I can shift my focus.
One of the problems with living in the grind is you lose your creativity and things get to look a bit black and white, a bit either/or. It’s easy to get caught up in the details and the “how to” and before you know it you’ve lost touch with the “want to”.
If I change the question I ask from “can I do this?” to “do I want to do this?”, I find my answer is still “yes”.
So, I need to take a step back in order to gain some perspective and reconnect with what it is I really want to do.
As Michael Neill, a widely respected transformation coach says, “if you allow yourself to navigate by your own desire instead of what’s possible you’ll find so much more is possible than you currently think”.
So, I’m going to have a week of paying close attention to what I really want to be doing at any moment and experimenting with what happens when I do.
No related posts.
You mention that this is a Market Leadership site. In order for this to be a leadership site we need to look to you as our expert. A former sales manager of mine once gave me the perfect definition of an expert.
An expert is a home town boy away from home.
I learned a few things from this statement.
1.People you don’t know, don’t know what you don’t know
While my friends might laugh at the idea of me being an expert in a certain area, if I give people good information, they’ll think I know more than I actually do.
If we know a little more than the people we are teaching, we’re the expert.
2.It’s OK not to know everything or to be the best at everything. The best illustration of this is a joke I heard. A boy in third grade is telling his teacher that he wants to quit school. His teacher asks, “What would you do for a living after only completing third grade?” To which the boy responds “Teach second grade”
So while you’re asking yourself “Do I want to..?” add be a leader to that question. If yes, then share with us your successes. Tell us what you’ve tried and what worked and what didn’t work. Yes, show us the failed attempts but frame it as lessons so we don’t have to have the same failures.
I believe you have a lot you can teach us. I also think that if you started viewing this site as you coaching us, you’ll enjoy it more.
I wish you nothing but success.
HB
Very thought provoking comment herb!
One of those that will bubble away for a while I suspect.
“Do I want to be a leader?” Hmmm. Good question. Not sure I do want to. Not sure I want to be considered an expert either. But . . . “do I want to lead?” Now that seems like a whole ‘nother ball game . . . I want to support others to find their own expertise and be their own leaders. That’s what excites me!
So I’m hoping I’m leading by example as I find a way to do that for myself. Maybe that’s not enough. Maybe it has to be more deliberate. We shall see.
Gillian
Herb posted this quote on Twitter and it seems so apt for this conversation I just had to post it here too. Thanks to Herb for finding it!
“If your actions inspire others to dream more, learn more, do more and become more, you are a leader.”-John Quincy Adams
On that basis it seems I do want to be a leader after all.
Gillian
Gday Gillian
I found your blog from within The Challenge and was interested to see how things were going from you.
I am also doing other courses (4), plus the challenge. It seems to be that all the courses come out at one time and we want to learn as much as possible to “tie it all together” and keep up with the ‘pack”.
On reflection I think this causes HUGE overload, confusion and makes positive structured progress (CFT)almost impossible.
An example comes to mind of taking on a project of building a car from scratch and expecting to be able to teach road safety rules before we have even put a motor in the car. Or expecting to give expert advice on the special features that makes this car the “best choice” to buy because it had air bags, or why painting it red will make it go faster.. etc..
I keep hearing Ed say, one page..one job.
There are so many necessary and significant parts to online business.
BUT I keep going back to basics and trying to get the work done in order and leave the need to have the right “tire pressure” till the wheels are on.
While watching all the advancements online , that seem to happen faster and faster.
I still believe that good mentoring and “absolute” dedication to each task or project (one at a time) is essential.
This blog is great as it is an honest account of how it “really is” learning the tricks of the trade online.
Good luck with everything, I also think you will prosper and be very successful once find “your” particular niche and brand that truly fires you.
We are all “an expert” in some area of our life and once we tap into it, the work will disappear and the passion ignite.
To Our Success.
Cheers from Oz
AussieMitch
Gday to you to! Thank you SO much for taking the time to comment so fully. As you can see it’s been a while since I posted. I’m just catching up with comments now and will post an update shortly.
I’ve recently returned from a whirlwind trip to your homeland. It was wonderful. New Year’s Eve in Sydney should be on everyone’s “100 things to do before I die” list and Tasmania should be on the “100 places to visit” one.
I hope 2011 is the year you really settle into your groove with this Internet Marketing game.
As you say . . . to our success
Gillian
[...] Thank you to both of them. And thanks to Herb who’s comments on an earlier post – want to versus how to – which touched on market leadership, gave me much food for [...]