Let go and grow

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The middle is a horrible place to be and I’m in it. It’s packed with the majority and the mediocre. It’s a safe place but it’s only a place where things die. 

The thoughts of people who live in this place are destructive.

The stuff about fitting in with everyone else, not standing out. Nonsense. 

Those who are more concerned about pleasing other people than pleasing themselves. Living in fear of the consequences of other people not liking them. Enough already.

The ones who let people get under their skin, never stand up for themselves and complain to everyone who’ll listen how bad they’ve been treated feel good here.

This isn’t a place I want to be.

Cutting ties with this place is my next step. The emotional drain of those who spend their lives in this place is bearing down on me and affecting my thinking, my progress.

Thoughts are at the root of everything we do so I know what I have to do next. There’s a sense of relief even writing these words, but the hard part comes next – acting on it.

Let’s see where that leads.

Realistic expectations are crucial

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The excitement that builds at the start of any new project can be infectious. The idea sparks something in our minds that opens up new possibilities and lines of research. We get into action.

As time goes by and we get down to work, the size of the task can become clearer than it did at the start of the process. And, at this point, it can pay to take a step back.

Are expectations and reality lined up?

Bite off more than you can chew and the outcome can end up being destructive for all involved. You miss deadlines, targets get further away, your mood changes as things get real and you start to beat yourself up for falling behind.

Is your ego taking you on this new journey? I wanted to run a marathon for my 48th birthday with three weeks training (dumb idea for anyone at any age) and, on reflection, I wanted to prove to my ego that I’ve still got it – and I clearly haven’t as one training run has left me on the sidelines for two weeks and counting. 

The reasons why you’re not getting things done to take you towards this new goal can be resistance. This is something we all face and it shows up when there is something real at stake, so, in some cases, this is a sign that we have to dig deeper. 

But once we weigh all this stuff up and set realistic expectations, the energy keeps flowing through us as we work towards the goal and the chances of success increase.

What would I do if I was a retailer today

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The post-coronavirus world is starting to take shape. Here in Australia, shops are reopening and cafes and bars are now allowing 50 people inside. There is still the danger of a resurgence of the virus but we have no incoming travellers without a quarantine period and this seems to be doing its job well.

Retailers have been hit hard these last ten weeks. Here are a few of my ideas for them to boost their businesses and use free online platforms and tools to get it done. 

The steps for retailers in the post-Corona world

Firstly, their Social Media profiles need to be put to work. Posts should be daily with offers for new customers and special offers for existing customers. All profiles should be checked over to make sure contact details and ‘about’ sections are up to date and on point.

Facebook Messenger is the ideal way to deliver offers online with high engagement levels – 80% open and 40% click-through rates – and I would be working to build my own chatbot to automate customer service as a minimum.

I would hire a comedic writer to create funny blog posts with a true sense of humour to increase the attention on my posts. Two funny posts on top of the offers content would work well. The funny writing should also be used to email my existing customers once a week to keep them engaged and updated.

I would use Instagram/Facebook Stories and TikTok to create video content every day. All of the attention is on video right now and I would use it to attract new followers and highlight the daily offer.

Every Saturday and Sunday would be ‘bring a friend’ day and there would be a voucher for everyone who turns up for them to use on another visit based on liking the Facebook page and subscribing to the chatbot.

And finally, I would say my prayers every night and be thankful that I’m still in business while many have already gone.

Become an ideas machine

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Credit for this post goes to James Altucher. I’ve been tuning into his daily Instagram Lives with his wife during lockdown in NYC (they’ve been a rich source of ideas in themselves) and his number one tip that has worked so well for him through the years is this one.

Become an ideas machine

Take a notebook and aim every day to come up with 10 new ideas. Make them specific and put the brain muscle to work.

Choose a business you’re connected to and work out 10 ways they could improve, for example. It’s a great way to start a conversation. I did this last week for a client of ours – I sent the list over to them and it was a real success.

Or you could make a list of 10 ideas for a friend of yours who’s struggling with something in their life. It could be a simple playlist to brighten their mood or a list of courses online they could do for free to learn a new skill.

Whatever you choose to do, do it every day and your brain will adapt and start spewing out so many ideas you’ll need a pile of notepads. Give it a try and see where it can take you.

Add systems to increase efficiency

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The more systems I have in place, the better everything is for me. I have a long list of jobs to do most days and I feel demoralised if I don’t get the majority of things ticked off. There’s a regular daily battle between order and chaos in my life and anything I can do to help order win is always a good thing.

