Okay, guys, I’m really excited to talk about this today. Like I said, I’m a career sales guy. I have long suffered with, what I refer to as, sales guy ADD. It’s a kind of go after the next one. Well, I recently was talking with a friend of mine and we quantified all of that and put it together in, what I call, Shiny Object Syndrome. The video Up–great show, my kids love it. There’s a dog in there, and like suddenly it’s, “Squirrel.” He goes and keep chasing off after the squirrel. In my business, and in network marketing in general, I have a problem with this. It is an issue to get stuck in fighting on different things. You start thinking about other things that you need to do. You start visualizing and dreaming about the end process. Then the work sets in. There’s real work that needs to be done. It’s important to actually get through it, and actually get it done.
I want to talk a little bit about overcoming it. And, also, about what it is. When I started this process and this journey… I have a lot of grandiose ideas. I’m building 21st-Century Recruiting. I’m putting together different modules. In fact, you guys are going to help me with that as I build those out. I had one of my mentors who I listened to a lot of lately, hat tip, Steve Larsen. He said something today that just kind of blew my mind. He said, “Don’t create. Document and sell.” And so often, I think as marketers, we start to get worried too much about some of the details. We start to worry about, “Oh, well how will this look?” I’m still struggling with it. I spent time looking at microphones, to record. But, hey, you know what? This microphone is working great, so, maybe, I don’t need to stress about some of those details so much.
One of the things that I’ve found over time is that if I can focus in on a specific set of tasks, the GSD List, as I’ll call it, Gets Stuff Done. Those are times when I actually get the most done. Here in my office, I have my whole computer set up. I’ll have to share a picture with it on our and our Facebook group–that’s facebook.com/mlmdonedifferent–but I’ll share a picture of what my office looks like, because it’s pretty ridiculous. I’ve got three computer monitors plus a laptop. I’ve got my dream board up where I can see it all the time. I’ve got a off to either side of my computer monitors. I’ve got whiteboards; they’ve got a bunch of information. They’re trying to keep me engaged and keep me on the right path. And, then, off to the side here, I’ve got a map of all the major league ballparks. You guys will learn this about me. I love baseball. It’s not baseball season right now, but I love baseball and actually visiting baseball parks. I have a map of all the different ones that I visited and the ones that I want to visit. With all of this, again, there goes my shiny object. I get distracted. Well, when I have a GSD List, a to-do list to work from, I’m able to actually get more done.
This also comes about with as I work in my network marketing business, I have, what I call, a Project 1000 Checklist. I’m actually going to make this available for everybody, as well. I need to tweak it a little bit, because it is specific for my network marketing opportunity, and I want to make it more general for everybody else. My Project 1000 is to get my team to making $1,000 a month; that’s the first step. The faster that they’re able to get to that level, the more likely they are to engage and stay much longer term. I mean, $1,000 a month becomes a real side income at that point. I have the Project 1000 Checklist that I can use each and every day to help keep me on track. The Project 1000 Checklist had a lot of different pieces to it. I use social media heavily in my business, and so it’s got pieces of that. I spend a lot of time pondering mentally. I spend a lot of time thinking and visualizing about my goals and my dreams, because if you can see it in your mind, you’ll be able to see it in reality. And so, I spent a lot of time on personal development.
I’ve found in my career here that the more time I spend on personal development, the better I become. I talk about this reaching for a peak. I set my sights on climbing a mountain or, in this case, a particular goal. At the moment that I set out, I am not qualified to be on that mountaintop yet, and I am not qualified to actually be there, but the qualification happens in the process. The qualification happens as I move forward and as I keep taking one step in front of the other. I become qualified for that goal. And, as with shiny objects, I’m always trying to get to that next goal. The more that I can focus, the more that I can meditate and visualize the things that I need to see, the less Shiny Object Syndrome I suffer from.
That’s been a huge, huge revelation for me because if I can focus in visualizing goals. We’re going to talk, in fact, I think the next episode is going to be about my 2019 goals. One of the best ways that I’ve found to achieve my goals is to make them public for other people, because then other people hold me accountable and mock me when I don’t make them. And I hate to be mocked, so I want to put them out there for you guys. I’m going to share those, and some of the ways that I go about goal setting, but when I set these goals, when I’m moving forward knocking those things off, that’s how I’m able to avoid the Shiny Object Syndrome.
Now, I’ve talked about it a little bit before, but one of my goals for 2018 was to read 52 books. That’s a book a week. I have finished number 51, and I will have number 52 done by the end of the year. I’m really excited about it. I’m actually going to share a reading list of the books that I read so that you guys can check some of those out, as well. Some of them are personal development, some of them are actually fairly network marketing specific focused and others are… I read a couple of novels throughout the year. I have a few fiction authors that I read everything that they put out and I have to read them. And so, I do that because that’s enjoyment for me. Honestly, for me, a book is a movie for my mind, so I might as well just go to the movie theater or I can read a book. The book is always a better story because it can tell it more detail, but that’s part of my goal. In 2019, I’m going to have a different reading goal that I’m looking forward to, as well.
