When I was single, I partied hard, drank too much and was for the most part dangerous, undisciplined and impulsive. I blamed it on being a “creative type.”
After getting married, sobering up and having a family, everything came together for the better. Much better.
But deep down, I knew:
Something about the way I operated was fundamentally broken.
I believed a few lies.
LIE: You need a plan of execution.
TRUTH: “Everyone has a plan until they get punched in the mouth” – Mike Tyson.
Plans can and will get in the way of getting things done. A plan can be just a sweet-smelling form of procrastination. Success lies in taking the bold next step, not in the fruitless mapping of shifting terrain.
My own truth became: “Ready, shoot, aim.” Plans are never perfect. Far from it. Action, movement and working with everything you have at your avail right now, is far more valuable.
LIE: Get as much done each day as possible.
TRUTH: Execute no less OR MORE than you what’s on your daily action list. The important thing is to execute 100% of the actions you commit to. Execution is a game played at two levels: the visible work you achieve on the surface, and the invisible work you do beneath… proving to yourself that you can be relied upon.
LIE: Take as much time for your project as “excellence” demands.
TRUTH: Excellence is relative, and is always in the eye of the check book holder. As such, it is not an effective tool. Let the DEADLINE determine the level of excellence, not the other way around.
LIE: The best work comes when it’s ready. The ‘muse” will show up, so don’t try to force it.
TRUTH: It takes tremendous effort to get the boulder moving, but almost none to keep it rolling down the mountainside. The most productive people have “boring” routines that keep the boulder in motion. The muse needs to always be getting poked at, pushed and kicked in the balls.
LIE : The greater your esteem for your work, the greater your execution.
TRUTH: You must think LESS of your work, not more. Stop treating your work like some fragile, once-in-a-lifetime jewel. It’s just meat on the board: trim it, cut it, send it out the door.
LIE: You don’t execute because you feel like crap.
TRUTH: You feel like crap because you don’t execute. Stop wasting breath on BS excuses and lame rational. The only reason you’re not executing is THAT YOU’RE NOT EXECUTING. It’s that simple.
If you KNOW what you’re capable of but struggle to make it manifest…
If you’ve been told your whole life you have “so much potential” but STILL have zip to show for it…
If your production is slow and tortuous… your successes brilliant, but few and far between, with no apparent way to further or recreate them…
I FEEL YOUR FRUSTRATION COMPLETELY, because this was my life, too… until circumstances forced me down a different path. My story.
Robert N. Provencher – Your Master Coach Marketer
“If you want to be a profitable and successful photographer, then study profitable and successful photographers.”
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