Productivity Booster: Decide to Have Fun Doing It & Enjoy Taking Any Action

It's funny, every time I ask my subscribers questions like: "Where are you stuck right now?" "How could things be better?" "If I could wave a magic wand and fix one thing about you to improve your live, what would it be?"

A very very very small percentage of people tell me things like: I need to improve this conversion rate by 1%... or I need to finish this product...

Most of the people who respond to me tell me they have a deeper problem: lack of focus, not being organized, time management, overwhelm, lack of creativity, or lack of productivity...

Why You Are Where You Are

The good news is these problems are easy to solve. Then why doesn't every one solve them? A few reasons...

First, it takes a lot of existing time and energy to break your existing habits. You'll actually put more work and effort into staying the way you are, even if it's "easier" to act a different way -- more on that in a minute.

Second, it's even easier to regress into your previous self. Think about "that one time" you took a morning run, "that one time" you went to the gym after a New Year's Resolution and then never went back, "that one time" you paid for advertising? Being a productive person is a continuous process, not a one time event!

Third, you self-sabotage yourself every step of the way. Don't feel bad, we all do it. I can't go drive to that place because I can't find my phone. I can't lift weights at the gym because I brought the wrong color shorts. I'm going to cut my run short because the battery in my iPod died. I can't run a webinar because that would mean I actually FINISHED something!

Are we agreed then? We all have a focus/productivity problem, we need to make a PERMANENT change and in a way "outsmart" ourselves to be better... BUT at the same time, we can't "just snap out of it" or "force ourselves to do it" because we won't repeat the process. Here's what you need to do instead...

How to Change Your Own Mind

Let me ask you something, do you enjoy every day going to the dentist, mowing the lawn, and doing the dishes? PROBABLY NOT!

I ask because this last week, I visited a dentist for the first time in 8 years. Don't worry, nothing was hurting, and it turns out I had no cavities. Why did I go? Because it was the right thing to do.

I thought to myself, if they find anything wrong... the damage has already been done, at least they caught it before it got any worse, I can stop worrying about it and I'm better than most people because I'm going to have a good attitude about thing this easy step.

This month, I also fired my landscaper and hired a new one. I've been meaning to get rid of this guy for a while. He stopped pulling the weeds, let the bushes grow into the walkways, began mowing the grass very unevenly, and somehow managed to break most of the sprinklers with his lawnmower.

It's something I've been meaning to do for a while... until one day, I looked out at that misshapen brown lawn and thought, I'm embarrassed to live here. One phone call, hi I'd like to terminate service, do I owe you anything, thanks bye... a second phone call, are you taking on new customers, here's the services I need, what day can you do it, here's my payment information, done.

There are two ways of looking at that. One way, "I have to get rid of this stupid idiot who can't mow my lawn." "Why does my yard suck so much." "I have to make these stupid phone calls." "I have to shell out even more money."

Or, how about this? Everything's been running on autopilot for a while, but it's no longer working out. The landscaper has other business, he has no problem with being fired. Things are a little bit broken, but I'll make two quick phone calls to fix it. And imagine how neat, clean, crisp, trimmed and green the yard will look once this new guy comes in and fixes things.

How This Affects You

You know that optin page you just can't get yourself to finish installing? That Kindle book you can't finish writing? Autoresponder broadcast email you can't seem to write and send?

Here's what WON'Tget you to do it: Thinking you'll do it later "Forcing" yourself to "just do it" Ignoring the problem or hoping things will just be better Being a victim and enjoying your failure

Here's what WILLget you to do it: Deciding that it's the right thing to do Find a good reason to do it (even a silly one) Separate the issues you need "let go" of and the ones you should tackle head-on right now Have fun doing it so that you won't think twice about it

And if you still doubt me... have you ever found yourself cleaning your apartment because you had an important term paper due? Because one was more "fun" and pleasurable than the other.

Have you ever washed your car or cleaned the dishes because you were delaying making some important phone call? Exactly.

Look... you can let this behavior guide you in one of two ways: self sabotage & procrastination (feeling that your unimportant tasks are more "fun" than the important ones)...

Or, focused action & productivity. First figure out what important task you need to do, then justify with it logic. And finally rationalize the following things:

1. How taking action on that task will give you more pleasure than pain
2. How NOT taking that action will give you more pain than pleasure
3. How to enjoy taking that simple action, and have fun doing it, so you'll do it now, you'll do it quickly, and you'll do it over and over again

Question: What's something you've been delaying that you know you should be doing? It's ok if it's something simple, please don't include details if you are too embarrassed ... and what would get you to do it right away?

Leave Your Comment »

Overcome Your Limiting Beliefs, Fail Forward & Multiply Your Productivity by Hitting the Reset Button on Your Attitude

I want to help you get more out of the training courses you buy, the products you create, and the things you do every day...

And I would say the #1 ongoing problem that I have (I keep it under control but I'm very mindful of this problem), and that other marketers I come across with have, is the thing called...

LIMITING BELIEFS!