Systems and processes make the difference.

My mind works in a lateral, logical way so if I can stay focussed on a task for long enough I’ll always complete it. 

If a disruption happens – the phone goes off, incoming messages ding (I send a lot of direct messages to people every day) or I’m drawn to my inbox – it can be the equivalent of slipping on a banana skin – there’s no going back once you start falling.

If I can reduce the number of decisions I have to make every day, I can increase my outputs and efficiency. Time spent deciding what to have lunch, what to wear, and what job to do first may seem trivial but it adds up and if I don’t have these decisions to make when I sit at my desk, my brain avoids the banana skins. 

Something as simple as knowing what I’m going to wear the next day and eating the same things for breakfast and lunch most days makes a big difference to the flow of the day and the number of things I get done.

Simplicity is also important. Avoiding complexity makes every day run more smoothly and I work really hard at this. I try to avoid complex travel plans where possible and if I have to travel somewhere different I spend time creating a detailed plan with a couple of alternatives to keep the stress levels low. 

What systems and processes do you use to stay on track?

Why do many charities struggle?

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A quick conversation with a good friend last night (thanks N as always) triggered some thoughts on this question. There are a huge pile of charities out there doing amazing things in our communities every day but they struggle to grow and thrive.

Why do many charities struggle?

I’ve worked with a few charities and third sector organisations over the years and the problems they face seem to be very similar. 

Leadership – those in positions of authority can lack the basic commercial skills necessary to run a successful business. They get their job because they impressed the board with their passion or have some form of political clout but their skills for the job can be lacking. 

Investing to grow – budgets are managed in such a way that everything is done on a shoestring. My friend gave a fabulous example where a charity was able to raise millions of dollars from an event but they had to spend a million to make multiples on each dollar. If an event for a charity costs 50,000 and makes 200,000, people tend to see that as a success. Why not spend more and set bigger goals?

Ego – this one can get in the way of change and really slow things down. A leader in an organisation who’s been there a while and runs the show ‘their way’ can be extremely slow to consider change, even when the organisation desperately needs new thinking. I’ve seen examples where they have so much power that they’ve created a culture of ‘agree with me and do as I say or leave’ in a charity. Nothing stifles growth more than this.

The best charities bring in the brightest minds from the private sector and put them to work. It can be purely pro bono and cost-neutral, but it has to be supported by leadership who want their organisations to survive and thrive. 

I’m always on the lookout for these kinds of organisations and know others who feel the same way. Please let me know if any come to mind.

Write for one person

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The phrase, “Everyone’s a potential client”, was quoted to me last week and I immediately replied, “To those who don’t know how to sell”. All the evidence I have at my disposal from a few years of sales is that you can’t sell successfully to everyone, even if you think it’s possible.

Write for one person

Writing to an audience of one makes your content so much clearer. Your messages don’t become a fog of phrases attempting to catch everyone’s eye. You start to write as if you’re in a conversation and the writing becomes more readable as a result.

If you get to know the person you’re writing to, you can also tailor your message to be as helpful to them as possible. If you know what they find hard and what they enjoy the most, you can serve their interests and immediately become more useful to them. 

I write my weekly emails to a person I’ll call ‘Malcolm’. He’s a small business owner and a solopreneur. He’s had a mixed background in both corporate life and the arts and the business he now runs is focussed on training people in a very particular skill. We’ve also done some work together, both as clients of the other.

When I write each email, I ask myself if this is something Malcolm would find useful. I also think back to the conversations we have had and aim to add to those conversations through each email. And when I add a sales message to the email or a call-to-action, I always consider if the offer is something Malcolm would find interesting.

Think about how this concept applies to you and the messages you send out. Who’s your Malcolm?

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

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We can always find reasons not to do something. It’s one of these things that comes to us more naturally than saying yes. A fear of what the commitment will mean takes over us and, even for a split second, we hunt for an excuse.

What’s the worst thing that can happen?

The fear that we feel is usually unfounded. The fear is only inside our minds because we are being asked to go outside of our comfort zone and make a commitment to something.

How many situations end up with you in the following situations? 

  • Exposed as being a criminal or dishonest publicly
  • Embarrassed by something you do or say and have people you love see you go down in flames
  • Naked on live TV

“Err, not many” would be my reply. Not if you’re a decent person with a basic set of morals and no connection to any TV producers who enjoy asking their friends to get naked!

