Why we’re so much like crabs and how to change that …
There’s an old parable about crabs in a bucket.
If you put a crab in a bucket and it can climb out of that bucket, it will climb out. But if you put 2 crabs in the bucket, when one of the crabs tries to climb out, the other will pull it back in. Neither will ever escape. It doesn’t matter that it’s possible to escape, the crabs will hold each other back from doing so.
We’re no different than crabs. It’s a sad part of the society we’re living in. When one independent freedom seeker tries to “climb out of the bucket” the rest of the herd will try to pull him/her back in.
Teachers are guilty of this. (Which is why traditional schooling is a waste.)
The media is guilty of this. (Which is why limiting or eliminating your exposure to the news and other media is essential.)
Your Parents and friends may very well be guilty as well. (They don’t do it on purpose, they’ve been conditioned by teachers and the media.)
I’m not without guilt. I’ve noticed myself doing this on occasion and it’s upsetting to think about. For example, somebody brings an idea to me and I immediately shoot it down. “Ehh, I don’t think that will work.” And you know what? It might not. But who am I to shoot someone down?
I’m supposed to be supportive of my friends, family, and business partners.
So from now on, if a friend comes to me with an idea, instead of shooting it down if I think maybe it’s not doable I’ll say “Hmm, I’m not sure I can help, but don’t listen to me. What steps can you take right now to make it happen? And how do you think I can help?”
Just think of the possibilities if we all supported those close to us in this way.
While it’s obvious that the majority of the population will never cross over from the dark side, I know because of the snowball effect that the more we support each other the more we’ll support each other.
What do you say?
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Odds & Ends
You have until next week, Thursday March 3 to be exact, to submit your guest post. Looking forward to it!
A little bit about the first ever Ridiculously Extraordinary Meetup + links!
11 of us hanging at Gold Star Bar in Chicago! (Photo Credit: Jenny from MinimalismDefined.com)
We had the first ever Ridiculously Extraordinary Meetup on Wednesday and it was great. I was honestly expecting maybe 4 or 5 people to show up, but about 15 passed through. I hung out from 7pm until about 1am. OK, that’s a lie, my bus was 10 minutes late so I got there at 7:05. :) I figured everybody would leave early since it was a weeknight, but many stayed until around Midnight! Woohoo! You all rock.
Special thanks to Brigitte and Lucus for bringing pizza and a vegan sandwich! :)
And thanks to Gold Star just because they rule. Maybe most people weren’t paying attention, but a lot of metal was coming through the jukebox. (Now you know why I call it the best jukebox in the world.)
I write a little bit about this technique in How To Be More Confident, but Ev’yan went far deeper into it.
That’s it for this week. Lots of fun stuff coming up, including “The Greatest Offer I’ve Ever Made.” (That will be posted either February 28 or March 1.) Have a great weekend!
But Rob McElhenney borrowed a camcorder, bought some videotapes from Rite Aid, got a few of his actor friends together, and filmed the pilot himself; forgoing the normal pitch process.
A few weeks later, based on the strength of his home produced pilot, he sold It’s Always Sunny In Philadelphia to FX Networks, and the rest, as they say, is history.
Interesting note from the interview: “Studios don’t want you to know this, but they need you. They can’t create.”
Poverty, Teaching English, Selling 350 Million Books
There’s a well-known author who writes 2,000 words/day. Under no circumstances does he stop working until he hits this quota. This doesn’t mean he writes 2,000 publishable words every day, but that’s neither here nor there. The literary skills of this author have been debated to no end, but he is one of the most successful (and prolific, for that matter) authors of our time, with dozens of books and sales in the hundreds of millions.
You don’t become incredibly successful by accident.
This author had every excuse in the book. Poverty, a wife, 2 young children, a dead end job, and the list goes on. Maybe you’re in that same situation. (Or, more likely, maybe you’re not.)
That author was/is Stephen King. Even when he was living hand to mouth as an English teacher he came home and did what needed to be done. Even when he couldn’t afford to pay the electric bill he lit a candle and did what needed to be done.
He accomplished everything because he didn’t let himself or anything else get in the way of doing things.
