Fear is the path to the dark side. Fear leads to anger, anger leads to hate, hate leads to suffering. ―Yoda

In Star Wars movies and positive thinking manifestos, we are told to banish fear, anger, and other negative emotions in order to be successful. Modern American society has cast into us a belief that the most successful people are always positive, do not get angry, and live in some transient meditative state where everything is happy all the time . . .

What a load of crap.

In order to truly get what we want from life, we need to harness what we are told to avoid. We need to use the fear and anger that exists within us to empower us to get want we are seeking in life. You must, as Yoda warns you against, go to the dark side.

The Dark Side and Why It Will Motivate You

We are often told that we need to eliminate fear and do it anyway. Why is that? Because the last time I checked, fear keeps me from playing in traffic, avoids me from walking in front of loaded guns, and from trying to jump off of the top of buildings to see if I can avoid the ground. Fear is what has kept us alive as a society.

When you fear something, it makes you take the time you need to investigate if what you are doing is the right thing for you. I see too many people that are told to, “face your fear, but do it anyway,” and are now broke because they quit their jobs to follow the advice of a charismatic charlatan who convinced them to join a pyramid scheme.

Fear will protect you, but it can also motivate you to create a wonderful future for yourself. When you fear losing your job, being stuck with a company you hate or being in a damaging relationship, your fear can set you free on a path of discovering a way out of your situation.

As the Dark Jedi teach, your fear can set you free.

Fear Leads to Anger

As Yoda teaches, fear leads to anger, but is anger a bad thing? We are taught that we should be happy and not allow anger to rule our lives. But consider this, if it was not for anger, would we be seeing the changes we are seeing in Egypt, Libya, Tunisia, and other nations that were ruled by oppressive regimes?

The truth about anger is that anger can set you free. When you are angry, you do not give into the status quo. Anger motivates you to seek change in your life as well as society. Instead of sitting around focusing on your navel all day, you are motivated to get up and be the change that you want to see in the world. Your anger gets you moving.

In my personal experience, it is anger more than anything else that motivates me to action. Many of my best writings have come from being angry about something or at someone. The anger allows me to channel my energy into a page and my writing tends to be more inspired and have a greater voice.

What about you, are you motivated by anger to get things done?

Fear and anger are emotions that many people want us to avoid. I say that like the Dark Jedi, you should embrace your anger, give into your fear, and come to the dark side.

You might just find some insight that your anger and fear will set you free.

Do you agree or disagree with me?

Let me know in the comments, on Facebook, or Twitter.

The Dark Jedi Guide to Getting What You Want From Life is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. Are You Living Life On If . . . Then . . .
2. The Greatest Moment in Your Life
3. Stupid People Making Money

Have you been filled with a desire to lose weight, make a million dollars, or any other goal that can be easily solved (so I am told) by buying a book out of the self-help section of your local bookseller. Have you then been let down when that desire has not been fulfilled?

Are you then told that you failed because you weren’t visualizing hard enough, didn’t have the right attitude, or you didn’t hustle enough?

I have realized that most companies and people that sell personal development products and services have one problem that causes most people to fail.

My “light bulb” moment happened when I saw the Facebook status update from one of my speaking coaches, Craig Valentine:

Most personal development experts would say that the people that stopped going to the gym failed at accomplishing their New Years goals of getting healthy or losing weight because they lacked the will power, didn’t schedule it, or any other reason that puts the problem on the back of the person who failed to accomplish their goal.

Those personal development experts are wrong, and it leads us to the number one problem with the personal development industry:

The personal development industry puts the product before the process.

The Effect of Putting the Product before the Process

Take the gym as an example. Come January 1st, the gym is packed with people that want to get into shape. They have been sold on the fact that they need to stay healthy and the best way to do that is by going to the gym. So they go, they workout, and everything goes well for the first few weeks.

They lose some weight, they have more energy, and they might have made some new friends. Then it happens. They get busy, they lose interest, or they get sticker shock when they get their first bill. People stop going, cancel their membership, and go back to their pre-January routine. Then ten and a half months later the cycle repeats itself.

What does the gym do?

The same thing they did last year, convince people that they need to work out to get fit, give them a great rate, and watch them drop like flies after the first month. I am guessing that the owners of the gyms say the same thing, “I guess they didn’t really want to get in shape.” In thinking that way, the gym owners put the product before the process.

