Your Self-Talk Is Setting You Up For Failure. Here’s How To Turn It Around.
You won’t have to look far to see that across you’re life, you’ve been coming up with convincing stories. But how many of them are of your true design? And how many are taking you to where you want to go?
You’ve already got ‘Best Selling Author’ capabilities inside of you.
How can I be so sure?
Because humans are meaning-making beings.
And our minds are constantly in ‘author mode’, selling us convincing narratives to give meaning to our actions.
But only all of the time!
It’ll spin a convincing narrative to help justify every one of your decisions.
ANY decision.
Good or bad. It doesn’t care.
Example:
“I don’t need to run ads today.
It’s a bank holiday.
Go and get your chill on.
Just a few hours.”
Nothing necessarily wrong here. Seems rational. Seems fair.
Played out, here and there seems harmless.
But crack the door open just a bit and it’s more likely more of the door will open over time.
“100% is easier than 98%” — Clayton Christensen, former Harvard Business School professor
But there’s also a different thought and choice available to us at the same time.
Which leads to different outcomes completely.
“I need to run ads today.
It’s a bank holiday.
Go and get your work on.
Just a few hours.”
If you aim for mediocre actions, your mind won’t stop you.
Equally, if you aim for superior actions, it won’t stop you either.
Catch yourself as the mediocrity creeps in.
We are not our thoughts.
Choose to be better.
Here’s my 3 step formula for how I’m fighting my mediocrity as I prepare the pieces for my new brand launch.
1 — Have your key revenue-driving activity scheduled the day before.
No decisions to make. Just get up and go. If you’re doing long-term seed building like writing articles or social media posts, you’ll want longer blocks of time. But if you’re doing more short-term outbound stuff, I like to squeeze the time and run against a clock.
2 — Give yourself a little reward after hitting your target.
Gamify the process of doing what you said you’d do. Enjoy building up a streak. Use a tool like Heroic to see the numbers behind your consistency. Day after day. You won’t want the streaks to stop. After doing my work, my treat’s a black coffee and my Readwise highlights for the day. Funny how much our minds respond to rewards.
3 — Capture your stray mind with a pen and pad.
Distractions aren’t always external. Internal mind wandering is real. Jot down and ‘empty’ your mind any time a new thought pops up. Don’t act on it. Just collect it. A lot of it will be garbage. Some helpful. You get might one gem. Doesn’t matter. Return your focus.
What did I miss?
Would love to know how you guys are conquering your days and getting those small wins on the board.
