While day one of the Problogger conference kicked off with a confession from Founder Darren Rowse, day two began with a confession of a different kind; a personal confession from every member of the audience.
Matthew Michalewicz asked every person in the audience to confess their deepest, darkest negative thoughts. To confess the aspect of their lives that bothered them most. To write that confession down, save it, and then walk away.
Formula for Success
According to Michalewicz, there is a proven formula for success, in both life, and in business. This formula is comprised of a number of simple factors.
Define What Success Looks Like to You
Everyone has different backgrounds, upbringings. So, different things are important to different people. Define what success looks like to you, and define it as a goal. Research suggests that people with written goals are not only more likely to succeed, they earn nine times more over the course of a lifetime. Goals increase performance because of:
Focus: When you train your mind to look for something, it does it to the exclusion of everything else. People with a goal, go through the day, through workshops, through reading materials specifically focused on their goal.
Context: People with a goal ask the question ‘Will this opportunity help me achieve my goal?’ Not simply, ‘Should I take advantage of this opportunity?’ They make decisions in the context of their goal. Success is not magical. It’s not mystical. It’s about basic mental focus.
Using Goals to Pitch
As a blogger, or small business owner, a natural part of doing business is pitching. So, Micahelwisc suggests that we all use our goals to pitch, in a basic five-step process:
Be clear on your goals – what is it you want to achieve
Identify who can help you
Find out what their goals are
Identify how you can help them
Then pitch them a compelling win / win
When pitching, always talk in the context of other people. Don’t talk about yourself. Talk about them. Figure out how you can help others. Talk about their goals, and how you can help them achieve their goals.
Goals can focus the mind, and bring context to decision making. So, what stops most people in achieving their goals?
1. Lack of desire: generally speaking, people fail to achieve their goals because they don’t want their goals bad enough. According to Michaelwisc, desire is directly related to the amount of effort that you’re willing to put in. The more you want something, the more likely you are to get it. 80% of NY resolutions are abandoned because its just too hard. When it gets ‘too hard’ people start using words like: ‘I can’t’. The simple fact is, you can. If your life depended on it, if your children’s lives depended on it, you would be able to do it.
2. Set the right goal: Michaelwisc counsels that we all need to determine exactly what it is that we REALLY want. So, if we go back to the thing that we wrote down at the start of the session, the thing that we most hate in our lives, and make resolving that our goal, then we are more likely to achieve this goal. Goals should address the negatives in our lives. Goals that are theoretical, or abstract are goals that become abandoned. Goals that are close to your heart are those that are likely to be achieved. There is simply no point in setting goals that deep down you know you don’t want.
3. Belief: we act in a manner consistent with our beliefs. Belief doesn’t directly drive success, but it does influence success, because you will act on your beliefs. If you believe that you can achieve something, then you will. A couple of important points to note when it comes to belief:
The people that you spend time with can have an impact on your beliefs and your goals.
Lack of knowledge can also have a big impact on your belief. It can change your belief altogether. Once you have the knowledge that you need, and you can understand the process for success, then you will be much more likely to succeed. Success is just like a magic trick: there is a process being followed behind the scenes. If you know the process, then you can follow it. The most expensive thing in the world is ignorance. So, be a connoisseur of knowledge. Knowledge is power. Knowledge will help you succeed. Ignorance is dangerous.
Lack of action can be attributed to lack of goals, desire, belief, knowledge or fear. Sometimes the fear of failure is greater than the desire. Whenever you experience fear, ask yourself, do I want it more than I fear it? either your desire isn’t strong enough, and you don’t act. Or your desire is stronger, and you will act. Fear = progress. We fear the unknown. And the goals we set are likely to take you into the unknown. And because it’s unknown, the fear increases. But, there is a simple framework that makes taking action much easier. According to Michaelwisc, you just need to break your goal down. Unpack it into more achievable, smaller, simpler tasks that you are more inclined to be able to implement.
