Build a blog, then blog about how to blog. Take your bricks-and-mortar business online, then run workshops on how to use twitter. Write a book, then give talks about the publishing industry.

This is the Guru Effect. When good entrepreneurs have one hit, then become how-to-guide gurus. It’s practically become a career plan for many.

The Guru Effect is destroying business success, more powerfully and subtly than anything else.

The Guru Effect is destroying your potential. 

Successful entrepreneurs all have their “thing”. The thing they were successful at. They also have a story, typically, of what they did to make that “thing” the grand empire it is today. They have their achievement and the medium the achievement was created in.

This distinction between “thing” and “format” is essential.

Many entrepreneurs, after achieving some success, succumb to the Guru Effect. They start providing advice and commentary not so much on the area of their success, but the format they used to achieve it. Think Oprah giving talks on “How to get your own TV show”.

Social media has exacerbated this phenomena hugely. While captains of industry have been known to publish books, we now have successful business people leveraging social media to share their gifts with the world… only to turn into social media experts. It’s happening everywhere.

It’s a seductive proposition. If you become successful selling widgets using the internet… it’s very very tempting to spread the word about exactly how you did that. You’re on the cutting edge and know something others probably don’t. And after all, there are thousands of social media wannabes out there and you, with a success under your belt, have more credibility than all of them combined.

This is the Guru Effect.

When an entrepreneur uses social media (or publishing, or TV, or any format) to build something extraordinary. Then, an exit happens or they simply move on to the next thing.

More and more, that next thing is: “How I succeeded using <insert format here>”.

It’s disappointing. And it’s driven by fear.

Veteran readers of this blog will know that I’m obsessed with uncovering the world’s most subtle and insidious forms of self-sabotage. That mission has seen Sunk Cost Bias targeted, Premature Goal Sharing exposed and more. The mission isn’t over.

The Guru Effect is the most insidious self-sabotage I’m aware of. It’s leeching the ambition from our best and brightest – the entrepreneurs who have already done a lot.

When you create success, you also create a reputation. When you publish a book that becomes a best seller, it’s far more comfortable to publish a second book (or host a workshop!) about how to successfully publish books. We all know there’s a hungry market for the information. Does that mean you should do it though? Does demand for “the secret” mean it’s a smart move to step into those guru-boots?

If your goal is simply to make good money, sure. If you’re interested in having a high-risk shot at doing something revolutionary that might come with phenomenal pay off… then no.

The Guru Effect sees entrepreneurs move from one real success to second projects that revolve around teaching people how to create success.

The alternative, for really ambitious entrepreneurs, would be to create a second real success.

And, the point is, most successful entrepreneur’s first home run is edgy, risky and remarkable. Becoming a “how-to” guru is none of these things. It’s predictable, boring and safe.

Imagine for a second if Oprah had quit her TV show to run workshops on “How to pitch networks and get your own show”. Doubtless, that would be one hell of a seminar. It would also have been well within her comfort zone to deliver. The hypothetical question is: If Oprah made the decision to turn her career in that direction… would she have gone on to create the media-mogul empire she owns today?

The answer is pure speculation, but we all know the truth.

Imagine if Richard Branson had started giving motivational talks on building record labels in the 80s. We’d be living in a world without cheap transatlantic flights. Students wouldn’t have cheap prepaid cellphones. And Necker Island would be owned by some oil tycoon.

When you take the easy, comfortable road and rest on your laurels, everyone loses.

When entrepreneurs become gurus of the format of their success, rather than the object of their success, they’re dodging an opportunity to do something really big. They’re settling for a comfortable business built on minor rockstar-dom. It’s kind of like Jennifer Lopez judging American Idol – instead of recording new albums.

You’re probably wondering about me. As the shrink for entrepreneurs, I’m very aware that I walk a fine line from descending (and it is a decent!) into guru-hood. In part, I wrote this article to keep myself accountable – to nurture a courageous voice inside of me. This voice tells me that an ebook teaching wannabe coaches to build online coaching businesses would be a horrible idea.