It's because of "limiting beliefs" that you stop your car at a red light: you believe that if you run that light, you might get killed, kill someone, or at least get an expensive ticket from a traffic camera. You don't commit murder, you don't steal or hurt others for thousands of reasons.

BUT having limiting beliefs in the wrong place means you don't always achieve your peak potential, you hold yourself back, and you don't get what you want or deserve.

Anchoring, Conflict, Sabotage

It's a way more serious issue than you've been led to believe. Here's how it happens:

Step #1: Your "bad behavior" (procrastinating, not finishing what you start, not making progress) gets anchored. How?

When you hang around the wrong people, their own destructive behavior rubs off on you. Haven't you ever dealt with a friend, or maybe a family member, who always seemed to be miserable? Who seemed to complain about everything? Complaining about the world made that person feel smart and relevant, and bringing others down to their level made them feel significant.

I don't want to get too personal, but during my teenage years and early twenties I have dealt with people who (unknowingly) punished me for success and rewarded me for failure. This is exactly why that saying "your income is the average income of your 5 closest friends" exists.

Step #2: Now, you start to experience "inner conflict" -- the nerdy term for this is cognitive dissonance. This is where you hold multiple beliefs that contradict each other. The easy one for most of us to point out is…

"I want to make lots of money, but I also feel like making lots of money is a bad thing"

Step #3: And the result of that is "self sabotage" -- some people label this as driving with one foot on the gas and one foot on the brake.

You create a product, setup a website, send emails, pay for traffic, begin a launch sequence… but when it comes time to make some sales… you drop it and you've moved onto the next thing.

You launch a brand new live class, and at the last second when it's time to open the doors, you chicken out and price it at $17 dollars instead of $997 or higher… worrying about being yelled at, people refunding, or not delivering on your claims… when in fact, none of that has happened yet!

If I wanted to, I could tell you stories about refunds I received on my birthday, on the day I quit my job, on Christmas morning BUT I choose not to worry about 1% of returned DIGITAL sales -- it's just as silly as not getting a cat because it will die in 20 years, not getting married because you might get divorced, not having a kid because it might grow up to hate you, not going to school because you might flunk out, not taking a job because you might get fired from it, not buying a house because someone might break into it, not buying a new car because someone might steal it!

Let's break down the three types of limiting beliefs: hopelessness (global beliefs), helplessness (personal beliefs), and worthlessness (future beliefs)…

Limiting Belief #1:
"Hopelessness"

This is where authority figures tell you something is impossible. Growing up it might have been a parent or mentor, nowadays it might be the news or a friend.

I like to keep in touch with my subscribers and every now and then I hear the excuse that "no one is making money during this economic downtime" (which I read from my iPhone, sitting in my Ford Mustang, in line at a Del Taco drive thru, surrounded by brand new cars). I hear that "internet marketing doesn't work" and yet everyone is buying more books, movies, plane tickets, and music online than ever before.

It makes it very tempting, easy and REWARDING to not take any action! There's no point in me learning, doing, or perfecting my internet business because it's all a big lie, right?

Limiting Belief #2:
"Helplessness"

This is where you might see that something is possible, but it's just not something you can do. During my early years in college, I had a middle-aged mentor from England who kept telling me about his $1,000 and $2,000 days… almost every day.

He kept giving me these numbers, and I was happy for him, but it made me think why I wasn't making that kind of money at the time. Then I'd try to justify it in any way possible!

Once again, a less than 1% refund rate but I've had refunds for the same product because it was "too complicated" for one person, and "too simple" for another. One person refunded "WordPress Drip" because they didn't realize it a WordPress plugin, "Newbie Crusher" because they didn't know it was for newbies, and "PHP Start Pack" because they didn't know it was for PHP. These are very rare events, but I find them very funny!

In reality, if you're looking for a "cop out" reason to not take action… you'll find it.

Here's the thing. If you take anyone's course and have the "wrong" attitude going in, you're never going to get the results you want. I remember in an earlier stage in my life, if I'd read an article or a book, and if I didn't already know or agree with what was said, I thought it was a waste of time! How silly. Likewise, in a different stage of my life, if I wasn't blown away by tons and tons of new material, I'd think the product was a waste of time.

One Piece of Information...

But now, if I attend an offline event, join a membership, or even attend a webinar or teleseminar… and even if it's a bad one… if I can get one takeaway piece of information, it's worthwhile.

People with the "helpless" limiting belief tend to take some action, but there's no follow through. I can't tell you how many students we've had who came to us with the "same" story of spending 40 thousand, 60 thousand, 100 thousand dollars on other peoples' courses. And in a couple weeks we got them  to setup their business and many times make their first sale. And then, they're gone… dropped off the face of the earth and I never hear from these people again because their limiting beliefs kept them from actually making some money online.

Limiting Belief #3:
"Worthlessness"

You might not believe you deserve to make a million dollars, or $10,000 a month, or to pay off your house, whether you admit it or not OR whether you even realize it or not.

They might have launched a product or two, and earned $1000 or $5000, but kept quiet about the results, didn't repeat the process, and didn't improve. These are the people who tell themselves they're "happy" making $500 a month online while still working at their day job that they hate, because it's easier.

