Personal Development Training and Motivational Humor from the Motivational Smart Ass!

“On your mark, get ready, get ready, get ready, keep getting ready, get ready some more…”

Wait, that doesn’t sound right, does it?

No, it doesn’t. But that’s how many people approach their lives. They live in a perpetual state of “getting ready to get ready.” They never quite seem to get to a point of saying, “Go!”

This week, I, along with two partners, launched the second round of our Paid Public Speaker Group Coaching Program. If you have any interest in starting or growing a speaking business, you should definitely check it out!

As we prepared for round two, I reflected back on the first group. A lot of people made some great progress with their speaking businesses. However, some made more progress than others.

You know who made the most progress? The people who took action. They picked a market, topic, and title, found groups in that market that might be interested in those topics, and started contacting them. Those people started booking gigs and making money sooner than the rest.

Others spent a lot of time, “getting ready to get ready.” That is, they spent a long time picking the perfect market, topic, and title. They wanted to get their speech outline just right. They wanted to have a great website up before they started. They made much less progress over the course of the program.

I am not trying to be mean to those people; they still made a lot of progress. And all of those elements (a great speech, an awesome website, the right market and topic, etc) are important. However, it can be very easy to keep waiting until all the elements are in place before taking action.

This is a natural reaction, but a very detrimental one. The people who made the most progress didn’t get hung up on getting ready. They did some basic preparation and then took action.

This lesson holds true in any business. The people who take action do better, get farther, and make more progress than the ones who spend a lot of time “preparing.”

Here are three ways you can stop “getting ready to get ready” and just GO!

1) Make Decisions

In my experience, the greatest procrastination happens not when we have a huge task to do, but rather when we have a (seemingly) huge decision to make. Weeks go by and projects come to a stand-still while you try to decide which market, what slogan, which direction, etc.

This problem occurs only when you’re in charge. If you’re working for someone else, they tend to give you deadlines that force you to decide. Or they decide for you.

If it’s your own business, or a decision you need to make in your personal life, it’s a lot easier to put it off. Don’t.

You have enough info. Be your own boss, give yourself a hard deadline, and make that decision you have been avoiding making. It’s the only way to make any progress.

2) Start Imperfect

“Getting ready to get ready” often occurs when you are trying to get all your ducks perfectly lined up before you start. Here’s a secret: perfection never happens. You can’t plan for every contingency, and there will also be one little duck that refuses to line up properly. Let it go…

Chances are, once you begin implementing your plan, things are going to go off course anyway. You will learn more by taking some imperfect action, analyzing the results, and making adjustments than you ever would by trying to get it perfectly right before you start.

Start small, take action, and make adjustments. Scary? Could be. Effective? Absolutely.

3) Smack Yourself in the Head

Ok, you don’t have to smack yourself in the head literally. Though you could if you’d like. And maybe you need to…

One of the hardest aspects of “getting ready to get ready” is that you may not even realize you are doing it!

The excuses seem so valid. There really does seem to be so much prep work. The timing never seems right.

I get it, life sucks. Oh well, move on.

I have met a lot of people who are preparing to do something (start a business, go back to school, etc) and when I ask them about it, they say, “I’m getting my stuff together and will start soon.” Then see them, years later and when I ask how things are going, they say, “I think I am just about ready now. I’m going to do it.”

You read that right. Years – literally, years! – have gone by, and they are still preparing.

This is where you need to smack yourself in the head. “Preparing” becomes so second nature that you don’t even realize what is going on.

The first step is admitting you have a problem. Take a long hard look at yourself and your goals and ask yourself, “am I just wasting a lot of time, getting ready to get ready?”

If so, give yourself a nice smack in the head and get started.

How about you? Is there some area in your life where you are “getting ready to get ready?” If so, smack yourself in the head, make a decision, and be willing to start with imperfect. In the long run, you’ll be happy you did…

Have you ever been to “Summer Camp for Adults”?

Ok, that’s not a real thing, but every year, the National Speakers Association’s annual convention feels exactly like that.

I go away for a few days, see old friends, make new ones, fill my days with activities, and stay up late into the night…um…socializing…

However, amongst all that madcap fun, there is serious learning going on. Whether it’s during a general session with 1300 attendees, a breakout room with 300, or just having a one on one conversation with a colleague, I always walk away with some new ideas.

Here are three simple but very powerful ideas I took away this year that can help you too, even if you are not a professional speaker:

1) Awesome Spreads

This may be my favorite quote from the entire four day event. It came from Scott Stratten of Unmarketing in his session about creating viral videos and online content.

He had a lot of good ideas and techniques, and one of his main premises was that “awesome spreads.” Simply put, if you create awesome content, it will spread. Non-awesome content doesn’t.

(I wrote a post on a similar idea: Steve Martin’s Simple Plan for Massive Success!)

If you want your business to grow, if you want your content to spread, if you want to get ahead in your career, then be awesome. Awesome spreads. Awesome works. Awesome succeeds.

The follow up advice to this was, “Don’t do anything unless it’s awesome.”

What are you doing, right now, today or this week, that’s awesome?

2) Understand Your Genius

The hardest thing about being brilliant is realizing that you actually are.

I don’t say this to sound arrogant. All people are brilliant in their own way, including you. However, because that brilliance comes so naturally, it’s easy to take it for granted.

The first step in living up to your full potential is to appreciate and value what you are brilliant at. As one friend at the convention put it, “you need to realize what your gift is.”

It can be hard to figure out what that is.

What’s your gift? What are you brilliant at? What do you do incredibly well that you take for granted?

Until you figure those things out, you’ll never be able to realize your full potential.

3) You Can’t Have Rabid Fans If You’re Not Willing to Have Rabid Enemies 

This one is from Larry Winget in his presentation about branding.

His advice: “Take a Stand.”

Do so even if it means alienating and angering people who disagree with you.

This doesn’t mean that you go out and intentionally piss people off. However, it does mean that you don’t try to please everyone. You accept the fact that your opinions and approach may not be for everyone, and that some people may criticize you or even hate you for it.

That can be disheartening and make you want to change your approach. Remember though, that having a few people dislike what you do is usually a good thing! If no one hates what you do, you’re probably playing it too safe.

If you keep to the middle of the road then sure, no one will really hate you. But at the same time, no one will really flock to you either. The more you pick a lane and take a stand, the more people you will find (and who will find you) who love what you do. The side effect of that is that you will also find more people who hate it. Oh well, it comes with the territory.

Don’t make it your goal to be contrarian just to get a reaction. However, when you are out there doing what you do and you find yourself pulling back because you are afraid of saying something that might garner some disapproval, then remember, you can’t have rabid fans if you don’t have rabid enemies!

Are you taking a stand or are you pulling back out of fear of angering people? Are you willing to have rabid enemies in order to get rabid fans? 

Looking back over these three points, I see that they all tie together quite nicely:

1. Discover what your genius is
2. Make it as awesome as you possibly can
3. Go and spread that awesome genius even if (or especially if) it makes some people hate you

Now that is a recipe for success in any business…

P.S. Hey, if you like this post, why don’t you share the love and click the Facebook “Like” button at the top of this page…?

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