When you are putting the product before the process, you are putting the self interest of the person selling the product ahead of the person using the product. Since it has worked for you and maybe a few other people, you assume that it is everyone’s best interest to do what you do in order to accomplish your goals.

The problem is that accomplishing a goal isn’t about you or your product. It is about the person who has a goal that they want to keep.

Let’s use the gym as an example and a theoretical character, Bob:

Bob wants to get in shape for the New Year, so he takes advantage of an offer he is given by a nearby gym. He gets some new shoes, some new workout gear, and hits the gym after work on the 2nd. The first few days seem to go OK. It is busy, but he is getting a workout in and is starting to feel like he is making a difference.

After a few weeks, Bob is getting tired of having to deal with the traffic on his way to the gym. Now that the holidays are over, work is piling up again and he is leaving for the gym later and later. It is in the opposite direction of his house, and by the time he gets home, he is tired, cranky, and doesn’t feel like it is worth it anymore with all of the work that is piling up at work and at home.

Those daily workouts have become once or twice a week, and then by the time spring sports start for Bob’s children, he thinks about going to the gym every time he sees the membership on his key ring. Come April, the membership is cancelled and Bob is back to his normal pre-gym routine.

You could say that it is Bob’s fault that he doesn’t make time, but that is still putting your needs before Bob. I believe that the problems we encounter are far more systemic that many solutions presented can fix with a low monthly membership fee.

The problem is not necessarily with working out. Maybe the real problem is that the only time that Bob has available to work out doesn’t work with a natural time for him to work out because of work and family obligations. It could also be that the atmosphere of the gym focuses on people that are much farther along than Bob, so he doesn’t feel comfortable working out there. Whatever the case, the person selling Bob the product has put the product before Bob.

How can we help Bob and others like him?

Put the process for helping people before the product.

Stop focusing so much on the product and focus on the individual. Bob’s real problem might not be working out. The real problem is his job and other obligations. Find out when and where Bob needs to workout to succeed and focus on helping him work out at those times and places.

Individuals are not broken when they come to you. They just might need some help figuring out where your product or service can help them. Help them find that, put their needs before the need to sell them a product, and you can help them and you be more successful.

Stop telling people they are broken, and start fixing the process.

P.S. I am coming back strong. Get ready.

The Number One Problem with Personal Development is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. Energy Through Exercise

Not me.

I am having a sale because the processor in my desktop computer decided to have a meltdown and it just happened to coincide with a holiday for someone with the same first name as mine.

So my loss this Columbus Day weekend (or Thanksgiving if you are Canadian) is your gain and hopefully it is enough of a gain that I can replace my desktop computer and not try to edit the videos for an upcoming launch using my clunky old laptop.

Here is the deal.

A few months ago I released, “INSERT YOUR TITLE HERE: A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Product this Weekend.”

While most get rich quick products will sell you on using other people’s content to create a product. This e-book and accompanying demos lead you through the process of creating a product with your own material in far less time then it takes to create one with content you scraped off article directories.

For you feature junkies, here is what the product contains:

• A 39 page workbook that gives you a step by step plan for creating a product this weekend.
• An audio demo of the reverse interview process I have developed to help you create your product idea, an outline, and the content for your products.
• Demo videos and PDF instructions on how to set up a domain name, hosting account, and shopping cart so that you will quickly get your product created and ready for sale.
• An html template that you will use as the sales page for your product.

The sales page for the product lists it at $37.

Since it is a long weekend for many people and I need to make some money, I thought I would give it to you for 50% off.

Sound good?

There is more

Since I want to help as many people have a productive weekend, I am going to run a contest now through Sunday, October 10th, 2010 at 12:00 PM. The sale will run until Tuesday if you don’t win and want to get a copy of the product after the contest wins.

To enter the contest:

1. Tweet a link to this blog post and include #ccontest and @chris_speaks in your tweet. You can tweet it as many times as you would like, but I will limit your entries to 4 tweets per person so that you don’t spam the crap out of your Twitter followers. That means if you have four tweets, you get your name entered 4 times to win the product.

A sample tweet would be:

Oy! @chris_speaks is celebrating the death of his trusty desktop with a contest and a sale check it out http://goo.gl/SmFL

Want to write a better tweet? Just make sure to include the link to this post, the hashtag #ccontest, and @chris_speaks.

