Long form articles about Success for solopreneurs
Shorter articles about Success in a solo business
My new metrics for success
I’ve been feeling a little lost lately, not sure what I should be working on next.
I need clarity on what I want,
so I can decide what actions will lead towards my goal.
Just now my goals aren’ttask-related, but perception related.
How am I thinking during the day, and how did I feel about it?
How to measure my success:
- Did I grow 1%?
- How much fun did I have in my work today?
- How much free time did I have to be a Dad?
Be what you admire in your mentors:
- Was I helpful?
- Was I grateful?
- Was I joyful?
- Was I loving?
- Was I resilient?
- Did I grow
Lessons for life from pine trees
Ice, wind, darkness.
All these stunt growth in nature.
Humans are the only species on earth that can feed on hardship and turn it into growth.
But it can go either way…
Hardship has to be recognised and chosen,
Else it festers into victimhood.
Today I sat at the side of a still reservoir and watched the wind russle through a grove of tall Scot’s pine,
I thought about how much we have to learn from pine trees.
Many have been around longer than us.
With minimal effort, they grow a pinecone
from a tiny nub into a perfectly symmetrical design,
In just a few months
With nothing but sunlight and water.
The tree grows hundreds of pine cones, cultivating many “small bets”
which they then drop over decades.
They let the world do the heavy lifting.
They may lose branches, sometimes whole limbs
But it doesn’t matter.
They have more.
They can grow more.
So long as the roots are solid.
When the weather turns,
Pine trees lose curb growth to conserve energy
More than half the battle is just placement and environment.
A tree that starts in sandy soil
May pay the price,
Even decades later
And collapse under one strong wind
But even then,
a fallen tree can make a U-turn and keep growing up towards the light
Inch by inch
Great things take time, I just need the patience of the pine tree.
Effort vs expertise
I’m just back from the trip of a lifetime, skiing in France.
3 years ago this type of holiday would not have been possible for us.
I count my blessings every day.
It was truly a fairy-tale place.
Cosy cabins, epic mountain scapes, misty godrays split through hazy treelines stretched across jagged whitecapped peaks stretching off impossibly tall into soft pink skies at sunset.
Everywhere Skiers slalomed their way gracefully down the slopes…
I was not one of these elegant figures.
It turns out “easy” routes in the Alps are equivalent of “difficult” in the UK and I haven’t skied in 15 years. 😅
Nevertheless, after about a day of faceplants and cartwheels, and impressive pirouettes, I found my ski legs and mustered what might even be called grace.
After the first day my legs were jelly!
I was expending all my effort trying to stop. to slow down my mass,
and I bludgeoned my way down the slope, mostly on my ass, sometimes on my face.
Whereas the experts spent a fraction of the effort, they simply leaned in, turned their ankles just a few degrees to redirect their angle down the slope….
flawless elegance and speed!
Not only did they spend a fraction of the energy but they got to the destination more quickly.
Plus they didn’t look like a fool.
They had a serene look of intense focus and joy.
Its the classic scalpel vs the sledgehammer. The sniper instead of the shotgun
Just another example of how a tiny bit of effort applied the right way,
has a much bigger impact than brute force and effort.
Where else can we apply this principle in your life and business?
Where can we apply expertise instead of brute force to build leverage?
Nothing happens. Then all at once.
This morning I watched the geese flying over.
Spring is here.
Once you’ve noticed it you see it everywhere.
I could swear yesterday in my morning lap of the field the trees were bare
Today there’s a wash of green as new leaves have suddenly unfurled at the first sight of sun.
Nothing happens at first, then all at once. Keep at it. Build momentum
Where my head’s at – public accountability statement
Here’s a snapshot of where my head’s at right now…
I’m making a public commitment to hold myself accountable.
I want to look back at this in 5 years and know that I was true to my self and my vision.
For now I’m still running Design Hero about 24 hrs a week.
Design Hero funds my lifestyle just fine.
Eventually Life by Design may be my primary income and primary work
For now it doesn’t make much money, except for some coaching which I enjoy.
But the goal isn’t money just now.
I know Life by Design is more scalable in terms of my time via digital products and freelance coaching.
It’s more rewarding than my client work.
I get to see the direct benefit on people I get to know as friends.
Everyone is selling something at the end of the day.
I’m giving away free resources for freelancers.
I hope that helps someone.
If I can sell something too I’m ok with that.
But if I ever use the high pressure sales tactics that some preach,
and that I’ve experienced myself,
then I have lost my way.
Life By Design, I haven’t 100% figured it out yet as it’s still a passion project that gives me purpose in my life.
I made a commitment to write every day for a year, sharing what I know about growing a solo business.
So that’s what I’m doing. Writing like a mofo. It helps me figure stuff out.
Whatever results from that will happen.
But I’m not setting any fixed targets around money, or followers or no of students.
What will be will be.
My goal would be to help freelancers get past that hump where they are working like mad and earning less than a 9-5.
I want to help them design their lifestyle first and build a business around that, without all the burnout and pressure.
Over past few years I paid over £10k for courses and coaching about courses and coaching 🤣
I learned a lot.
But they all focus on selling courses and coaching, or social growth.
No-one is telling you how to actually get better at teaching people.
And I just don’t agree with a lot of the high pressure sales tactics promoted in a lot of these courses.
So I’ll need to learn how to be a better coach, and deliver better courses on my own.
The high-ticket coaches promoting high pressure sales?
Sure, they are all making huge £.
But now I see a rash of “high ticket” coaches and freelancers are burning out, quitting, miserable.
I’m glad I didn’t listen 😂
It reaffirms that my content about lifestyle is more important than content about growth and sales.
Even if it’s less attractive or harder to sell.
You can’t just keep handing out candy like crack.
Sometimes the people need to be forced to eat their veg.
I’d rather grow slower, and learn as I go, than sell out for a quick buck.
Purpose in my vision.
Consistency in my actions
Time on my side
As your success increases, so must your ability to say NO.
As you get better at your job you will be offered more opportunities.
Which means the better you get, the busier you get.
You must learn to get better at taking on less.
You must learn to do only the tasks that match the level of your abilities.
You must improve your focus to match the level of your abilities.
Otherwise you will spend your valuable time doing less valuable work.
Otherwise the trailing result will be overwhelm and the only reward for your success will be stress.
It’s easy to turn down busiwork and bad ideas.
It’s hard to turn down good opportunities
Try saying “good idea…but not now.
Store the ideas for later
Refocus
You must improve your focus to match the level of your abilities.
Use momentum to beat the hump
There is a point in any project or endeavour,
Where you make quick gains at the start,
you feel like you’re winning,
then suddenly you hit the hump.
This is where most people give up.
It’s like driving a car:
easy to get to 30 mph.
just a little bit harder to get to 60mph
much harder to get to 70mph
Success is doing the same things up to the point where you lose momentum, then carry on.
Carrying on until the next paradigm shift or breakthrough
every long term project has multiple humps.
at this point shiny object syndrome normally kicks in and you move onto something else and start again.
Realign with your goals
stay to the path
Use consistency to beat the hump
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