I started strong.
I got up at 5:40, meditated, planned my day, got the kids off to school, exercised, and was ready before 8 am.
This rarely happens, but when it does, my day goes well.
Just not this day.
When You're Working Hard but Not Getting Results
The Lure Effect: Why waking up early won't make you a millionaire (and all the other life hack lies)
It wouldn't have mattered if all 7 billion people on this planet were screaming in unison for my success. Nor would it have mattered how early I'd woken up that morning, how much water I drank, or if I'd eaten protein for breakfast. It wouldn't have made a bit of difference if I'd created a plan for my day, meditated, or drafted the perfect self-introspection piece in my journal.
I didn't know how to drive a stick-shift well, so it was unlikely I'd get it right. I would have stalled that son-of-a-bitch on the platform every single time.
Skills can't be faked.
Wanting to succeed is never enough.
And life-hacks won't give you some magical power to achieve more than you're already achieving.
So You Want to Be An Influencer? Consider This First...
It looks like “the good life,” doesn’t it?
The influencers life.
Wake up late, post a selfie next to your new Ferrari, then make money horsing around on social media with some trending product sent to you for free by some hot new company.
Cushy. Fun. Exciting.
Who wouldn’t want that life?
I sure have thought about it. About how to get it. More than once.
Everywhere you turn, influencers seem to dominate the online conversation. Youtube celebrities push funny new videos and receive thousands of likes per second. Instagram characters publish a new post and, before you know it, you’re swiping up on their latest story to buy what they’re pitching.
Though I have no fucking clue what he does, it’s not hard to see myself as the next PewDiePie. It’s not unreasonable to see any influencers success and believe that you can have it too.
And guess what? You can.
You have more opportunities than ever to become a massive, influencing success through dozens of online platforms that reach (quite literally) over 40% of the world’s population.
For the first time in history, you can get paid to promote a product that you’ve never used, developed by someone you’ve never met, sold by a company you can’t pronounce, and make a fortune doing it.
But this isn’t an article about how to do that.
What is a Purpose? The Ultimate Life Hack for the Lifehacker
The average American spends 11 hours a day consuming media.
Eleven hours.
Every. Single. Day.
Two hours and 22 minutes of that time are spent on social media. The rest is spent in front of a TV or online reading, listening, or interacting with content.
According to my iPhone, I’m better than average.
But it’s hardly worth celebrating...
10 Ways to Massively (and Immediately) Improve Your Life
Life hacks. Tactics. Pro tips for stealing small, incremental improvements to your life...
Make your bed.
Organize your desk.
Drink eight glasses of water a day.
Who. Fucking. Cares?
Seriously, are these truly going to make your life better? Are you going to look back from your death bed and say, "you know, I wish I would have drunk so much goddamn water that I needed to piss 47 times every day?"
You Just Gotta Do You
She literally wouldn’t look at the camera.
⠀
I tried calling her name. I tried whistling. I tried making that funny clicking noise... you know, when you smile, press your tongue to the roof of your mouth, and suction air through the sides of your teeth (what the hell is that called?)
⠀
But when it’s photo time, Dottie turns her bulldog head to show her “good side.” She will not look at the camera. And there’s nothing any human being can do about it.
⠀
That’s just one of the quirks that make Dottie, Dottie. When you know that about her, you love her even more for it.
⠀
Dottie wasn’t trying, but this stubborn bulldog quirk of hers contained a bit of advice:
The Cure for Uncertainty, Lost Focus, and Lack of Motivation in Your Business
It's debilitating, isn't it?
Not knowing if you are on the right path. The uncertainty of whether what you are working on will bring you success.
You work and work. You push from every angle to make an inch of progress Only to look up one day and find yourself lost; unsure if what you are doing is getting you anywhere, worried that you are missing something.
It's a hard feeling to shake.
When this uncertainty hits, it saps your motivation. Your focus and clarity transform into a gloomy cloud of doubt hanging overhead, raining worry and dissatisfaction upon you.
Every business owner knows this feeling.
3 Hidden Sticking Points that Plague Small Businesses
If there’s one thing we’ve learned from building several small businesses and working with small business owners, it’s that running a small business is hard and growing one is even harder.
There are many reasons why, but at the simplest level, it’s because you’ve got too many problems and too much to do with limited help and resources. Yet, through dedication, skill, and innovation, motivated business owners find a way to get things going.
Yet, almost inevitably, most small businesses eventually hit a “sticking point.” Sales may flat-line or even decline. Issues with customers and quality emerge. Conditions in the market change. Cash runs short. Colleagues and employees become frustrated.
It’s is a critical time in your business. Not time to panic, but time to take quick and decisive action to right the ship.
The key at this point is taking the right action.
With that in mind, let’s take a look at three underlying and sometimes hidden factors that can cause your business to hit a sticking point. They exist on a foundational level and can impact the business from the inside out.