I’ve mentioned it before, but I’m in the unique and privileged position of getting a behind-the-scenes view of a lot of people, beginners and veterans alike, who launch products and websites.
I’m also in the unfortunate position of getting a behind-the-scenes view of a lot of people who never launch anything. I get e-mails very regularly that amount to “Well, I really want to do X, but first I have to learn Y.”
For example, maybe you’ve had a friend who has “always wanted to write a book.” I know I’ve had many as it’s a common goal for a lot of people. Yet, most of them never do it. “I need to finish my degree.” “I need to establish myself in my field first.” “I’m just not good enough.”
That’s all true, but only because that’s what they believe.
If you believe something to be true, it is true.
Follow the trail Rob McElhenney and Stephen King have blazed and you can choose to believe something “impossible” if you’d like.
Recapping Accomplishing No/Every-thing
– Accomplish nothing: Do things that get in the way of doing things.
– Accomplish everything: Don’t do things that get in the way of doing things.
The difference between free work and paid work and how to finally start making money by leveraging your free work …
Today I release one piece of paid work (Luxury of Less is available here now) and one piece of free work (the article you’re now reading). I don’t expect everybody who reads my free work to buy my paid work, but if it interests you Luxury of Less is only $9.99 and I’ve received an overwhelming amount of positive support for this book. Either way, I’ll show you how to create your first piece of paid work below.
I’ve been asked many times about my paid work and how I decide what to charge for. It’s a great question and sometimes difficult to answer. I don’t spend a whole lot of time on paid work in comparison to free work. But the free work is important because it helps me attract my right people who want my paid work. (If that’s you, that’s great! If that’s not you, that’s great too!) It’s also something I love doing. It’s fun writing words that the whole world gets to read and hopefully glean some benefit from.
Assuming you want to create a small business that is focused on free and paid work, how do you figure out how to create work that you can get paid for if all you’ve been doing is releasing free work?
First, we need to explain the slight difference between paid and free work.
Paid Work Adds Tangible Value
Paid work must solve a specific problem that will add value to a buyer’s life. If it doesn’t add value – and value can mean many things, entertainment, more money, a better job, instrument mastery, the list is endless – then you can’t charge for it.
Paid work should go into specific detail about a problem and offer the buyer a framework to help them solve it. Usually this means you’ll put a lot of work into the product and it will be much longer than any of the free work you create.
This also opens you up to consulting or coaching opportunities for customers who want hand holding to solve the problem. The money making opportunities are endless if you become a problem solver.
Free Work Must Also Add Value
Just because something is free doesn’t mean it can’t or shouldn’t add value. In fact, if your free work doesn’t add value, you won’t sell any of your paid work.
Note: if you’re wondering why your paid work isn’t selling, take a look at your free work. Maybe it sucks.
The difference with free work is that the problems it solves can be more general. You have more leeway since nobody is whipping out their credit cards to read your free work.
For example, let’s say you run a guitar tutorial website. Your free work might show how to play one part of a song and your paid work might show how to play the whole song.
The free work attracts lots of fans. “Oh cool, I get to learn how to play part of my favorite song!” And maybe that fan never wants to learn the whole song, but if they do, your paid work will solve that problem by going more in depth and showing them how.
How To Create Your First Piece of Paid Work
If you’ve been releasing free work and are unsure how to step into the realm of paid work there is a very simple framework you can follow. (BTW, see what I’m doing with this article? I’m solving a problem.)
1) You must have at least a small group of fans.
You can expect only a small percentage of your fans to ever buy anything from you. If you have 1,000 free followers then you’re in a great position to turn some of those followers (5% is a good goal) into raving fans who will support your work with cash money.
2) You must give your fans precisely what they want.
I’m privileged to be in a position that I get to see a lot of people launch products and businesses from a behind the scenes perspective. In every single situation that resulted in a successful product launch it was because the product creator knew exactly what their audience wanted.
How?
There are two easy ways to do that. Do you get a very common question or request for information? If so, that could be a great product opportunity. That’s exactly why I created How To Live Anywhere. I received questions literally every single day asking how to do what I do.
The second, and I think most effective, way to determine what your audience wants is to survey them. It’s exactly why I wrote an article about how to use Google Docs to generate product ideas by using a free survey. (Are you seeing a pattern? That free article solved a very specific problem in a short amount of time.)
