There are 10 posts tagged inspiration ().
Honesty and openness are a big part of this small blog’s agenda . So I’ll keep it brutally honest.
In this post, I will share with your exactly why I’m dissapointed with myself at the moment and the key thing I learnt to change that. So lets dive in.
We’re in August, and I haven’t moved an inch on achieving my 2016 goals.
Well, it’s not true – We’ve doubled the business revenue and doubled our team size. But those were all linear. The leap I was planning for was bigger than that.
Throughout life, we face hundreds of awkward, uncomfortable or embarrassing situations.
Getting turned down by a girl you wanted to ask out. Failing at your first venture, Giving the wrong answer in front of a class filled with bad kids or simply falling flat on your nose on the street because you stepped on a wondering stone.
The fear of feeling uncomfortable is dangerous.
If you’ve been following my blog, you know that I’ve challenged myself to write a blog post every day in 2016. 365 posts. Day by day.
If you’ve truly been following me, than you know I broke my streak last week and haven’t posted a single post.
While I have been writing every day, I haven’t been posting everyday .
Inspiration and motivation are hard to maintain.
Entrepreneurs are well known to be super happy on the one day and be depressed and think nothing is going their way the second. I think everybody feels that rollercoaster actually.
The secret is knowing how to overcome it and not surrender to being sad, demotivated and basically give up.
This post is a way for me to call my bluff. And maybe yours as well.
Procrastination has a bad reputation, though it’s not always a bad thing as long as you are aware of it.
There’s a huge difference between procrastinating and lying to yourself about it, and procrastinating with full awareness but lack of self control.
Life is too short. We all know it. We rarely act according to it.
Today, Michael Assaf shared a beautiful post with me on Twitter.
The post, simply titled “Life is Short” was written by Paul Graham, and has managed to do what many cliche’ posts could not. Really look at what I’m spending my time doing and thinking – am I doing the right choices.
Inspirational quotes are everywhere these days.
It’s actually one of the most successful marketing strategies on social media. Neil Patel used it to increase his Facebook reach, Gary Vaynerchuk is dedicating his entire Instagram for his self-made inspirational quotes. Hell, almost every entrepreneurial Instagram account is using those.
Interacting with your followers and having meaningful engagements and conversations are key to social media and content success.
What keeps surprising me is that this is where a lot of companies and personal brands are really missing the mark.
You will be surprised how many social media folks just don’t engage back at all, and the ones that do, usually simple “like” the other persons comment or maybe sometimes say a simple ‘thank you’.
The Morning is the most important part of your day.
Starting your day with a good or bad mood can change the way you’ll perceive your day’s events.
Most of us start our morning by rushing out to work, taking your kid to school, panically answering emails from the day before or even with a wake up call from your boss that started their day 2 hours before you and is now stressing you out.
If you start your day stressed, you’re going to have a shitty day. Guaranteed.
If you’ll start your day in peace and in a positive state – your days, decisions and perception of reality will improve and be more optimistic. Leading you to have better days, make better decisions and better enjoy your life. Everyday.
If you could choose between having a good day and a bad day, what would you choose?
Checking emails first thing in the morning is one of the worst thing you can do to yourself.
Do you know what’s waiting for you in your inbox? Work. You are basically setting the tone for your day to be stressful.
When you check your email first thing in the morning you are automatically putting yourself in a reactive mode, meaning you lose control over your day right at the start.
Gain control over you day just by not checking your inbox for the first 60 minutes.
Get up, focus on yourself or your family, and only then check your email. The fact that your phone is right next to your bed, doesn’t mean you have to enslave yourself to it.
Meditation is one of the best things you can do for yourself. It’s a great way to balance your thoughts, clear your mind, prioritise what really matters and just be present in the moment.
At the beginning of the meditation session you will be overwhelmed with thoughts, worries and assignments you need to take care of in the day. As you progress all that stressful noise will become a still, calm water. In you will gain clarity and perspective, giving you more control over how you start your day.
Don’t start your day in panic and feeling of being overwhelmed. Meditate and clear your mind. Get yourself ready for the day, don’t just drown in it.
Another good practice to set your day to be positive and controlling your morning mood, is to get inspired as early as you can.
Getting inspired will fill you with energy to tackle the different challenge throughout the day.
You can get inspire by watching TED talks, listening to a podcast you like (Gary Vaynerchuck is a really good listen in the mornings), or just listen to upbeat music.
Give your brain something to work with and you will see how you become more positive within seconds.
Writing is also a great way to start your morning. You can just scribble some stuff in your journal, pouring thoughts out just to clear your mind (I use Day One for that).
You can also use something like ‘The 5 minute journal’, which will take only 5 minutes of your morning routine and will set you up for a positive mood.