I’ve built a fantastic business (that is utterly non-scalable in a beautiful way) doing what I love, using the format of social media. I blogged and I twote. It won me a waiting list of clients I can work with from anywhere in the world. How exactly I did this is a phenomenal story. At least, I think so.

I’m not interested in sharing it.

To succumb to the Guru Effect would be to place the format I’ve achieved my moderate success in, as the epicenter of my thoughts and focus. It would be to settle for what I know and what feels safe – rather than look for the next challenge. It means rejecting new formats and mediums to take the game to the next level.

It means only looking back in my rear view mirror, telling you what I see there.

Instead, I’m interested in exploring the cutting edge of psychology. I’m passionate about finding the intersection of social change and commercial success. I’m cooking up huge things in both spaces. That said, a certain part of my craft is undeniably “how-to”. How to think, better. But, what I’m working on now is irrelevant (or rather, transcendent) of format. It’s not about how to blog or how to tweet.

When you become famous for blogging about widgets, why not leverage your audience to fuel demand for a book about those widgets… or a tv show… or a retail distribution network!? Build a f***ing franchise! Why aren’t folks starting with the internet (it’s free!) and using it to build an empire? The people running the empire-sized corporations are desperately trying to do the reverse by getting into social media.

Why hasn’t anyone started the  “little internet company that could” and grown it into a Walmart?

Needless to say, some people will do just that. They’re a tiny tiny percentage though – because most successful entrepreneurs are afraid. Instead of leveraging their success in one medium then leaping ambitiously to the next, they stay and become Gurus where they’re safe.

The tiny percentage of ultra achievers – the Oprahs, Bransons, Hsieh and Jobs of the world don’t publish how-to guides. They publish autobiographies.

You can’t be an expert on social media, publishing or TV if you don’t have credibility. Credibility comes from doing remarkable stuff within those mediums. And, if you can achieve the “be remarkable” part, then it’s utterly unnecessary to provide commentary on those mediums.

Give people at your funeral something more to say than “He knew twitter like the palm of his hand”.

Become an expert at being remarkable.

Then, despite being terrified (it’s scary and that’s okay), jump into a new and bigger medium that stretches you. Forget about telling people “how-to” and focus on doing yourself. Therein lies the opportunity to create something that’ll reward you (and us) with extraordinary wealth, freedom and impact.

Anything less is a cop out.

Before I kick off this article, I want to remind you that you have less than 24 hours to crush the business fears holding you back from your goals — by grabbing my ebook “Demystify Your Fear”. It’s half price until midnight tonight. After that, it will no longer be for sale – at any price. Click here now for your last chance to pick up your copy for $47 $23.50

You just can’t commit. Am I right, guys?

“…But baby, I just want to be able to do whatever I want.”

Entrepreneurs and leather clad, Harley riding badasses have more in common than they realize.

Like that tattoo covered bad boy, the entrepreneur won’t commit. The desire for freedom pushes you towards an unstructured, carefree lifestyle… even though you know you need to eventually lock down and commit. 

Above all else, entrepreneurs value freedom. That’s what motivates us to shun the status quo and fly free of the bonds of working-for-the-man employment.

Write a thousand words a day. Meet with each of your team every week. Go running every morning. Clear your inbox daily. Make ten new sales calls.

… are all things you should probably be committing to. Even when you really want to be flying free, flirting with sexy new ideas and living the playboy business-owner lifestyle.

Business success is, unfortunately, built on the put-a-ring-on-it philosophy. You have to commit to daily, weekly and monthly practices. You have to commit to getting stuff done, to relentlessly move your goals forward.

In my career, I frequently find myself advising people to make uncomfortable commitments. Lately I’ve been telling a few clients (you know who you are) to commit to a minimum number of prospecting calls each day or week. I’m also a big fan of the zero-inbox productivity system. And all wannabe bloggers and internet marketers should commit to a daily writing practice.