2. You also need to leave a comment on this post telling me the biggest challenge you face in creating and selling a product. Make sure to leave your Twitter nick name and use your real e-mail in the comment so that I can match your comments to your tweets and e-mail the winner.

What does the winner receive?

I will pick one of the tweets from a commenter at random ( I am a dork so it will be with a random number generator) and they will receive:

1. A free copy of “INSERT YOUR TITLE HERE: A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Product this Weekend.”
2. Two free hours of consulting on creating, marketing, and selling a product (Usually $97 / hr).

Let the tweets begin.

I know, I know, you want to get INSERT YOUR TITLE HERE: A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Product this Weekend, but don’t want to wait for the contest to end on Sunday.

Here is the deal.

If you have bought the product and you win, then you will get the 2 hours of free consulting and you can help one of your friends out by giving them a copy as well.

Are you ready to get your hands on INSERT YOUR TITLE HERE: A Step by Step Guide to Creating a Product this Weekend?

Enter the coupon code: CONTEST50 and click Buy Now to get started.

The sale will last from now until Tuesday, October 12th, 2010 when everyone has returned from Columbus Day stuffed with whatever people eat to celebrate Columbus Day.

Now I am wondering, do they eat Turkey this weekend in Canada?

Good luck.

Computers, Christopher Columbus, and a Contest is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. Contest Winners and A Huge Dose of Fail
2. You Don’t Want to Be Famous

I don’t care about the size of my list, because that’s not how I do business. I am more social in the way I sell product. I hate long sales copy. I don’t buy from long sales copy so I am not going to subject anyone to it. I don’t need to pitch my readers, because I will lose them if I seem too sales-ey.

Do you know anyone that has uttered statements similar to those?

The statements above came from me three years ago when I first dipped my toes into marketing my speaking, coaching, and products. Do you know how much money I made during that time period? Zero. Sound familiar?

If you aren’t marketing anything, maybe you have said,

I don’t need to kiss up to the higher ups to get ahead, I don’t need a college degree to get ahead because I am a rebel, or I don’t need to save money for my retirement because I am going to get promoted soon then I will start saving.

Does anything in that statement sound familiar?

I am not surprised if it does, and I would be less surprised if you followed it up with saying, “Why am I not succeeding? Bob is a freaking idiot and he is making a killing online, moving up the corporate ladder, and spends half his week playing golf. Why is that idiot making money and I’m not?”

Why Are Stupid People Making Money?

Here is an example from one of my mentors, Darren Lacroix as he talks about his experiences running a Subway franchise into the ground.

I thought I knew it all. I was 22 years old and fresh out of business school. A dangerous combination. Subway told me that the most successful franchisees were farmers. Farmers? And the worst franchisees? Business graduates.

Think about it . . .

• Why are people that know next to nothing about running a sandwich store succeeding at running a sandwich store?
• Why are people that know little about technology making money selling products online?
• Why are people that have no knowledge of manufacturing running billion dollar manufacturing companies?

Do you want to know their secret?

They stupidly follow the rules.

Why Being a Renegade Can Hurt Your Chances of Success

Renegades, Rogues, and Rebels make for great characters in novels and movies but are not ideals if you want to succeed in life.

Browse the business section of your local bookstore or pick up an entrepreneurial themed magazine and you will find plenty of books and articles that will tell you to, “Break All the Rules, Play Your Own Game, or March to the Beat of Your Own Drummer!”

So what happens when you don’t suck up to the boss, don’t ask for a sale from potential customers, or make up your own lesson plan in school?

YOU FAIL!

What does someone that is stupid do? They spend time sucking up to the boss to figure out what they want them to do, they ask for the sale, and they read the lesson plan to figure out what the teacher wants them to do.

The stupid person learns what rules are in place and they follow them, because they know they are too stupid to make up their own. They succeed because they don’t try to reinvent the wheel, annoy people by doing it their own way, or trying to build something from the ground up when they don’t have to. They make stupid an advantage over the rebels that try to over think everything.

Become Stupid

In order to succeed in many endeavors, you need to be stupid. Give up on your knowledge of how to do something and start from square one. Read the instructions, ask someone what they did to be successful, or figure out what has worked for someone else and implement it in your life.

Many times we are too smart for our own good and just need to be stupid to get ahead.

How can you bring a little stupid into your life?

Let us know in the comments.