3) Solve the problem in as much detail as is necessary.
Once you have your product idea (from the survey or from noticing a pattern in e-mails from your fans) all you have to do is create that product. Solve the problem in detail and you’re golden.
How Much To Charge For Your Paid Work?
Whole books/courses have been created about pricing. While they’re worth a read we can keep it simple. I recommend you do your best to release $50+ products if you want to create a long term sustainable business. You won’t need as many raving fans to sustain you, and if you have a lot of raving fans then you’ll do exceptionally well.
If you’ve never sold anything it may be surprising to know that it’s not much more difficult to sell something for $1,000 as it is to sell something for $100. And it’s not that much more difficult to sell something for $100 than it is to sell something for $10. It’s worth it to put in the effort that will command a higher price point.
I’m breaking the $50+ rule with Luxury of Less simply because it’s not the type of product that can command a $50 price point. That said, it’s not the type of product I want to release for free. Luxury of Less is a very important work to me. If I gave it away I know not as many people would read it or respect it. I’m very proud of this work and it commands respect. If you’d like to know why it commands respect, and learn my philosophy on life in the process, then you can buy Luxury of Lessright here.
Sweet Shit Saturday turns 40 today! I don’t feel like she’s in a mid-life crisis at all though. Do women have mid-life crises? Or do women have mid-wife crises? Why is Sweet Shit Saturday a woman? How many questions can I pose before you delete me from your feedreader? How much do I love black beans?
Speaking of black beans. (I’m good at segues.) As I was eating some a few days ago I thought to myself “It would probably be a good idea to export a barrel of these to Poland for when you visit later this year since they’re so difficult to find and last time you craved nothing but black beans and then bought every single black bean in the city when you finally found them.” (Pretend that wasn’t a run-on sentence.) This is what happens when you leave me with my thoughts. Actually, that’s not true. Usually I think really smart, profound, and funny things. I just don’t like to brag … ;)
I met Jennifer at BlogWorld last year. She rocks. As is proof by this article she wrote for CopyBlogger and all the wonderful words she writes at Everyday Bright.
This is a short article that will blow away any “I don’t have enough time” excuse you’ve ever had. BTW, if you’ll be at World Domination Summit in June, Joel is putting together a sky-diving adventure. I may or may not join in. (I’ve already jumped out of a plane.) I have my own adventure planned, tentatively titled “Eat at every vegan restaurant in Portland in 12 hours.” We’ll see how that works out.
You probably already know that I think Benny is awesome. What you don’t know is that, of all the writing he has produced in the past, this is my favorite. Now you know. Nope, not gonna say “and knowing is half the battle.” What do you think? I grew up on GI Joe or something?
Simply put: I love this. Maybe I’m biased because I’ve known Kenny and his wife (before she was his wife) for about 5 years. But even with my bias, I love this. :)
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Luxury of Less is finally coming again Monday. Yay! The first time it was available 1,687 of you got your hands on it so you may have already read it. If not, it’s only $9.99. Thanks for your support. :)
Do something for me, OK? Kick ass this weekend. Then? Kick ass next week. Then? Keep kicking ass.
For the first time in the history of this blog I’m looking for guest blog submissions. Info inside …
They say the pen is mightier than the sword. Show me how deeply you can cut.
For the first time in the 19 months I’ve been running RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com I’m looking for guest posts. If you’re interested you have to read every word on this page and then follow a few very important instructions.
I considered making this a contest with prizes and whatnot, but then I thought, “No, I only want submissions from writers who don’t need to be enticed beyond the promotion they’ll already receive.”
So this is a Not-Contest. There are submission guidelines and rules, and your prize is being the first guest blogger here, with all the exposure, link love, and traffic that may come with it. You’ll also earn my eternal gratitude for being a bad ass.
Here’s the deal, I’m not going to talk about why I’m doing this (not just yet anyway), but I’m looking for guest articles for the dates of March 31, April 7, and April 14. These will likely be from 3 different people, but if you’re on fire maybe you’ll get more than one of the available slots.