You’d think that small commitments like these would be common amongst the aspiring business community. In reality, it is these suggestions I receive the most resistance on. By far.

People freak out when I ask for a commitment. I can ask someone to make hundreds of sales, write a whole book and hire fifty new staff. No problem. They say “sure”. In fact, the more enormous the task is, the easier it is for them to contemplate.

Not so when a commitment is involved. When “write a book” becomes “write five hundred words a day, starting today”, people start squirming. The fear of commitment sets in.

Intangible, far-off pipe dreams are easy to contemplate. We can imagine some heroic, future manifestation of ourselves magically just making it happen. It’s like a fantasy. However, when we commit to the daily practice of micro-make-it-happen steps… the fantasy ceases to exist. It’s replaced by the cold realization that this is gonna be hard work.

Insert metaphor for marriage here.

Want big business success? Want to start making your goals happen fast?

Identify your commitment phobia. Admitting it is the first step. The second step is to make a daily or weekly commitment to banging out good hard work. It’s not glamorous and it won’t be fun. It just needs to get done.

The good news, and really the whole point of this article, is that admitting your commitment phobia can change everything. You’ve probably been nursing a secret belief that you actually loathe (or “can’t do”) genuine hard work. This isn’t true – it’s the commitment, not the work, which is the problem.

Now that you can acknowledge and face what you truly fear, you can overcome it.

To really commit, you need to seek accountability beyond yourself. When people talk about the entrepreneurial path being a lonely one, they’re right. The problem this creates is that you’re not committed to a boss, colleague or partner to take those boring and sweaty daily actions that build your future.

Go out of your way to find a commitment buddy. Find a personal trainer for your business – someone to yell at you when you don’t do your ten sales calls a day.

Here’s some ideas to inject commitment into your business:

Peer Support 

Give the gift of commitment to one of your entrepreneurial friends – become their accountability trainer then have them do the same for you.

Significant-other Support 

Explain to your spouse the importance of commitment then have them hold your accountable to your business goals. Most entrepreneurs hide their business commitments from their spouses, because they know how relentlessly kicked their ass would be. Use that power.

Community Support

Create a mastermind group that aims to hold accountability for each of it’s members. These days you don’t even need to have a regular, face-to-face meet up – technology makes it easy.

How else can you commit to making more business commitments?

Hi folks,

This isn’t a blog post so much as an announcement.

A shift in strategic direction is coming here at The Shrink for Entrepreneurs. Client consults are still in action (and no, those are not on sale) but I’m moving away from info products. My ebook “Demystify Your Fear” is being taken off the market permanently. Before that happens, I’m offering it at a 50% discount to readers.

As of Monday next week (the 28th), Demystify Your Fear will no longer be available for purchase.

The book is a one stop guide to overcoming the crippling paralysis of fear that holds back your entrepreneurial dreams. It gives you everything you need to:

• Understand what’s holding you back from business success, and why
• Silence the mental whisper that tells you you’re not good enough – forever
• Spot useless fear quickly and shut it down fast so you can move forward freely
• Turn every negative experience into a positive, rewarding one that you can use to get ahead
• Eliminate that nervous feeling that causes you to hesitate and hold back from success

It’s a great product and it’s had lots of positive feedback from readers.

However, I’ve made the strategic decision to take my business in another direction. I’m leaning away from the passive-income, info-product based internet marketing angle… and am cooking up something completely different (and very very awesome) that will launch soon.

If you want to get your hands on a copy of Demystify Your Fear, you can do so at a 50% discount before I pull it from it’s virtual shelf forever…. on Monday the 28th of November.

That’s a complete, practical guide to busting your fear and acerbating your performance, for just $23.50 

This offer really IS going away. Demystify Your Fear will not be for available to buy, ever again. If you want to get ahead this holiday, make this your reading material when you’re stretching out your belly on the couch.

Grab your copy now. The offer has expired & the book is no longer for sale.

Have a great Thanksgiving.