Stupid People Making Money is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. 5 Reasons Smart People Fail at Creating On-line Businesses
2. That is Not How This Business Works
3. Good is the Enemy of Great

Who Are You Listening To?

Early last year, I was listening to a copywriting teleconference with Sonia Simone of Copyblogger and Naomi Dunford of Ittybiz. While on the call, they told us to sign up for Paul Myers’ TalkBiz News, which is a newsletter on Internet Marketing.

So for over a year, I have been getting e-mails from Paul Myers that talk about Internet Marketing with a pitch here and there for a product that he has created or is promoting. I really didn’t think too hard about it until the past week.

Late last week, Paul sent out an e-mail about his new product, the Email Affiliate System. After reading the sales page, I realized that he was selling something that I wanted to know so I spent the $27 to get a copy of the report. The report is amazing and if I can put the tactics into my marketing, then the product will pay for itself many times over. I am not joking; the Email Affiliate System got me to think about my marketing in ways that I have never imagined.

Then Something Happened

While the product is great, Paul’s follow up e-mail to his list amazed me. On Sunday, September 26th, Paul sent a follow up e-mail to his list about some, “Interesting Responses,” he got about the product.

The “interesting responses” talked about how there was little new in the product or that it didn’t add up to what Paul had already given away for free. His response was an awesome lesson for anyone that gives information away for free.

Since you can subscribe to Paul’s newsletter to get these thoughts word for word, I am not going to copy them here, but I am going to tell you the lesson learned and how most people screw it up:

Lesson Learned: You have to create a clear distinction between what you give away for free and what you make people pay to receive.

In Paul’s case, he gives away hundreds of pages of material a year that helps you build the skills you need to build a business. Information that many people charge for, he gives away for free.

What You Make People Pay For

What he makes people pay for are the specific tools and techniques that allow them to create a profitable business. It is a distinction that most people that market products online fail to make and it could be the one thing that is keeping them broke.

It is crazy how some people can figure out what they need to do from the free materials. They can take a 112 page e-book, build a website, create a product, market it, and then sell the product to thousands of adoring fans just from the information in the e-book.

However many people get stuck, they can’t figure out what we need to do next, or they are get overwhelmed by an inability to cut through a lot of technical jargon to get to what needs to be done online. That is were the paid products can come in to help you out.

How You Can Use This in Your Business

While your free content tells people what they need to do, the paid product tells you how to do it in a way your customers will understand. For example, you can walk people through a marketing plan, but charge them for the website they can use to put that marketing plan into action.

How are you developing products for your business? Are you making the distinction of what the free and paid products will do for your customers or are you “cutting your own throat,” and giving it all away for free?

Let me know with a quick comment.

Also make sure to check out Paul Myers’ TalkBiz News if you haven’t already and get the 112 page Need to Know Manual. Hopefully it will change the way you look at running your business.

Are You Cutting Your Own Throat? is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. How Not to Do Free Content
2. Are You Trying to Trade A Monotonous Job for a Monotonous Business?
3. The Reason for Success

Author’s Note: Scott Ginsberg a.k.a. Scott the Nametag Guy is celebrating the launch of his new book, -ABLE: 35 Strategies for Increasing the Probability of Success in Business and in Life, by challenging his readers to come up with their own –able word and write about it in a blog post. Reading Scott’s blog post announcing the challenge, I realized the one –able word that I would use to describe what I strive to be, and what Scott has nailed, is transferable.

What Does It Mean to be More Transferable?

Transferable is more Memorable

Think about all of the knowledge you gained in High School. What ideas, concepts, or principles stand out most in your memory? If nothing stands out, what events during high school stand out in your mind?

Unless you have a perfect memory, the most memorable ideas or memories are attached to a concept presented in a surprising way or were highly emotional. One idea that I remember is the “Mole scream” from Chemistry class, which was a high pitched scream that our teacher let out when anyone correctly used the concept of a mole in discussions.

Since the Mole Scream was memorable, it caused me to remember the concept of the Mole and the teacher’s knowledge was transferred to me.

What are you doing to make your ideas, products, and services more memorable?

Transferable is more Understandable

To be more memorable, you could stand on a busy sidewalk and yelling random equations at the top of your lungs for a few hours. While that would make you very memorable and possibly get the video of you screaming a few hits on YouTube, like many Internet Memes, the effecive lifespan of your demonstrationwould be short.