They won't re-market an old product to their existing list of subscribers because some of them already own it. They worry about which blog theme to install this week, what's the best time of day to email, and what to price their product… when none of these things matter! Taking action and following through does.

Maybe I'm talking about you and you don't even realize it! I don't know. But I do know that if someone came to you and asked what your plan is to make $10k this month, or $100k this month (or whatever your next milestone is) and you're instantly angry, frustrated, and self-defeating… you've got a serious problem and you can either let it own you, or you can get it out of the way and move past it.

Now, how do you overcome your limiting beliefs and achieve your peak potential?

Solution #1:
"Ask Better Empowering Questions"

The first thing I want you to do is be very aware of the words you use over and over to describe yourself as a person, where you are in life, others around you, and how you deal with adversity.

Here's what I mean. If you're the kind of person who constantly asks themselves, "Why does this always happen to me?" Or, "Why am I such a screw up?" Or, "Why is everyone out to get me?" Then you're setting yourself up for failure.

On the other hand, if you ask yourself…

• What are at least three things that will make me feel better today?
• What am I excited about today?
• How can I learn from this problem?
• What isn't perfect yet and how can I move at least one step in that direction?
• How can I enjoy the things I'm going to do today?
• What parts of my life do I enjoy the most and how do those things make me a better person?
• What will I lose (or miss out on) if I don't take action right now?
• What is the next step I need to take today?
• What's one thing I was going to do later, but will instead do right now?

Tony Robbins made this "empowering question" technique famous although I was using this before I'd heard of Robbins. I actually learned this from a course about "how to write a bestselling book" a decade ago which told me to phrase book chapter titles as questions. The truth is, when a question is asked, your subconscious has to answer it, whether you realize it or not… so why not apply it to real life instead of just writing?

Garbage in, garbage out! Ask negative questions and you get negative answers. Ask BETTER questions and you'll get better answers.

Solution #2:
"Model Successful People"

Now that you've asked yourself better questions, or even if you're having trouble thinking of better questions, use your imagination to have someone ask it for you.

• What would Will Smith think about your current problem and how to fix it?
• If Michelle Obama launched a membership site and it didn't make a bunch of sales right away, what her next step be?
• How about George Clooney, Betty White, Michael J. Fox, Sandra Bullock? Would they think twice about mailing their list, contacting a joint venture partner, or setting up a new landing page?

Armand Morin calls this "Success Leaves Traces", Christians call this, "What Would Jesus Do" and NLP calls this "Modeling." It means, find a mentor who is where you want to be, look at what they do, find out what they did to get there, and follow their system. Tom Cruise wouldn't be afraid of running a 1-hour webinar, so why are you?

Solution #3:
"Just Do It"

This sounds like the cheesiest statement ever, but as soon as you stop "trying" to market your product and just market your product, you'll actually make sales.

Stop thinking about it so much and just "fail forward." Steve Jobs never intended to make movies, but after being kicked out of Apple, losing half his life savings on NeXT, and losing even more money on Pixar, he finally stumbled on creating movies -- $7 billion from 12 movies.

There's no way I would have begun putting out copywriting products, selling web templates, webinar classes, or even WordPress plugins if I hadn't "failed" through a bunch of mediocre launches for PHP products.

Solution #4:
"Have a Goal and Put a Value on Your Outcome"

Every month where I've set a clear goal about how many sales of a specific product I want to make, or how much money I want to make that month, I've made more money. Funny how that works.

Can I tell you something else? Within a 1 year period, I went from being single, with a day job, "stuck" at the 10K per month  range, to attending my first few internet marketing seminars, buying my dream car in cash at age 22, buying my first home at age 23, getting a long-term girlfriend (who I'm now living with 5 years later), and having several months with over $30,000 in income. I quit my day job permanently a few months after that.

Why did all this happen? I wrote down all the things I wanted to have. (This is what books like "Think and Grow Rich" are all about.) Next, I figured out what it would take to make those things happen… making more deals, launching more products, marketing more aggressively to my list, getting more traffic, building a bigger list, charging more money, writing better sales copy, the usual stuff!

Now that I knew what my goal was, and what actions I needed to take to achieve those goals, I could compare the pleasure versus the pain. Pain being time, effort, possibility of failure, moving out of my comfort zone, social awkwardness, putting myself out there. And pleasure being money, happiness, a relationship, comfort, security, peace of mind… all that good stuff.

And now I was aligned just right… moving AWAY from the pain and TOWARDS the pleasure, instead of self-sabotage.

Solution #5:
"Objection-Based Thinking"

Think in terms of small roadblocks (and little objections) instead of impassive barriers. The reason you don't have what you want, and the reason why you're not taking the actions you should, a real reason or just an excuse?

If there was just one thing holding you back from choosing your niche, what would it be? What about what's holding you back from creating a membership site? Is it something as simple as not knowing what software? Let's say you could only choose one thing.

I know I just threw a lot at you, but I think it's going to help. Tell me below, what's your current limiting belief and how is it holding you back? Or, what's a limiting belief you used to have and how did you overcome it? Please tell me below right now.

Leave Your Comment »