There’s so much to be gained from saying ‘yes’ more often. I struggle with this area myself through a lifetime of being highly cynical and critical of others, but I make an effort now to get more involved in groups and take on new responsibilities.

If we say yes more, the fear starts to go away. We meet new people and good things happen. It becomes clear that the bad things we thought would happen are nothing more than mind games. 

Give it a try this week. Anything that crops up and the call comes out for help or volunteers, override that instant reaction to block it and say yes instead. What happens could actually be great.

Attitude and our responses

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The way we respond to things that happen around us every day is the main reason for the way things turn out.

If we get angry at the queue in the coffee shop, that queue is rarely going to speed up. If we can accept it, chances are that it will disappear quickly.

If our partner gets angry at us and we get angry in response, nothing good is going to happen next (except for a full blown fight). If we take a second to listen to what they’re saying before responding angrily, there may be a chance we can work it all out.

If a job we interviewed for goes to another candidate, we’re going to be frustrated. But if we then blame the bus driver for making us 2 minutes late (the only reason we were passed over) without holding up our hand and realising this was our mistake, we’re not going to see much change for the better.

The fact is that it’s all on us. Our attitude and our responses to situations lead directly to the outcome of that situation. 

Keep a good attitude and good things will happen. Let anger take over and blame everything and everyone around you rather than looking at yourself and things will stay the same.

Order or chaos?

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Everyone prefers a sense of order in their life rather than chaos – generally lower levels of anxiety, better outcomes to projects, work delivered on time, etc – but how many of us actually achieve that state?

How many days start the right way with goals being met and tasks ticked off to-do lists but then go off-track faster than a downhill ski racer taking a tumble at top speed?

It might be the phone notification for a new message, an unplanned inbound call, or some web research that opens up the slippery slope of the internet.

Whatever form a distraction takes, it becomes difficult to get back to the task you were working on once it hits. Your brain reacts well to being focussed and taking deliberate steps as part of your plan, but it loves the distraction even more. 

You then have to make a decision to get back on track – one that would not have had to happen if you’d avoided the distraction in the first place. 

And it’s in the removal of decisions as we go through each day that lies, to me, the secret of achieving a better order/chaos balance. 

I plan the parts of the day that need focussed work and avoid decisions in these slots in oder to deliver my best. 

The fewer decisions I have to make, the higher the likelihood I’ll achieve more in the time I have available. 

If I have order to the way I work – processes in place, systems to work to, proper scheduling and a set of really simple rules to follow – chaos is off the table. This way, everything continues to move forward and this is always the goal.

How ‘good’ is your network?

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When talking about networks and networking, it can be understood as a very general term. Our family networks, small or large, are as valid in a discussion as our wider business connections. 

‘Good’ is too broad a term to use, so I’m going to replace it with ‘effective’ – successful in producing a desired or intended result (from the dictionary).

A couple of ways of determining the answer here is to look at its strength and value:

  • Does it help you to answer important questions in your life and work? 
  • Is it a group of guys or gals you meet at the bar or coffee shop and hang out with weekly? 
  • Does being a part of it make you a better person? 
  • Is it somewhere you have fun and meet new people?
  • Does it make you money?

I think an effective network has to have a mixture of these things going on within it. 

Not all networks make money and some of them would never fall into this category directly, but there could be cases where a network can bring up a conversation that leads to a meeting or sale further on down the road.

The informal meetups with your friends can also be strong and supportive networks. Sometimes a chat with a trusted friend makes all the difference if you have a difficult decision to make.

It all takes an investment of time and effort (all the good stuff needs both these things). Even if it’s only making a couple of calls and being the organiser to get a few folks together every now and again, it’s worthwhile.

I’m a member of a couple of formal networks where we pay membership fees and attend regular events. These networks are great because everyone involved is well and truly committed to being a part of it and puts in effort to make sure they get value for the fees they are paying.

But being part of a sports team or a club, a yoga studio community, a book club or a music group can have the same effect. 

The bottom line, for me, is that you get out of it what you put into it. And the same applies to online communities, too… but I’ll save this discussion for another day.

Share your best stuff

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There is fear around when it comes to sharing your ’secrets’. The stuff you do that gets results. The best stuff you have to offer. 

I often hear from clients, “oh, there’s no way we can put that out there.”

My reply is always a challenge to this. 

It comes down to time. 