In order for you to be transferable, you need to make yourself more understandable. I recently heard about Danica McKellar, an actress turned author who was writing math books for girls by using stories and examples from a young girl’s life to explain concepts in math. These books are understandable because they link familiar concepts to new ones.

Since these books are more understandable, they transfer the power of mathematics to people that might not have taken as much of an interest.

What are you doing to creating understandable products, services, and ideas?

Transferable is more Actionable

Let’s go back to High School (OK, I don’t want to either so let’s just go back to what we learned in High School).

While someone might have presented a quote out of the Federalist Papers in period costume so that you remembered the passage, what good did it do if you were not able to apply that knowledge in your daily life?

When you are transferable, you are able to provide information that is actionable. While many business classes provide a wealth of information, many professionals turn to public seminars, coaches, and consultants in order to bridge the gap between knowledge and execution.

When you are transferable, you are able to help people turn their knowledge into operational improvement, life enhancement, or monetary gain. From a product perspective, this is accomplished through actionable checklists, process diagrams, and worksheets that help people grasp the concepts that they need to take action on.

Though college is a great way to gain knowledge, it does not always provide actionable tools that transfer the knowledge to people that will use it.

Are you providing great knowledge with a heavy does of actionability?

Transferable is more Marketable

When you are transferable, your transferableness is more marketable. 

Which business book would you be more apt to read?

“The book contained a lot of good information, but I had to wade through ten long chapters of extraneous self promotion, archaic terms, and unnecessary definitions to get to the material that was actionable.,”

Or

“This book was great? Using the knowledge in the first chapter alone, I was able to save my business thousands of dollars.”

I would prefer the second. What about you?

When you, your products, and your services are transferable, that transferableness becomes marketable.

Transferable is more Compatible

When you are transferable, you are more compatible.

I could talk about the chemical reasons that oil and water doesn’t mix, but I am afraid I wouldn’t be transferring understandableness in my description. Instead, think about relatives you might have that don’t get along. For some reason they are just not compatible!

What happens when those relatives get together during the holidays? They usually end up bickering, making snide comments, and not listening to what the others person has to say. If there was an important message that had to get from one of them to the other, do you think it would get there with the right intention?

When you are transferable, you are compatible with your surroundings, people, and the technology in your life that allows you to be a superhero.

What are you doing to be more compatible?

Of all the –ables that I can think of, to me, being transferable has the most potential to help someone achieve success. When you are transferable, you are more memorable, understandable, actionable, marketable, and compatible than your competitors which will lead you to amazing successes.

Are you transferable?

Make Yourself More Transferable is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. How to make your speaking, e-mail marketing, and blogging more effective.
2. The Cake is a Lie
3. Good is the Enemy of Great

Christian is a 16 year old boy who has created million dollar software and ad companies before the age of 16. The companies sell bundles of popular Mac software and now he has started a company selling ads on websites.  It is a great story that you have to read . . . once you are done reading this blog post of course.

What I found interesting about Christian’s story was some of the comments that people left on the blog where it was posted. While some were positive, many comments are mocking him for not having a life, employing his parents, and most egregious of all . . . being unoriginal.

Common Business Beliefs

What the comments illustrate is a common business belief. When most people start their businesses, they think that they have to be 100% original. They believe that they have to sell products on one else is selling, have a store that is totally original, or create new intellectual content from original research. They have it in their heads that they have to be unique to make it in this world.

Let me let you in on a little secret . . .

The most successful businesses in the world are not unique!

A quick disclaimer; I am not condoning the blatant copying of other people’s copyrighted and patented materials for personal gain. That is stealing. What I am talking about is copying ideas about what works and using those ideas in your business.

There are two ways to accomplish this in your business:

Number One: Improve Current Products

For example, think about a few of the most successful technology companies in the world: Apple, Google, and Microsoft. All of these companies were late to the game in their original markets but are now the leaders in mobile technology, search, and office software.

They accomplished this feat by taking something that was hard to use, expensive to operate, and ineffective. They made those products easy to use, cheap to operate, and more effective. In essence, these companies took complex products and services that were specialty products and made them into easy to use commodities.

In the story of Christian Owens, he found multiple mac programs that people wanted to use but couldn’t afford to purchase them all individually, worked with the software authors to bundle them together, and sold the bundle at a major discount. He also used contests, referral bonuses, and limited time offers to give people a sense of urgency to buy the bundle.