Uh oh. Another obligatory holiday post. Or is it?

As resident Shrink for Entrepreneurs, I’m here to serve up some piping hot insight on how to thrive during this chaotic time of year… while still finding time to do what’s important: Be with loved ones.

No matter your industry, the holidays mess it up. If you’re rocking a business-to-consumer business model, you probably have sales and pre-christmas insanity on your hands. If you run a business-to-business operation, all your sales leads are about to go as cold as ice. No one’s staff are going to have their head in the game and those christmas parties will take their toll on everyone.

I’m announcing something totally new and badass, that’ll give you the crash course you need to make this your best season yet. 

Are you going to drop all the balls you have in the air because it’s the holidays?

No, you’re not. If I know one thing about entrepreneurs, it’s that iPhones have made checking email on turkey day even easier than ever before.

You’re probably telling yourself you’re going to find “balance”. You’ll spend quality time with family of course. You’ll make room for that time by setting yourself ridiculous deadlines. Just like last year.

And just like last year you’ll blow those deadlines, drop a few balls, keep a few important ones and generally just make it through the silly season. Your business may not be too much worse off for it, but it certainly won’t be better.

Until this year.

Because now it’s your chance to change all that.

See, there’s one thing the holidays have an abundance of: Psychological spare time.

You may not have hours and hours to lay around and do nothing (or you might – in which case you probably should be helping with the dishes) but you do have time to think. While you’re running errands. While you’re, as CEO, sitting in your office noticing how all your suppliers seem to be on vacation. Hell, even while you’re washing dishes!

When you’re not really supposed to be doing anything, it becomes really easy to think.

Some of my most successful clients do their best business planning while they’re running – you should see the post-workout emails I get!

When you occupy yourself with busy work, your brain gets a chance to engage those parts of it that usually lay dormant. In other words, the holidays are the best time imaginable for thinking strategically about business growth and making plans for changing the world.

You could be stuffing a turkey, letting your eyes rest on that football game, decorating a tree or just doing nothing at all…. while simultaneously doing the most high impact, useful work possible. It’s multitasking that everyone can manage. Even guys.

S’called “thinking”. And I’m encouraging you to take this annual opportunity to do a lot of it. Your business runs on the gasoline of your mind, so let’s light fires everywhere this season!

I’m kicking off the ultimate tool to rocket you in that direction – it’s an all new, revamped opportunity to test drive the power of entrepreneurial shrinking.

The best part? It’s totally free.

Introducing The Shrink for Entrepreneurs Clarity Couch 

The purpose of thinking, of business strategy and any kind of introspective work…. is clarity. You might say it’s what I, as Shrink to the business elite, deal in. I hawk insight and peddle precision-of-vision.

Clarity is what you’re missing when you know you should be doing something different, but you’re not sure what.

Clarity is what you’re missing when you feel like you’re operating WAY below your potential… and you’ve been feeling that way for longer than you like to admit.

Clarity is what you’re missing when you go to sleep every night promising yourself tomorrow will be the day you really get moving… only to wake up and procrastinate.

When you’re stuck, confused or simply lost, when your vision is clouded by some inscrutable obstacle… it is clarity that ye seek!

Now you can have it. Free. Without obligation.

In a glorious experiment that may prove to be disastrous for me (so act fast – because this offer may not be permanent), I’m offering custom recorded audio power-consults, where I illuminate your situation and shed light on swift solutions. It’s a one stop, quick fire jolt – sending you speeding on your way to a holiday of insight, action, better business and real balance.

You fill out a simple questionnaire (should take 5-10 minutes) and I go away, meditate on your answers and record a riff of my therapeutic insight.

The recording will be delivered to your inbox. You can download it and listen at your leisure. The committed amongst you will locate a chaise lounge to lay back on as you do so. Ink spot analysis is strictly optional.

Like I said, this is a totally new idea. It’s partly to celebrate my shift away from the last year’s experiment with email consults – now that I’m balancing phone and email client work, audio makes sense.