I’ve spent four years now creating content about my subject, Social Media. If someone took the time to watch my hundreds of videos on Facebook and YouTube, my daily LinkedIn posts and articles, and signed up for my weekly-ish email, they wouldn’t need to work with me because everything I know is in this content.

It’s all out there because I want potential clients to see the best from me.

The tips I’ve shared, the advice I’ve given and the stories I’ve told about experiences with clients is out there and it’s all free. 

And the reason why it doesn’t cause me any problems is that my work is saving my clients that magic ingredient we all have not enough of – time.

The content is giving people a taste and I want this taste to be something they want more of. 

I want them to get a practical tip, work on it themselves and get success from it. I’m then ‘top-of-mind’ as the person that helped them out and solved a problem for them. 

And when they want more help, the chances of them coming to me are much, much greater. 

They don’t have time to do it themselves and the work we do saves them lots of it. They also don’t have time to review everything that’s out there already from me. 

When they see a post and it’s something really helpful and useful, rather than something I’ve just dialled in to make sure I’m showing up, it will be remembered. 

And then when they need more, they’ll pick up the phone.

Play the long game

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The news headlines showcasing Trump’s latest tweet or the acquisition of another firm by Facebook can take us away from the reality of Social Media for brands everywhere – it’s all about people and it takes time to make real connections.

When I talk to business owners they often want to know how to use Social Media platforms to get maximum attention on their brand in the shortest time possible. 

They’re looking for their revenue to rise off the back of a couple of quickly written posts with a magical call-to-action in the final paragraph.

Yet we all can agree it’s true that a conversation is where you get to know someone better, and you won’t get to know anyone at all unless you have a conversation with them in the first place.

That’s why my answer to them is that they have to see Social Media as a long game. 

It’s a game that involves as many conversations with your connections online as possible in order to build trust in your brand before generating sales. 

This not only answers their question, it also embeds the true sense of what Social Media is all about – making connections with real people at scale over time, creating trust in the brand and building a loyal base of followers who buy your products and services.

Our job is to do this for our clients every day. And, if you’re marketing for a brand, it’s your job, too.

What I want a Social Media Expert to know and do in 2020

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Here’s a list that could work well as a checklist when looking to hire someone to help with Social Media for your business. 

There are a lot of people offering Social Media services because it’s a ‘hot’ sector right now. 

Businesses that traditionally don’t play in this space – web and graphic designers, for example – are adding it to their list of things they can do to help you, but beware.

Some are amazing and have tremendous skills and experience, but there are a vast number who should be avoided at all costs.

Here’s the list:

  • Their own Social Media profiles are excellent examples.
  • They show up frequently creating helpful, informative content.
  • They are not ‘post and disappear’ merchants – they engage online and do it all the time.
  • They are on the main platforms – Facebook, Instagram, Twitter (yes, Twitter), LinkedIn and YouTube – and have live platforms with content posted in the last few days.
  • They do the work themselves rather than offshoring it to keep the costs down.
  • They have decent numbers of followers because they have been online and creating content for a long time. 
  • They use a mix of content – writing, video, audio and images.
  • They have excellent testimonials and recommendations (Facebook, LinkedIn and Google especially)
  • They value their skills and charge appropriately. (If prices seem cheap, the services usually are, too.)
  • They don’t claim to know ‘everything’ on any specific subject.
  • They can help to identify ideal clients and position brands the right way.
  • They know the difference between a blog and a website. 
  • They know how to listen online and spot key trends.
  • They understand how to interpret data and use it to improve results, especially on websites and working with written copy.
  • They have basic how-to knowledge as well as strategic ability.
  • They’re not afraid to make public predictions about where Social Media is going.

I’m sure there are more things but this is a good plcae to start.

Please use this list as a guide and add to it wherever you like. Also, let me know where you think I may be wrong and leave a comment. Thank you!

Not all content has equal value

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I spent half my Saturday at a workshop yesterday. I won the ticket in a raffle so I showed up with an open mind and plenty of space in my notebook. 

The alarm bells started ringing after 30 minutes when we were hit with the first sales pitch. 

Our own introductions were given 5 minutes each, maximum (there were five of us attending). The person running the session then spent the next 30-40 minutes telling us part one of her own story.

Part one!

And so it continued. It was a 3.5 hour sales pitch. I took a few things from the session, especially towards the end, but most of it was filled with the sound of our presenter’s voice.