The logic behind it is very simple – you have a structured format of questions that you need to answer on, that are all positive and will help you focus on the good things you have going on in life.
Starting your day by being reminded of all the good things you have to cherish will boost your energy for sure.
When you wake up from sleep, your body is dehydrated. It’s a fact. And it doesn’t matter how much water you drank in the previous night.
While most people do the mistake of drinking coffee to wake up, water is actually the better solution.
By drinking 2-3 cups of water as soon as you wake up, you will ditch that sleepy feeling right away and bring energy to your body.
No one can promises your day will be filled with only good news and all your problems will go away, but follow this 5 simple tricks and I can promise your quality of life and amount of good days a year, will increase already on day one.
Here’s a short list of things I KNOW I missed because I didn’t step out of my comfort zone in the last 3 years:
1. Growing my company faster
2. Building a stronger company at the present
3. Giving talks to 3 of the biggest brands in the digital world
4. Over 100K$ (at least) in selling digital products and missing business opportunities
5. Traveling abroad more
6. Stronger brand awareness
7. Meeting some of my biggest heroes
This is only a real partial list.
During the past month as I was on some kind of a ‘Paternity leave’ (more on that in another post) I had some time to think about my life, my business and how i’ve been living them so far.
Yes, I’ve achieved some very cool stuff at my young age (both on a personal and business levels) but I know it’s only a friction.
Why? Because I got carried away with worrying about the wrong themes and having self doubts (even Tim Ferriss has them, so it’s OK) and being too self-aware and self criticizing.
How bad was it? Until last Friday, I never took a ‘selfie’ and posted it online! Thank you Gary Vaynerchuk for giving me the final push to do so.
I HATE BEING CRIPPLED BY THESE THINGS!
So I’ve decided it’s time to handle it one step at the time.
Here are some of the things I’ve done:
1. I talked with 3 friends that I feel are doing things I don’t have the guts to do.
2. I chose three programs / frameworks / challenges that to complete them I’ll have to step out of my comfort zone.
Here are the 3 things I will be doing:
1. I never launched a digital product, or lets say, never really ‘sold’ something that aren’t my services.
WHAT I’M GOING TO DO:
I got an email from Gumroad telling me about an email course on ‘how to build a digital product’.
Now, I’ve built tens (if not hundreds of them) for my clients, so I know how to do it successfully, but I’ve never done it for myself. So I’m going to follow through with Gumroad’s course just to give me structure .
In 14 days, I’m going to launch an email course to help startup marketers start and grow their company’s Twitter account.
2. I’m not an ugly guy. I’m no Brad Pitt, but I’m definitely not the most ugly guy to take a selfie. So why is it so hard for me? I don’t know.
Taking selfies with clients, thought leaders or generally in locations and event worth mentioning is a strong branding tool. It’s 2015, not using this, doesn’t make any sense.
WHAT I’M GOING TO DO:
In the next 7 days I will take a selfie with 3 different people and post it to Twitter / Instagram. Just to get used to it.
3. Tackle video / live streaming – I gave talks in front of hundreds of people. I don’t have stage fear of any kind, but video has always been hard for me.
At the beginning I thought about making a short video and posting it online, but then I understood I will have too many excuses for not US it. So I found an alternative.
WHAT I’M GOING TO DO:
I’m going to leverage the fact that i’ll be releasing the Twitter course, and i’m going to announce it using Meerkat (The live streaming for Twitter app). Why live streaming? Because it’s one take – one chance. No time to over complicate it.
This will happen in the next 12 days (Assuming the course will be ready in 14 days as planned).
I know, these are simple stuff that people do everyday right? I could’ve been the worst teenager ever, right?
There are so many things I need to tackle out of my comfort zone, but I wanted to start with 3 rather easy ones, so I could achieve my first small wins, meaning I will be more motivated to tackle bigger challenge later on.
Here’s the framework I’m using right now to step out of my comfort zone – so you can use it too if you’d like.
1. Decide on 3 ‘issues’ you can easily do that are right now out of your comfort zone. Start with 3 simple things because getting those quick wins will get you motivated in tackling the bigger things that take more courage or willpower.
2. Define them in the most specific way: I didn’t just say “sell stuff online”, I actually looked for a very specific thing I can do in a very specific time frame. “3 selfies in 7 days”, “email course in 14 days”, “live streaming the product announcement using Meerkat”. The more specific I’ll get, the more I’m likely to actually do it.
3. Tell the world – If I’d only announce it to myself, I can easily back away from it, right? I’ll make up the same excuses I’ve always used and never do it.
By announcing it I now have people watching me and expecting me to overcome my fears. Backing away right now will force me to “shame” myself or disappoint someone.
When did you last leave your comfort zone? What would you like to do that you don’t have the guts to do now? Let me know in the comments.
You can also tell me on Twitter (@roypovar) lets do it together!