This will also be a better, higher impact way for me to make a difference in the success of your business. And it’s definitely the best way I can think to equip you with the tools you need to thrive and survive during the holidays.

I can’t warn you enough how quickly I’ll yank this offer though, if it becomes overwhelming. I’m counting on the fact that most folks are so ridden with self sabotage that they’ll actually procrastinate taking action on this free offer (believe me, it’ll happen!)… but since this really is totally new, who knows? Get in fast and you won’t miss out.

Click here to take the Clarity Couch Challenge today!

It’s the first step to making your holidays the best yet – for you, your family and your business.

PS I’ve got something else coming up – the first (and probably last) sale that will ever be made at this website. Because I’m taking something permanently off the market. More info soon… so keep checking that smartphone of yours!

Creative people aren’t the most financially successful. There I said it.

The creative folks, the artists of the business world, are those who have the most trouble their bills.

I’ve worked with some very financially successful people, many of whom have attributed their massive (ridiculous) success to being “too stupid to give up” and “so unimaginative that hard work was the only option”. Those are actual client quotes.

Creative types over-think and over-analyze, get caught up in their craft and sometimes totally loathe the more commercial parts of their businesses. Until now, that is. 

When you give a lumbering oaf of an entrepreneur a list of actions (like “make 1000 cold calls”), they’ll just do it. Slowly, they’ll produce results.

This pisses creative people off. Believe me – I know, because I’m one of them. Creative folks are infuriated, because they’re busy trying to out-think their business challenges. They believe in “leverage”, being more effective in less time, reinventing the industry and other exciting concepts.

All that stuff is good. Reinventing an industry is definitely possible.

The mistake creative entrepreneurs make is trying to do this, without mastering the basics of business success first.

You have to learn how to play the game before you can change it.

Creative entrepreneurs need a bootcamp in transforming their creative endeavors into commercially viable enterprise. When Mark McGuinness told me about the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap, I knew he was onto something. And I knew I had to tell you about it.

When I say “you”, I’m really only talking to the creative types reading this. I know there’s a cadre of readers out there who are more “creative” than they are “commercial”… who wish they could make more money creating the art they love.

If you’re one of these people, listen up.

Full disclosure, Mark bought me the greatest curry of my life last month while I was in London. I tried to pay for the beer, but he wouldn’t let me. So, I’m helping him promote the greatest business resource for creative entrepreneurs. The proceeds of all sales will contribute to both Mark flying to New York and me buying him the US equivalent of curry (which I believe is pizza).

The Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap is a one-stop solution for people with talent… who want to figure out how to get the rewards they deserve for their work.

It’s for the people who shun the corporate dream. People who don’t even want a shiny office – or an office at all. It’s for the folks who want to build a nimble business doing what they love, making an artistic contribution. It’s for those who want to get paid. 

If you want to know the inside details – how it all works (there’s SO much good stuff in there you’ll be reading for a while) then go check it out right now.

The Roadmap is one of the two third party products I’ve ever promoted on my blog. There’s a reason for that. What Mark has put together is seriously powerful. Brian Clark, Sonia Simone, Tony Clark and Jon Morrow (all creative entrepreneurs who have NAILED the science of commercial success) are massive contributors to the program.

There’s a million reasons you could give yourself to avoid thinking about doing something like this. After all, it wouldn’t be so bad being exactly where you are now in another six months… would it?

If you’re creative and you want something more, then make a decision to invest in your future today – with the Creative Entrepreneur Roadmap.

The secret sauce to next level business success is productivity.

Let’s be honest. You started your business so that you didn’t have to sit in an office analyzing spreadsheets. You signed up for being a “highly effective” person. You told yourself that, as your own boss, you’d get more done in a few hours than most folks accomplish in a week. 

Some of the time it’s true. You have been highly effective. There’s been moments when you’ve danced in that state of pure flow.