Which brings me to the title of this post. The labels you put onto your content and the experience you give to people who take time out of their weekend (my weekends are precious and not to be messed with – can you tell this??) has to do what it says on the tin as an absolute minimum.

The content in this one could have been delivered in under an hour as a webinar. Throw in some Q&A plus a (brief, interesting) sales pitch, promo or offer and I would have been content. 

Instead, it left me with a couple of uncomfortable feelings. 

Firstly, that I’d been sold to. For a long time during the weekend. My precious weekend. No-one likes this feeling, ever. 

Second, it made me highly unlikely to refer someone to this event as it didn’t live up to the billing of a workshop. I spoke twice, maybe 15 minutes total in 3.5 hours. The definition of a workshop is “a meeting at which a group of people engage in intensive discussion and activity on a particular subject or project”. This was not a workshop, it was a seminar/webinar.

Thirdly, I genuinely like the person who ran the session and know she can do so much better. I want the best for my contacts and connections. I want them to thrive and grow. This session could have been amazing but it wasn’t. 

Time to write my feedback email….

What are you measuring?

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I never used to measure anything and loved living in the land of always being ‘nearly there’. 

No matter what I was working towards, I was never that far away from completing it and the end was always in sight.

Until it wasn’t and the target was missed.

On a diet? Yeah, those pounds are coming off. How much have you lost this week? Oh, I think I had salads on Tuesday and Wednesday so I’m definitely going to be lighter…

Training for that marathon? It’s going brilliantly. How many miles have you done this month? Ahh, I reckon I could have run three this week already…

And when it came to business, I would always let my bank balance and the accountant give me the good or bad news. The day of that meeting was always high anxiety.

And then I started measuring. I really went for it. 

I track as much as possibly can to make sure I’m heading towards my goals and it’s made a massive difference. 

I can see clearly when I’m on track and improving. I can see the areas where I’m falling behind. And, most importantly, I can see the pieces of the puzzle that are missing as I work towards a specific target every day. 

One of my metrics is all about meetings with contacts and connections. I would happily sit at my desk all day and meet as few people as possible but I know this is no way to grow a business and build a network. So I track the numbers of meetings I have through each week.

And the fun starts when I watch how much new business I close as the number of meetings I take each week increases. 

It’s a clear and simple feedback loop that tells me that I’m heading in the right direction.

Measuring makes it clear what works and what doesn’t. I know what needs to change. I know what I can improve on.

In the areas that matter the most to you, this process can be invaluable. If you’re looking for work, for example, knowing that you have hit your target of five new applications every day will give you confidence that it’s only a matter of time until the phone starts ringing with offers.

Measure and track progress. Obsess on it.

It’s a step on the path to success, no matter what goals you have. 

Mix old and new school techniques

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When something shiny and new comes onto the scene, everyone wants a piece of it.

Marketers scream that it’s the next best thing, ready to solve all problems. Queues form outside stores and consumers set their watches to get their hands on it first (and then resell it on eBay ASAP….).

There’s a glow that comes from owning the latest whatever. Everyone wants to touch it, get hands-on and compare it to what they’ve got.

The same thing happens when new ways are discovered.

New techniques for PC gameplay, unlocking some previously unseen new level, are shared on the internet. Or it could be something as simple as a faster way to clean your room or do the washing up (I’d be first in the queue).

The old ways of doing things are put to one side while everyone tries the new way but, after a while, people start to gravitate back to the tried and trusted methods.

The glow fades. In a pinch, we revert to what we know and trust. 

The perfect spot for me is in the middle of both camps.

Stay open to the new stuff but don’t lose sight of what works and has worked for a long time. 

Be wary of the marketing messages covering up any flaws in the new ways. The old methods have stood the test of time and may not be ready for the trash can just yet. 

But also be willing and open to the positive changes that new ways can bring in. Staying stuck in the past can be as dangerous as jumping on every new trend as it arrives.

How fast does Social Media deliver results?

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I get asked a lot by clients about how long it will take for Social Media to ‘work’. In most cases, this is roughly translated as ‘how fast will it make me money?’.

The golden age of online influencers and cheap Facebook and Google ads are long gone. The days where you could buy a keyword on Google for pennies on the dollar and then run ads against it for days are also nothing but stories we tell ourselves as marketers to remind us of those halcyon days.

It’s a lot tougher today in a world where attention online is the holy grail and those who have it are extremely reluctant to give it up. 

Today It’s about making a wider set of strategies work. Engagement with potential customers one-to-one works well once trust is built and the rewards for this are huge if you can stick at it for long time periods. 