Everything Christian did has been done before, but he made it simpler, cheaper, and more useful to his customers.

Could you do that in your business?

Number Two: Completely Copy What Worked for Someone Else (With Their Permission!)

When you drive down any main street in the United States, what do you typically see? Do you see a McDonalds, a Subway, and an Applebees? More than likely you will find a chain rather than something unique.

Why would someone buy a franchise rather than start something unique?

People open franchises because they are proven businesses. Most people that have started a unique retail or restaurant business will tell you, that if they had to do it again they would buy a proven franchise. While it is great when a unique business succeeds, the failure rate is much higher than if you would have bought a franchise.

If you are desperate for a business of your own, a franchised business might be what works for you since you are copying what worked for someone else.

Can you be successful by being original?

It is possible, but with so many people being successful by being unoriginal, why risk it? Do what others are doing, but take it one step further. Make it easier, make it more accessible, and make it more desirable. If that doesn’t work, then consider what licensing and franchising a business could do for your freedom.

Whatever you do, remember to keep moving forward.

P.S. Here is the story on Christian Owens from Gizmodo.

P.P.S. If you are looking for a tool to get you started in creating a totally unoriginal Internet Marketing business, then make sure to pick up a copy of my step by step guide to Creating a Product this Weekend.

Got another minute?

Do you like what I have to say in my blog posts? If you do, then leave a comment and click on one of the share buttons below and let your friends on Twitter, Facebook, and LinkedIn know about my blog. You can also Like me on Facebook by clicking on the like button to the left of this post.

Thank you so much for helping spread the word!

The Secret to Business Success: Don’t Be Original is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

1. The Reason for Success
2. Why Your Business is Like Most Chinese Restaurants
3. Is This How a Business Helps Their Community?

I am not just talking about what you call bad habits, but I am talking about the activities you do the same way every day without thinking about why you are doing them.

The habits I am talking about can include when you wake up in the morning, what you have for breakfast, or how you brush your teeth. Think about those activities for a moment

What about after getting out of bed and getting moving? Do you go to work the same way, eat lunch with the same people, and go home the same way? When you get home, do you change into the same style of clothes, follow the same dinner schedule, and watch the same television shows before falling asleep?

How to Know When to Change Habits

Let’s talk about a simple habit for a moment . . . brushing our teeth. How do you brush your teeth? Are you an up and down person, side to side, or do you do the little circles as you were told to do by your dentist?

Now ask yourself, what are the results? Does your brushing keep you cavity free or do you always find yourself facing the drill and a hefty dentist bill?

If getting a nice big filling is not the result you are after, then why don’t you change your brushing style, your diet, or flossing habits?

Does Changing a Habit Have to be Difficult?

As irrational beings, we often know what will get us the results we desire but we don’t want to change the habits are preventing us from getting those results. We reach a level of comfort in how we do things and we find it difficult to change those habits, even if it could mean a beneficial outcome in the future.

Does it really need to be that difficult? Can’t we stop buying Pretzel M&Ms, eating ice cream, or making excuses for not exercising? Of course we can, but we often don’t because we are not focused on the results.

Are You Feeling the Pain?

Too often we focus on the pain of ridding ourselves of a habit instead of focusing on the pleasure of an optimal result.  It can be very painful to stop a habit, but starting to focus on the pleasure of an improved result and being to get your focus on changing the habit.

While focusing on the outcome can help move you forward, what will continue you down the path to change your habits are two things:

1. An inventory of the habits that are not delivering the results you seek.
2. Accountability for changing your habits.

A Habit Inventory

Sometimes we don’t realize what habits we even have that could be holding us back. To capture our habits, for a week, perform a time audit of your activities. For seven days, track in as close to 5 minute intervals as possible, every activity you perform through the day. If possible, review your activities and find a trusted mate or friend to review them and confirm which of your activities are negatively habitual.

Being Held Accountable

Once you have made a commitment to change, find someone that will help you change your habits every day. Then before you go to bed every evening, review the habits you are trying to change and call your accountability partner to tell them if you were able to avoid the habits that are not serving you. I recommend doing this exercise for at least 90 days or longer if possible. You will find that if you are kept truly accountable, then you will begin to break the habits that are not serving you.

