February 22

3 Reasons to Give Up and Quit in 2010

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You’re ugly. Your mama dresses you funny, and you’re broke. What other reasons can I throw at you for quitting? Here are the 3 biggest reasons I’ve seen in the last 2years:

  1. I don’t have the time
  2. I don’t know what to do, and (my favourite)
  3. I need help

Welcome to the party, folks. It’s life. We’re all in the same boat, and I happen to think it’s a lot of fun.

1. I don’t have the time
Okay. I get this. We’re all pressed for time.

So let’s start with knowing we aren’t going to get everything done – today – that we want to get done. The really cool part is that we don’t have to get it all done – today.

This is something I struggle with on a regular basis. Just think of the work involved in publishing a book, planning book tours, finding sponsors and developing a membership blogsite. That’s a lot of work, right?

Even though it all needs to be done, it doesn’t have to be done today. In fact, you don’t even need to work on every project, every day. Rich Schefren showed me a good model that relates to this.

He showed me an example of three projects, and each project takes a week to complete. What he and I both tend to do is try working on each project every day. In the end, it takes three weeks to complete all the projects. But Rich has a cure for that tendency.

He makes himself work on just one project at a time.

So project A takes a week. He works on it until it’s finished, and then project A is up and running. See the benefit to that? While he moves on to project B, project A is running and getting results. It’s really cool.

I know what you’re thinking: How does this put any more time into my day?

You’re right, it doesn’t put any more hours into the day. What it does do is show that you can succeed by completing one piece at a time. After all, Rich is just a wee bit successful.

You can get a much more detailed explanation of the process from Jeff Olson’s The Slight Edge. It’s a terrific book. At 163 pages you can read it in a weekend. And then you’ll keep it handy for reference.

The point is to find 20 or 30 minutes. Start with that and build on it. Let me give you an example.

Tim Clay is my accountant, a friend and a client. We met in Delray Beach at an Early to Rise conference. His big goal then was to get better at writing, so you can see why we hit it off.

To get the job done, I made Tim commit to giving me 20 minutes every day during the week – weekends off. That was in November 2008, and Tim gave me those 20 minutes all the way through tax season.

Now tell me, who do you know that’s more stretched for time than an accountant during tax season? But Tim gave me those 20 minutes.

By July 2009 – just 9 months later – Tim didn’t need a personal coach anymore. To this day, I can edit one of Tim’s articles in about 15 minutes. That’s how good he got with just 20 minutes a day.

2. I don’t know what to do
You never have, you aren’t going to, and that’s what makes it fun!

When Bob Bly gave me my first writing assignment – Writing e-Books for Fun and Profit – I didn’t know what to do. It was my first big project, and I was intimidated by the prospect of writing for Bob.

When I started writing friends, followers and Customer Evangelists, I didn’t know how to use social media. That’s why I started writing the book. I figured most people would have the same sort of questions as me.

Now I’m looking for sponsors to do a book tour. I don’t know what I’m doing.

But there are people out there who do. I have a friend in Toronto who runs BizLaunch.ca. His name is Andrew and I’ve asked him for help. Then there’s the internet…You can bet I’ve done a couple of searches for information on writing sponsorship proposals.

Of course, David Hancock and Rick Frishman are helping me along. Since Morgan James Publishing is publishing friends, followers and Customer Evangelists it makes sense for them to help, right?

And what about the sponsors themselves? Since I’m a Rotarian, and the book tours are being arranged using the Rotary Districts as a roadmap, do you think potential sponsors are interested? And especially that they’re interested in reaching that target market of business owners who are active in their communities and live by the credo of Service Above Self?

You betcha!

Here’s the point: No one knows what to do until they take action.

Tim didn’t know how to write a good article. So he took action and asked me to coach him.

He made a small effort every day, and learned a little bit. That little bit, and the small effort, added up over time – just like compounding interest on an investment. Today, Tim writes a better article than most journalists.

3. I need help
These are words that come out of my mouth at least twice every single day.

Yes, I need help. You need help. Every business owner, mother, dad, and student would really like to have some help. Really, really…

The problem is that we’re looking for the wrong kind of help.

I’m forever saying “I wish there was someone to do this,” or “I wish I had an assistant.” Sure, having an assistant would take some of the load from my shoulders, but dreaming about it isn’t helping to get the work done. See what I mean?

As valuable as an assistant will be to me, I need a different kind of help to get through the day today.

Back up a second and look through the first two reasons for quitting again. Do you see how breaking things down into smaller, manageable tasks makes the time issue easier to handle?

It also makes the knowledge barrier smaller by breaking the learning down into easy steps. I didn’t know how to write a book for Bob, but I could handle researching one topic and writing 1,500 words about it. Put enough topics together and you get a book.

Tim didn’t know how to write a good article when we started. He put in the practice time, learned a few tricks, and now he’s a solid writer.

The cool part is that the help you want comes along while you’re making progress.

The trick is getting the help you need to make that progress. The help you need is support and encouragement. That comes from two places.

The first one is what you expect – a friend, family member, somebody you know who encourages you. That’s easy. The second one is something you might not have thought of – your role models.

When I want support, I look to what Jon Hansen is doing. I also look to Michel Fortin, Rich Schefren, Jeff Herring and several others who have “made it” in my industry. Studying their websites, reading their articles, and buying their products is a great source of support. They make the learning a lot easier because they’re good examples to follow.

Are You Ready to Quit?
There you have it. The 3 biggest reasons I’ve heard over the last two years for quitting and giving up. Or worse, not even getting started.

Which one are you using?


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