Let’s pick this last sentence apart a litte to make the point here…

Engagement

It rules the day online. ‘Post and disappear’ is so over and those still practicing social media this way are the ones to avoid. Have you ever sent an email to an info@ inbox and then never hear back? This is the ‘post and disappear’ crew at work in their natural habitat – set-and-forget.

One-to-one

This is the world of messaging apps. Facebook has its own, Messenger, and it’s a real killer for increasing open rates and click throughs, e.g. how effective your marketing is. LinkedIn, Instagram and everyone else also give us these tools to play with and this is the way we love to interact today as humans. Even Google has a messaging service for businesses to receive messages straight from customers in ‘search’ mode, so it’s now a must-have.

Trust

This is where the winners win big and the losers stick to leaving piles of leaflets in coffee shops and running small ads in newspapers and magazines nobody reads. Trust is built up over time and it comes through giving huge value to your audience in all of your content. If you can give your followers a practical tip that will help them make more money or save time, trust will come. We at Fit For Social spend all of our time doing this as a brand every single day for all of our clients.

Long time periods

Here’s the big ‘punch in the face’ for those who want quick returns with no real effort: it takes time and effort. In some cases, there is little reward or payoff directly attributable to your social media content for months and months. Miss out any of the pieces of the puzzle I’ve just broken down above and the clock will keep ticking. Audiences are testing brand promises made online every day and if your brand makes any it can’t keep or rushes too quickly to the sale, it’s a black mark. These black marks can also add up fast. The switch back to someone we already trust, or who’s engaged with us multiple times through Messenger or email with an offer or special deal, takes place in seconds.

It’s a long game. The stories of quick cash and big things happening in a matter of hours or days are definitely out there, but be wary of how much work has gone into it behind the scenes and how it can translate to a business like yours before you put it to the test. 

Those who understand what it takes are clear on this and are reaping the rewards after they’ve ticked all the right boxes for their customers over months and years. If you can adopt this mindset and are willing to knuckle down and do the work, your customers will thank you in all the ways you’re looking for when the time is right.

Solve your own problems

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I’ve spent a lot of time over the years wracking my brain for ideas. Money has been short and I’ve had to find something new to sell, or I’ve hit a brick wall on a particular project and it’s time to refresh, and so on.

The answer has normally come from within. As I’ve solved my own problems, it’s the answers that I’ve found along the way that have eventually become new services.

This hasn’t always been a steady linear sequence from idea to cash. It has taken years in a couple of cases for the idea to finally bear fruit. But the answers to my own questions have been helpful to a lot of other people, too.

The resources we have at our disposal today (the internet), it should never be a problem to find a new direction or solution, or so you might think. I disagree.

There is so much already out there and there is nothing new. Everything has been done before. The internet is full of the same solutions, styled to suit a different market or customer. So looking inside ourselves and solving our own problems is a good place to start.

Showing up is a huge part of any ‘process’

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A lot gets made of the ‘process’. It’s put out there to be some mystical way of achieving your goals in every aspect of life.

It’s the ‘Way’, the ‘Tao’ or whatever literal meaning you want to give to the things that happen to you as a result of your actions and energy being spent on something specific.

Those who master the process are said to have some claim to success or achievement on a grand scale. They’ve found the path to glory and riches, or whatever defines this title in their own lives.

They’ve done it. It’s all behind them now. High-fives all round!

I believe there is a process but we all have a different version of it. It’s something we control only through our thinking as this defines our actions and the results we get.

I also believe that the most crucial part of this whole process is the hardest of all – showing up.

The act of being present when it comes to the difficult and important things in life is never easy.

I get attacked by the dual forces of resistance and procrastination the minute I sit down to a task that fits this category.

I suddenly feel the need to do almost anything rather than get started. A raft of other jobs come to mind as more important.

Sometimes I end up doing them instead of the big one but this is rare. And it’s rare because I always tell myself I’ve got through the biggest hurdle – I’ve shown up.

This gives me the spirit to then go forwards with confidence.

I’ve got over that hurdle and it’s time for action. The spirits pop out of nowhere to guide me on my merry way because I’ve made a solid commitment and I’m ready for whatever comes next.

And then good things happen.

If you struggle to achieve what you know deep in your heart that you’re truly capable of, this simple step might be the bridge you need.

See if it works for you, too. It’s a good feeling to get to the other side…