It doesn’t matter to me if you have a blog or website. Obviously if you do you’ll get free promotion, but if not, I welcome your article anyway.
The Rules
1) No opinion pieces.
I’m looking for fully thought out, well-researched, actionable articles. I write enough opinion pieces here for the both of us.
This does not mean you can’t include your own personal stories or information about yourself that pertains to the article. In fact, this is a good idea.
Those are very long articles and I will immediately know if you submit an article and didn’t read them.
3) Types of Articles I’m Looking For
Focus your article on one of the following topics.
Health
Wealth
Happiness
That’s very broad which gives you room to work, but make your article very specific, tangible, and actionable. Have I said that already? ;)
4) Submission Guidelines
I don’t want article pitches with excerpts (like in Ramit’s guidelines above). I want the full article, ready to go in both WordPress HTML (in a .txt file) and .txt (so I can read the article without HTML) formats. If I have to spend time formatting your article then you could be Stephen King and I’m still trashing it. (Great learning opportunity if you don’t know how to submit WordPress HTML!)
Article length doesn’t matter, but 500 – 2000 words is more likely to get published. Write as much as you need to get the point across and then edit at least 20% of it.
Grammar is important. Spelling is most important.
Be sure to include your byline (author info) at the end of the article with a link to your blog (if you have one). Read Ramit’s guidelines for info. Also include “This is a guest post from [Your Name] at [Your URL].” at the top of the article. Your URL should be a live link in the WordPress HTML.
5) If I know you you’re still eligible, but you don’t have a better shot than anybody else.
No playing favorites. If we’re friends or if we’ve had contact in the past you are eligible. If we’ve never interacted you’re eligible. It doesn’t matter what our relationship is, I want great work.
6) Submission deadline.
March 3, 2011 at 10am EST. That gives you 3 weeks to write and submit an article. Knowing the human psyche as I do, if you don’t begin writing now you probably won’t submit at all. Or you’ll e-mail me after the deadline. Neither situation will get you published. Send the articles to KarolGajda AT Gmail with “Guest Post Submission” in the title. If you need to contact me otherwise please use this form.
7) Questions?
Please ask in the comments below if you have a question instead of asking via e-mail or twitter. That way everybody else can benefit from the Q&A.
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Thanks! I’m looking forward to seeing what you come up with. I don’t know if I’ll ever do this again because I write more than enough stuff to keep this blog busy. I’ll explain exactly why I’m doing this in the future. March 28 to be exact. ;)
Odds & Ends
1) Luxury of Less is finally being re-released next Monday at 10am EST! If you’ve read it I would appreciate a testimonial or a review on your blog. If you haven’t read it, you won’t have to wait long –> http://www.LuxuryOfLess.com :)
2) Chicago meetup is next Wednesday (Feb 16) at 7pm. Gold Star Bar in Wicker Park. (No food there, so I’m up for changing the venue if you want to eat.) Get in touch if you’re in.
3) Would you share this not-contest on Facebook/Twitter? It doesn’t increase your chances, but it makes you instantly 73% more awesome. ;)
They say behind every successful man is a successful woman. Well, there’s also a failure or two …
As you know, I don’t like to dwell on mistakes and failures. But successful people almost never talk about where they’ve gone wrong and it’s something a lot of people can learn from. Which is why, every once in a while, I’ll showcase one of my own mistakes or failures.
I do this for 2 reasons:
So you can see I’m not perfect. :) I mess up a lot. The fact that I mess up a lot means I put myself in a position to succeed. A lot. ;)
Hopefully you learn something from my mistakes and avoid them in your own current or future ventures.
Zavoom isn’t an actual word. I made it up. I liked the way it sounded, it was short, and I could brand the business any way I wanted.
So what was Zavoom? It was an “e-mail club” that I would run for local businesses. The idea was that I would set up physical e-mail subscription forms for each business (placed near their registers) and then add whoever signed up to an e-mail list specifically for that business. Then I would send out regular discounts and information for the business.
More info directly from the About page:
What is Zavoom.com?
The home of a very effective marketing program for local merchants utilizing the power of the repeat customer. If your business has walk-in traffic and would like to promote customer loyalty, then our marketing program will work wonders for you.
What kind of marketing program?