For many of us, changing habits is a difficult task. It can be painful to change your morning routine or your after work routine. To really change your habits, you have to focus on the positive outcome you are trying to reach, know what habits are holding you back, and be held accountable for changing the habits.

Once you change the habits that are holding you back, you will start to set yourself free.

Watch the blog for more information on creating freedom in the coming weeks. Until then, tell me a habit you want to change in the comments and why it is painful for you to change that habit.

Habits is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

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I spent most of Saturday morning and afternoon cleaning carpets. It was a monotonous task that felt like it would never end.

How many tasks in your life feel like they will never end?

Maybe you experience them at work, at school, or while working to build your business. It is what you avoid doing when you are on twitter, facebook, or trolling the blogs.

“Work Sucks!”, you say to yourself as you check out and go find something “fun” to do.

It was during the time spent cleaning carpets that I realized something. Yes, this does suck, but there is something to just pushing through and getting the job done. It feels good knowing that you got the job done.

Half Finished

What happens when you stop working on a task telling yourself that you will go back and finish it later? Does that blog post, the laundry, or a work project get finished when you said you would finish? How do you feel as the work piles up on your desk?

The Pushing Through Muscle

If you are not getting the success you want in life, maybe it is time to start working on your pushing through muscle. It is that pushing through muscle that gives you the strength you need to develop the mindset for massive action.

How strong is your pushing though muscle?

Try working on it for the next few days. If there is something small you are considering giving up on, the dishes for example, push through and do them before going to bed. See how much better it makes you feel in the morning when you are not staring at a pile of dishes.

When that starts working, move on to something bigger, until you have been able to conquer everything that you just need to push through.

Let me know what you are going to push through and get done in the comments.

Pushing Through is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

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Why Massive Action is Important

Here is the kicker; taking massive action to get something accomplished is the only difference between successes and failures. It is only in action that we are able to live the life of our dreams.

My Story

When I graduated from college, I barely achieved a 3.00 GPA. The quarter before graduation, I had a 2.97 GPA and earlier in my college career, I was heading towards a 2.00 GPA. From the look of my transcript, you would have thought that I wasn’t cut out for success in higher education.

Fast forward four years. After begging on hands and knees to get into graduate school, I graduated with a 3.93 GPA. If you would look at my transcript from graduate school, you would see that I had one B and the rest were A’s.

Was I A Bad Student?

If you had looked at my undergraduate grades, you might have thought that I didn’t spend much time on my studies. Here is the thing, I rarely missed classes or assignments. If you had seen me in class and working in front of the computer at the library, you would have thought I was a star student.

What was my problem?

The problem was that I wasn’t taking action.

Instead of actually taking the action to read what the professors wanted me to read; I was studying how to study, looking for simple explanations, or trying to find out how to better schedule my study time so that I could be a more effective student.

I was studying everything about studying, but not actually taking action on the materials I had in front of me.

Success Comes From Massive Action

I succeeded in Graduate School, because I spent hours in the library reading my textbooks, taking notes, summarizing notes, and working through my homework problems. I took the action required and worked my butt off in order to get the grades I wanted.

What do You Want?

Do you want to create and sell your own products online? Then stop spending $2000 on products that tell you how to create and sell products and start creating them.

Do you want to find a better job, lose weight, or fix your relationship? Spend 12 hours writing and revising your resume, exercise, or talk to your partner about the problems you are experiencing in your relationship.

Too often we know what we want and we don’t take the action required to get what we want. Instead we head to Google and start reading about how to find a better job, lose 10 pounds in a week, or what we need to say to our spouse to fix our relationship. Instead of spending 10 hours taking the action required to do something, we spend that time reading about how we should be taking action.

This post will not help you unless you are willing to help yourself.

If you want to do something, take action to do it. Don’t think about it, don’t study the problem, and don’t buy a product that gives you a formula for figuring it out. Just take action and do the work required to get it done.

Will you have to work at it? Yes.

Will it be hard? Yes.

Deal with it.

This Post Will Not Help You is a post from: As A Dude Thinketh
As A Dude Thinketh is written and edited by Chris Elliott. Chris helps small businesses figure out what their big idea is, how to get it to market, and how to get people to notice their wonderfulness. He is also a dynamic speaker and trainer in personal growth and public speaking. Do you need help with your next big idea or speech? I encourage you to talk with me to see how Chris can be of service.

If you liked this post, then you should also check out:

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