Shiny objects in our lives can take over. We can get stuck mired in the preparation and never actually get to the game. Like, my son is on a travel baseball team and my daughter’s on a traveling cheer squad. They practice a lot, but they practice for a game. Allen Iverson is a basketball player. A few years ago, he did a press conference, and he had gotten fined because he didn’t show up for practice. He’s like, “Practice. We talking about practice?” Basically, what he was saying is like, “Look, I show up for the game, like the game is what counts.” Games, or in this case actually building your business, getting away from just the practice. The application of that practice is where it becomes more and more important to avoid those shiny objects.
As you practice, as you’re doing your personal development, as you’re actually listening to podcasts, like mine or like some of the other network marketing focused podcasts that are out there, I want you to focus in on what is important for you to learn from it. Because if you can break it down to that base parts, you’re not going to get distracted. Think about the goal that you’re trying to set out and put blinders on and go attack that peak. One of the guys that I love to read, his name is Benjamin Hardy. He came out with a blog. He is one of the most read bloggers on medium.com. If you haven’t checked him out, I highly encourage it. There’s no affiliate link here. Just go check out Benjamin Hardy. The guy is a stud. He actually came out with a book called Willpower Doesn’t Work, and it was a fantastic read. I highly recommend that; in fact, that was one of the 52 this year.
On his blog, he wrote this 8 Things Every Person Should Do Before 8:00 A.M. Now, getting up and getting going is hard sometimes. The bed is warm in the morning. Doing these eight things is really, really important. I recommend that you go and find this blog. I keep wanting to call it a podcast. It’s a podcast in print form. There are eight things. I’m going to hit them really quickly, but they go into much more detail.
Ø Wake up. Actually wake up in the morning. Get up early.
Ø Get confidence and motivation. Confidence comes from completing an action.
You can actually get confidence by rolling out of bed. One of the books I just finished was The 5 Second Rule by Mel Robbins. Fantastic. Highly, highly recommended for anybody who cares about their life. They should read that book. But one of those things is she takes five seconds, :05, :04, :03, :02, :01. Go. She got the idea from watching a space shuttle launch from like Cape Canaveral. :05, :04, :03, :02, :01. Blast off, and she goes, and that helps her get out of work and get out of bed in the morning. It helps her do hard things, things that are painful. One of my early sponsors in network marketing has a Facebook following, and he actually posted something today about embracing the struggle, and I commented on it. I said, “Embrace the suck is one of the best pieces of advice I ever received,” and it totally is, because the more that you can embrace that and just get to it, the better.
Ø Get inspired and connected. Read something uplifting. Get connected with your role.
Ø Get your body moving. Do some exercise.
My wife and I are big fans of Orangetheory Fitness. If you haven’t been, go. It’ll change your life. Where else can I burn 800 or 900 calories in an hour, and then keep burning for the next 24 to 36 hours. It’s amazing.
Ø Act courageously–this goes back to The 5 Second Rule–do things that are hard. Be Courageous when you act courageously, that just increases your confidence.
Ø Create something.
That something can be as simple as a journal entry, that can be as simple as a podcast episode. That can be as simple as a blog entry, whatever it is, create something. Because when you create something, your mind is working, and it’s working for you.
Ø Put a little energy into your key relationships.
Now, when you say a little energy, put the appropriate amount of energy. Spending time with my wife and kids is one of my favorite things to do. And sometimes I get so caught up in work and in growing my business that I forget that. Let’s be honest for a minute. Vulnerable minute for me here. This is hard. My wife is my absolute best friend in the entire world. No, like bar none, nobody else. There’s nobody that I would rather spend time with, and sometimes I need reminding of that. When you can spend time on your relationships, those will grow and flourish, and you will get more joy out of life. In the end, I firmly believe that “men are, that they might have joy”; that’s a scripture. You can look it up.
“Men are, that they might have joy,” this time of year is really wonderful for that. Christmas was a just a couple of days ago. I love the Christmas season. We actually had a fairly tone down Christmas this year. It was wonderful, and you know what? Our kids didn’t need all the junk and all the extra crap. They looked forward to what they were giving to their siblings. That was the neatest thing. As my 12-year-old daughter, she went and spent her own money and bought things for the whole entire family or made things for the whole entire family. It gives a combination of both with her. She absolutely just had the joy of the Christmas season. It was so awesome to see and engaging with family members allows her to do that. That was really special. I was really pleased with her learning as she did that.
So go out there, do some good in the world, help those around you. It will only make you a better person. Stop getting distracted by shiny objects. Stop getting distracted from what’s going to make you happy. Don’t give up what you want most for what you want right now. That is probably one of the best pieces of advice I’ve ever heard. It gives you the correct destination for anything that you’re doing. Don’t ever let go of what you want most because it’s hard. Embrace the suck. Embrace the challenge of getting there and you will be qualified through the journey and through the process of achieving that goal. You guys, I want you all to have a happy New Year. I’m going to be doing a podcast around goal setting that should probably drop it by New Year’s Eve. Hold me to it. I’m excited to share it with you. You guys have a great and a happy, happy New Year.
Hey, thanks for listening, and please remember to subscribe and leave feedback. If you’d like some free training for your team, go to podcast.MLMRenegade.com and get your free 21st-Century Recruiting Kickstarter.