It is known as Local E-mail Marketing or LEM. Your customers subscribe to your own “e-mail club” which periodically offers them discounts on your goods and/or services. You can then send your “e-mail club” members special offers up to 4 times per month, bringing your business a nice little boost every time. You will also have the ability to send a special offer to our whole network of “e-mail club” members.
Do I have to run this “e-mail club” myself?
No, Zavoom.com will take care of everything for you. We will set up an “e-mail club” box in your establishment that will entice your customers to join. They simply fill out a very short form with their name and e-mail address agreeing to join your “e-mail club.” Any time you have an offer to send to your customers, you just let us know what it is and we take it from there. The names and e-mail addresses in the “e-mail club” box will be collected up to 4 times/month. Privacy is of utmost importance: we will never sell your customer’s information to another establishment.
Will I see immediate results?
You should start seeing results as soon as you have approximately 250+ “e-mail club” members. It should not take you longer than 1 or 2 months to attain this level of membership.
Will my “e-mail club” also be listed on Zavoom.com?
Yes, you will be listed on Zavoom.com with your very own Web page along with any special offer you give to new members. We recommend a 5-50% discount off their next purchase to entice them to join your club. Your Web page will also include your phone number, address, hours of operation, and 1 picture (a logo or a picture of your establishment). You can also include your Web site address and additional pictures as described below.
How much will I have to invest in this marketing program?
Your investment is based on which “e-mail club” package you choose.
Our packages are:
Silver:
· 1 Web page for your business on Zavoom.com
· E-mail your “e-mail club” a special offer up to 1 time per month.
· Up to 500 “e-mail club” members.
· Investment: $99 setup, $49/month.
· Only $49/year extra to include your Web site address and up to 1 extra picture on your Zavoom.com Web page.
Gold:
· 1 Web page for your business on Zavoom.com
· E-mail your “e-mail club” a special offer up to 2 times per month.
· Up to 1,000 “e-mail club” members.
· Investment: $99 setup, $79/month.
· Only $49/year extra to include your Web site address and up to 1 extra picture on your Zavoom.com Web page.
Platinum:
· 1 Web page for your business on Zavoom.com
· E-mail your “e-mail club” a special offer up to 4 times per month.
· Unlimited “e-mail club” members.
· A Web site link and up to 1 extra picture can be included on your Zavoom.com Web page free of charge with a Platinum membership.
· Investment: $99 setup, $99/month.
Annual Investment:
If you opt for the annual (once per year) investment, you will receive one month free.
How much is the investment to mail your whole “e-mail club” list?
To send a one time mailing to our whole list consisting of every “e-mail club” member on our network the investment is $59 per 1,000 members. This is a great way to add an extra boost of foot traffic and sales at any time of year.
This was a fairly thought out business model, but a little bit difficult to explain. And there was one big problem …
Results
This may have been ahead of its time (although I did have data of a few restaurants that did it successfully). It was difficult to extol the benefits of an e-mail club to small businesses. Most small businesses (don’t get me started, many small businesses are run by absolute imbeciles) still don’t use any customer follow up method even though it’s easier and cheaper than ever. (Dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb, dumb.)
As for results? None. I didn’t sell any packages. But …
Why It Didn’t Work
I gave up too soon. I only met with 5 or 6 business owners before I gave up on this idea. The thing is, I’ve always loved marketing and sales, but I hated it in person. I’ve always been a bigger fan of the written word than the spoken word. Local lead generation works great. Look at Groupon and the ilk. My idea was not exactly the same, of course, but small businesses are far more open to local internet marketing now than they were in 2003. (Chad Frederiksen, more on him below, does a wonderful job at local lead generation.)
What Should I Have Done Differently?
I should have signed up businesses for free and charged them based on how much business I brought them. I’d probably have made much more money this way than a flat monthly fee I was charging. But again, I quit because I just didn’t enjoy face to face sales. Also, my other businesses were thriving by 2003 so money itself wasn’t motivation enough to pursue Zavoom.
Closing Thoughts
I look back on this idea with fond memories. I remember designing the site and writing the sales letter and I had a lot of fun with all of the internet based stuff. The offline stuff just wasn’t fun at all to me. I wasn’t comfortable on sales calls and I still wouldn’t be comfortable with sales calls if I had to make them today.
