So Many Colors How Pretty - Oh Look, A Squirrel!
The inherent issue that so many of us as humans experience is that we are always looking for the new, exciting, different, stimulating experience which ultimately draws our attention away from what we're supposed to be concentrating on. As marketers or most importantly, would be marketers, this should be looked at with major concern.
How many times as hopeful online marketers do you look at a new training, new software, new system and think to yourself, "I can see how this could work. This has to be the answer!" I'll be the first to admit that I have a computer full of logins and software, eBooks and courses that I'll probably never use. I'm the guy who looks at my business and wonders if the shiny objects that I have are enough to attract everyone that I need to attract to my business. Let's face it, we're all trying to find that edge, that one thing that's going to set us apart from the other guy. From a business standpoint, that's what we should be doing and more often than not that's what we're using as an excuse to go after the shiny objects. I get it, I really do. If you can't stay ahead of the game then you might as well get out of it right?
Wrong! Look, any successful entrepreneur will tell you that you're going to pay a price when you go after the shiny objects. It takes time and energy to chase them and if you're going after the next best shiny new thing all the time, then you're not going to end up doing anything very well at all. It takes a certain amount of discipline to keep yourself from always chasing the shiny objects so here's my rules for engagement with the shiny object syndrome, SOS.
S.O.S.
How to deal effectively and purposely with the Shiny Object Syndrome
For whatever reason, we're all being torn from what we want to do or what we think we need to do. Either by emails, texts, phone calls, family or even facebook. It can all become very crazy if you're not paying attention to it. You start looking around at different things and at some point you realize that you've lost a lot of time and now some of the things that you may have planned for the day aren't going to get done. So how do you take care of it so that everything gets done and you're not inundated with trying to get things done and find yourself in crunch mode because you're now very behind?
One of the things that I found that works well for me is to be very particular and strategic in what I’m doing. Let me give you an example. One of the biggest rules that I have is that I never look at my email or respond to anything email related until after 10 in the morning. That’s 3 hours after I start working generally. So why don’t I do that? That gives me 3 uninterrupted hours where I can concentrate on the priority items on my agenda.
A while back I realized that I already have a good business and that I don’t particularly want to do anything that’s going to jeopardize what I’m doing to make it work. I know the goals that I have in my business and I have a plan for where it’s going to go in the next year, 5 years and beyond. You need to know that too and keep it at the forefront of everything that you do. Be very strategic about what it is that you do in business.
"Learn to be excellent at one thing instead of just proficient at a few things and it’ll take you further then if you knew a little about a lot of things."
Dan Kennedy is an old school marketer from today’s standpoint. He’s been marketing since the mid 1970’s. Interestingly, he doesn’t have a cell phone, he doesn’t have email, and he doesn’t have any social media accounts. So why would he consider himself a marketer that people online need to pay attention to and learn from? Because he’s a master of the craft of marketing. He kept to one thing and learned it very well and it’s as relevant today as it was 30 years ago. In fact, his skills are as relevant online as they are offline. Learn to be excellent at one thing instead of just proficient at a few things and it’ll take you further then if you knew a little about a lot of things.
One of the most important things that I do is to limit my time with bright shiny objects. I recognized a long time ago that I was susceptible to SOS. Remember that the first step to recovery is to recognize that you have a problem. Because I recognized it, I was able to figure out a strategy to deal with it. It’s like buying things online. Something I love to do, but if I leave myself to just shop I’ll spend way too much money and time, so I limit myself. In the same way, when I’m looking at facebook or going through my email, I’ll limit myself to a certain amount of time that I’m going to spend with it. If I see a bright shiny object in my email or on facebook that I want to follow I’ll first decide if it’s something that I’ve thought about the need for before this and then secondly I’ll decide if it aligns with the plan and goals that I already have in place. If it does, then I might take another look. If it doesn’t, then it won’t go any further and I won’t think anything more of it no matter if I’ve only got 24 hours to get it for that price or not.
Above all, be true to yourself and your business. You know yourself probably better than most people. You should know your business intimately better than anyone. So knowing what the right products are that can help you and your business and staying focused on the goals that you have for your business is going to keep you from wasting too much of your time with the bright shiny objects.