Then there’s the rest of the time (the majority – again, we’re being honest here) where you tell yourself you’ll smash it … soon. For now, there’s something good on TV. Or people to tweet with (that’s kinda work, right?). Hell, maybe you’ve got meetings to go to – that’s definitely work.

Sometimes you get really busy, but still nothing seems to get done. That’s when you find yourself fondly remembering those days you used to spend hours “researching” on the internet. Now you’re probably more successful than that, but you’re paying the price.

There are people demanding things of you. Something has to get written. So-and-so needs a meeting. You know you’re not delegating effectively. You want to be working on that thing you’ve been telling yourself you want to do, but right now someone needs something from you… like, yesterday.

I’ve watched this evolution happen for hundreds of entrepreneurs – friends and clients. When they’re endless procrastinating on the couch, they believe that life when they’ve “made it” will be a whirlwind of productivity. Tornados of effectiveness.

And it ain’t so.

This post is for the business owners who have gotten to the “doing” part – those folks enjoying some level of success. Or at least telling themselves they should be enjoying it.

These entrepreneurs hit a plateau, without ever realizing it. They reach a level of busyness, responding to the urgent demands of their business, that they have no experience dealing with.

Just as a corporate worker rises to their level of incompetence (then gets promoted no further), the entrepreneur rises to her level of peak capacity. And no further.

Nothing equips an entrepreneur to rise above that plateau. School doesn’t teach it. Your parents probably didn’t demonstrate it. The people who rock next level effectiveness seem like their on a different planet.

Until now.

What is it that robs an otherwise successful person of their momentum? When they were working from their kitchen table, trying to create something out of nothing… they started really crushing it. Then something changed.

As businesses grow, a totally natural increase in urgency happens. The kitchen table wannapreneur has very little urgency – they’re probably financially supported in some way and their business really only exists in their mind.

The “made-it” entrepreneur has other concerns. Payroll. An audience that expects content. Meetings. Joint ventures. Payroll. Client contracts. Did I mention payroll?

This list just scratches the surface of totally urgent demands on your time and attention. Your list is probably different, but the subtext is the same. You’re overwhelmed with urgency. 

That’s the cinch.

It’s urgent stuff. When did you decide that it was also important?

The secret to busting through a plateau of productivity is to recognize that “urgent” isn’t synonymous with “important”. 

This article promised to double your productivity in thirty minutes. Now that you *get* it, here’s how to *do* it:

1. Clear your desk, switch off your phone and power down the internet. Leave this tab open in your browser (duh).

2. Make a list of all the things you have to do – if you haven’t already.

3. Take a moment to think back to when you started this business. That blissful time when you used to procrastinate for hours at a time – when your business, though bursting with “potential”, existed only in your head…

Think about your vision back then. If you didn’t have a vision, think about your dreams. What did you absolutely lust over? What part of starting a business made you weak at the knees? What part lit a fire in your heart?

Most of all, ask yourself: What did I originally set out to create?

4. Now take a look back at that to-do list of yours. Grab a highlighter or pencil and circle those items that the old, business-fantasizing you would have considered mega important. Circle the items that, years back, you imagined yourself doing with glee.

Pay attention to the way that you’re feeling inside, right now. You’re welcome.

5. Go. Do those things. The rest can (and will) wait. Even payroll.

The secret to taking your personal effectiveness (and thus your business) to levels you never dreamed of, is simple. Take action on that which is most important – be it important to your mission, vision or simply to your heart.

Shun the urgent. Allow it to sort itself. Notice how pointless email has a way of making itself irrelevant over time. Notice how those you’re supposed to be delegating to will take initiative on their own. If you’re a leader, support your team by leading a business built on doing the important stuff, not the urgent stuff.

Ignore the urgent. Do work that counts.

What’s important to you? Let me know in the comments… 

Today’s post is short and sweet. It breaks down an intense frustration felt by everyone, entrepreneurs especially, and provides three sure-fire solutions.

You know all those things you should be doing. That you’ve been told to do. Perhaps they’re things you’ve read about. Or, even worse, they’re things you simply tell yourself to do – things so blindly obvious you don’t need to be told. You simply know you should.