How Would You Have Made Zavoom.com A Success?
If the Zavoom “e-mail club” idea was yours what would you have done differently in 2003? What would you do today to make this work?
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If you’re interested in the local lead generation business model Chad Frederiksen (<– he doesn’t blog often, but his archives are worth a read), one of the smartest no bullshit marketers around, does it quite successfully. Check out his Local Lead Plan here.
In which I talk about robber masks & winter weather and share some kick ass links …
Best $5 Ever Spent
The weather people didn’t lie. We had some crazy weather here in Chicago this week. Good thing I have my robber mask. It made playing in the snow more fun. Everything seems to be pretty much in order now, but it was great being part of the 3rd largest snowfall in Chicago’s history. :) Now we go back to our regularly scheduled lives, except with much colder temperatures than normal. Cold weather isn’t as fun without snow. Oh well …
By popular demand I put up an Extraordinary Resources section that details (in over 1,700 words) what I use and recommend to run the business side of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com as well as other resources useful to my life. Check it out, let me know what you think, and let me know if I’m missing something.
Chicago Meetup!
Note: I originally said it would be Wednesday Feb 9. Sorry, making it a week later.
Wednesday, February 16, 7-9pm (although I’m happy to hang out longer). I’m thinking Gold Star Bar in Wicker Park (best jukebox in the world) or if you want to meet up for drinks and food Pick Me Up Cafe (vegan and meat foods!) in Wrigleyville. Let me know your preference and if you’re in get in touch on Twitter.
Greg makes some great points about social proof and making sales. I have the privilege (or maybe it’s a curse? hehe) to have been involved in Internet businesses for about 11 years now so I can spot the lies quickly. It happens more than you’d think.
Straight up, this list is awesome. It answers the question “If you could do anything, what would it be?” many times over. Note to Lach: I’ve gone hang gliding and I think you’ll love it. It actually feels like flying whereas skydiving and bungee jumping feels more like a wind tunnel. :)
This is why more people should listen to Henri. He’s very smart and he knows what he’s doing. Only about 10% of his income was from his blog, the rest from his niche websites. Proof you don’t have to be a blogger or sell your own infoproducts to make money online. You can sell other people’s products and direct advertising (among many other options) and still make a great living.
You may be wondering why this Saturday is so focused on money and affiliate marketing and business? Well, I get a lot of questions about that, but it’s not something I enjoy writing about too often. Instead, linking to smart people like Sugarrae is my preferred method of spreading the “start a business” love. This particular article is very important. Most people *do not* know the psychology behind reviews. Negatives aren’t conversion killers. People expect them. If you write a review (or have a review site) that is all positive reviews then you’re a straight up scam artist. If you want an example of how to write a review check out my Frequent Flyer Master Review. That single page pretty much pays for my food expenses every month (Depending on the country, it pays for my housing expenses as well!) and it’s about 90% positive / 10% negative.
Thanks for hanging out! Oh, Mind Control Method will be available for 24 hours this coming Tuesday starting at 10am EST. Have a good weekend!
I don’t think about birthdays much. In fact, I have a tradition of hanging out mostly solo on my birthday. I’ve stuck to that for about 5 years straight now. It’s a time of reflection more than a time to party. When I was a child, of course, birthdays were different. Presents! Cake! Pop! (That’s soda-pop if you’re not in the know. Now you know.) If you’re into celebrating days of birth with a big “me, me, me” day that’s cool. It’s just not me.
Last year on my birthday I launched the business side of RidiculouslyExtraordinary.com with my first product (while in India), then doubled the gross sales and sent it all to entrepreneurs through Kiva.org. (Maybe that’s not a very profitable business model?) I won’t be doing that this year. Been there, done that, it was fun, but I need new stimuli. You know?
Recently I’ve been thinking a lot about life’s most important question. And then I thought “hmm, if I answer this, it would be a cool thing to do for my birthday.”
The Meaning of Life
Life’s most important question is: “If I could do anything, what would it be?”
