AP 0603: Help! I Have Trouble Sticking with My Ideas.

AskPat 603 Episode Transcript

Pat Flynn: Hey, what's up, everybody? Pat Flynn here. Welcome to Episode 603 of AskPat. Thank you so much for joining me today. As always, I'm here to help you by answering your online business questions five days a week. We have a great question today from Kyle, but before we get to that, let's thank today's sponsor, which is ActiveCampaign.

ActiveCampaign is an advanced email marketing, marketing automation, and sales CRM or customer relationship management tool, that provides and features a simple and easy-to-use interface. Visit activecampaign.com/askpat and see firsthand how an integrated, automated marketing and sales platform can revolutionize your promotional efforts. You can sign up for a free 14-day free trial, no credit card needed right now. No training fees, no contract, and the pricing is accessible to any size business. Check it out: activecampaign.com/askpat. All right, now here is today's question from Kyle.

Kyle: Hi, Pat. First off, just want to say I love your show, everything you do. Thank you so much. My name is Kyle McKenna. I have not yet started an online business, but I'd like to soon. For me, my struggle is that I have a lot of different interests, a lot of ideas, but I can't seem to stick with one idea for long enough. I get excited, really excited about one idea. That excitement lasts for a few days and then I doubt myself and I move onto another idea that I'm excited about.

Anyway, my question is what advice do you have for someone like me, someone who struggles with picking and sticking with an idea? I'd love to hear your feedback and, of course, I'd love to get an AskPat T-shirt. Thanks for everything. See you.

Pat Flynn: Hey, Kyle. What's up? Thank you so much for the question today. Let me tell you right up front you are not alone. You, and I think every other entrepreneur, goes through this cycle where we go through a honeymoon period with these new ideas that we come up with. We get really excited about it, but once we either have to do the work or once we start to psyche ourselves out, we start to think all the what-ifs that we're initially, “What if this works? What if this is awesome? What if this is really my ticket?” Those what-ifs turn into, “Well, what if this doesn't work? What if I let people down? What if I fail? What if I just don't know how to do this?” That's just a natural progression.

I'm going to bring up a little bit of what Steven Pressfield says and I would definitely recommend actually, Kyle, that you read his book. It's called The War of Art. I have mentioned this several times in previous episodes. It's by far one of the most helpful things when it comes to the mindset. Really, this is a mindset thing. Right, Kyle?

This is what's going on in your brain to stop yourself from moving forward.
I think it's just initially a self-defense mechanism that a lot of these things that we want to do, they're big, bold actions. That's what it takes to succeed. It takes big, bold actions. A lot of times, we just scare ourselves because we don't want to get hurt in one way, shape, or form. Our body, our mind doesn't want that to happen, so we psyche ourselves out, or we procrastinate, or we do these things that pretty much aren't in alignment with what Steven Pressfield calls the resistance to stop ourselves.

The first thing I want to mention is that: A) this is very common; B) read The War of Art by Steven Pressfield. One of the most helpful books because it really helps you combat this and helps you understand that this is something that everybody goes through. It also helps you hack your way through a lot of these things to show you that this is actually good because these things that you want to do, not necessarily the niches that you pick, but the fact that you are a little bit worried about them, and that you are jumping from idea to idea, just means that there's something awesome on the other end once you stick to one of them.

That's really where I like to come in and provide help. That's why I wrote my book, Will It Fly?, which you can find at willitflybook.com. It really helps combat this jumping around of different ideas. In order to get the confidence to stick with an idea, you need to know that the idea is going to work. I think that's the reason why we jump from idea to idea.

There's that and also the fact that we just love the excitement of thinking about what an idea is like. The imagination provides us a lot of comfort sometimes, but when it comes down to the work, we don't actually want to do the work. We just feel a lot better thinking about what's actually going to happen instead of actually doing what it takes to make those things happen.

One thing I like to recommend is that you validate these ideas because when you do that and you know that these ideas are going to work, then you're going to have a lot more confidence and motivation to actually move forward. That's one part of it.
The second part of it is actually just keeping yourself excited about these new ideas. Like I said earlier, you go through this honeymoon, or grace period, in the beginning where it's just really exciting because the possibilities are great. Then we lose that momentum and a lot of that comes with because we just don't know what to do next and we psyche ourselves out.

What you can do to really fix that motivation problem is think about the why and think about, “Why did you come up with that idea in the first place?” Just make that your one thing. Really just focusing on the fact that in order to succeed, you're going to have to focus on that one thing until you get it to a point where it's either validated as something that's going to work, or validated that it's something that's not going to work. Again, you can see that I've said validated in both cases, whether it will work or will not work. That way, you're not guessing anymore and you will know one way or another and can move on to the next step based on what that answer is. Validating your idea.

Again, use the topics and tips in Will It Fly?, willitflybook.com, to help you. I've talked about it in the past. You might even have a copy already, Kyle. If not, let me know. I'll send you a free copy. Just throwing that out there. Shoot me an email or, Jessica, who might be listening to this, or Mindy, make sure we get Kyle a free copy of Will It Fly?. We'll send that to you either way. If you have a second copy because of that, you can give it to a friend or something, but I want to help you out.

That's going to help you with validation. Also, the stick–to–itiveness of just the one thing and really focusing on the fact that you have to do that. You just need to know that. A lot of times, that just comes from experience, which you're obviously jumping around from idea to idea. What I've learned about doing the one thing is hearing how successful that is from other people. I'm telling you right now, Kyle, and for everybody else out there who's jumping around, you need to focus on one thing at a time. Get it to a point where you know if that thing is going to work or that thing's not going to work.

What happens is a lot of us focus on one thing and it gets really exciting, but then we jump around and we see another thing and we go to the beginning stages of that. It gets really exciting. We keep going into these parts where things just keep staying exciting, but then nothing happens.

Eventually, you get to a point where you realize that nothing is getting done. If you work on everything, nothing gets done. You work on one thing at a time until completion. Follow one course until success. That's the acronym for FOCUS. Follow one course until success. By success, you've validated that it's going to work or that it's not going to work. That's how you combat that.

Kyle, hope that answers your question and gives you some thoughts and some direction there. Again, we're going to send you an AskPat t-shirt, plus a copy of, Will It Fly?, free of charge. We're going to send it your way. You're going to hear from my assistant, Jessica, the next couple weeks to collect that information so we can send that to you. I want to thank you again for your question.

Everybody else out there who's asking, thank you so much. I appreciate you. You are what make this show possible. Continue to please ask your questions at askpat.com. You might even get an AskPat t-shirt for free if you get featured on the show.

Thank you so much. I appreciate you. Here is a quote to finish off the day from Queen Elizabeth II. That is, “I know of no single formula for success, but over the years, I have observed that some attributes of leadership are universal and are often about finding ways of encouraging people to combine their efforts, their talents, their insights, their enthusiasm, and their inspiration to work together.” Put all that together: your efforts, your talents, your insights, and your enthusiasm, and inspiration. It's what it's about.

Cheers. Take care. Thank you so much. I'll see you in the next episode of AskPat. Bye for now.