If we’re not striving for doing our anythings, what’s the point? I don’t know about you, but creating memories is my idea of “the meaning of life.” For example, while everybody else is pissed off or freaking out and waiting in hour long grocery store lines because The Great Snowpacalypse (spelled like that in honor of 2Pac, of course) has come, I’d rather go play in the snow, create some memories, and figure out what I’ll eat tomorrow tomorrow.
Maybe there won’t be any lines at the grocery store tomorrow and I’ll be the smartest guy on the block. Or maybe the grocery stores won’t even be open and I’ll eat strictly beans & quinoa for 2 days since that’s all I have stocked. Or maybe my stove won’t work, all the stores & restaurants will be closed, and I won’t eat anything. It’ll be OK. I promise.
I ask again, if you could do anything, what would it be?
But The Real Question Is …
Generally speaking I’m living my anything, but I’ve been thinking about taking it to a very specific level. To figure out that very specific anything you have to ask yourself a more intense question such as “If you knew you would die soon, but you had just enough time to do your anything, what would that anything be?”
It could be … well … anything.
Spend time with family/friends?
Sleep?
Eat an extravagant meal at a top rated restaurant?
Or maybe it’s a “once in a lifetime” type of event like climb Mt Everest?
I’ve been thinking along the “once in a lifetime” track for myself, but I haven’t come up with my anything. Most of the things I want to do are not specific one time events that can be boxed into a short time frame. Besides, obviously, a space flight. At $250k per flight I’ll wait for a different birthday for that one. Or maybe Richard Branson will give me a 95% off birthday discount. ;)
I don’t know if you’ve noticed, but lately I’ve been writing articles without specific answers. I’ve also cut down on “hooks.” Not many headlines and subheadlines and bullet points unless they come naturally. Not a lot of highlighting. No attempts to catch “readers” who really only scan.
Maybe it will change tomorrow, but I’ve been making an attempt at writing in a way that causes you to reflect and figure the answers out yourself. It’s better for you that way. And it’s better for me as well. I’ve been getting some interesting e-mails with ideas, explanations, information, and points-of-view that I would have never seen myself if I didn’t leave certain articles more open-ended.
The Answer & Your Mission
If you write a blog or pen & paper journal this article does end with a specific answer, but it comes from you. Give yourself the answer to life’s most important question right now. Start with “If I could do anything, what would it be?” and let it flow.
This is so important that you’re not allowed to write it here in a spur of the moment comment. Take the time to reflect on your blog or in your pen & paper journal. Or hell, even a piece of scrap paper …
Before selling all my crap and leaving for Australia in 2009 I was scared. I distinctly remember waking up on 1 Sept, 2009 after a less-than-stellar night of sleep and thinking to myself “Holy crap, it’s happening, what am I doing? Here we go …” Even though Australia is English speaking and it’s not a place where I would experience culture shock, the newness (to me) of what was happening was a scary feeling.
Before flying to India in 2010 I was scared. I’d never been to a Third World country before and I’d heard many stories, both good and bad. “Prepare to experience the dirtiest place you’ve ever seen.” “India is amazing, you’re going to love it.” “Watch out for little kids getting too close for comfort and reaching into your bags.” Some of the things I heard were utterly ridiculous and nothing prepared me for the actual experience.
Before going back to my birthplace (Wroclaw, Poland) I was scared. Was I going to hate it? Would I actually improve my Polish language skills enough to stop feeling embarrassed conversing in the language?
Before jumping into a canyon head first in New Zealand I was scared. “You’re going to hold me upside down 160m above the ground and then drop me 60m in a few seconds? Hmmm …”
Before starting my first business project I was scared. “What if I fail? What if everybody makes fun of me? What if I don’t make it?”
Before beginning new business projects I still get scared. “What if this doesn’t go over well? What if I waste my time and the results are subpar?”
Before starting this blog I was scared. “Is anybody going to read besides me and a friend or two?”
You’re going to be afraid when you’re aspiring to extraordinary experiences. Fear is natural. There is no such thing as “no fear.”
There is such a thing as “I wish I would have done X and not let fear get the best of me.” That’s known as regret.
It’s not easy to live a life of no regrets, but if you don’t aspire to that are you even truly living?
Today I release one piece of paid work (