Today I’m serving up the psychological magic bullets (yes really) that turn should-do’s into done. 

1. Get real about your to-do list (with psychology’s help) 

We all have to-do lists, whether they’re written down or in our head. Most people don’t realize that they also have a “gets done” list and another bullshit list of “things that should…”

Getting real about your to-do list means getting honest. You have to separate out your to-dos into necessities and possibilities. That’s two very distinctive lists.

Necessities are things that you absolutely must do – where no other possibility exists. Getting to work, making an international flight check-in or filing tax returns are good examples of “must do” items. Possibilities are things that you should do, but don’t really have to do. This includes things like going for a run, saving and buying flowers for that special someone.

The trouble with entrepreneurs is the lack of necessity. The wonderful freedom you’ve spent years pursuing… can backfire. In fact, freedom means you’re free to not do things. You don’t have to show up. You don’t have to write every day. You don’t have to make sales calls.

That’s why entrepreneurs have more “should” on their to-do list than anyone else.

Getting real about your list is essential. Everyone who’s self employed has enormous action-taking abilities, but they’re usually only ignited by necessity. Possibility (“could” and “should”) are never enough.

So take a look at the things you get done. Notice how heavy that list is with “must” items.

The secret is to set your goals and task lists with that knowledge in mind. Knowing that you’re likely to only do the “must” items, try to fill your schedule with as many as possible. Don’t even bother planning to do the “should” items. You won’t, even if you have the time.

Instead…

2. Turn your should’s into musts

People who sign up for marathons are far more likely to go running than those who don’t. It’s simple psychology – when you give yourself more reasons to do something, the to-do item will slowly move from the “should” list to the “must” list.

There are a couple of psychological magic bullets for doing this – shifts that any human can make to transform a should into a must:

Social Pressure

Make a commitment in front of your peers and a whole range of complex social dynamics will ignite your drive to get it done.

Sexual Fitness

Evolutionary psychologists believe all behavior boils down to us trying to position ourselves as top-shelf baby making material. If you can make the completion of a to-do an indicator of your fitness as a mate, then motivation will ensue. It also doesn’t matter if you’re single or not – this still works for everyone.

Competition

It’s like social pressure, but even better. When you make a game out of getting things done, it lights up the neural networks that’ve been un-used since childhood. Remember those late night monopoly sessions where no one would quit? Imagine playing the game of business with that same attitude!

Spiritual Fulfillment

Connect your “should” with the metaphysical – make it part of your spiritual life purpose. By attributing large portions of philosophical Meaning (with a capital M) to your task, you create the pressure of necessity. When procrastinating is synonymous with denying the purpose of your existence, it’s much harder to do.

One of these four can be applied to almost any to-do item, making it irresistibly important. However if all else fails it’s time to…

3. Do absolutely nothing

If you’re the kind of chronic, hopeless procrastinator for whom none of the techniques ever work for… then this is for you.

It’s the ultimate, anti-tactic, cure-all elixir to motivation issues that feel like they’re almost genetic. It works, every time. Here’s how…

Go clear a space in your home. Find a room, or a corner of a room, with absolutely nothing in it. Then, go sit there. Perhaps bring a cushion.

Sit. Do nothing.

When an absolute need arrives (eating, peeing, sleeping)… go do that. Then come back and sit.

You’ll get bored out of your mind. That’s the idea. When you’ve been there long enough (which is a little bit longer than you think), you’ll start to become aware of things you want to do. Not things you should do. Not things you have to do. Things you want to do.

Stay sitting. Right where you are. Don’t move.

When the desire (the delicious want) to do something alights in your mind, carefully examine it. Think of it like an exquisite butterfly that lands on your shoulder. Just look at it out of the corner of your eye, barely breathing for fear it might flutter off.

Slowly but surely, by deliberately doing nothing, you can nurture this desire to do things. Do so. Nourish the desire with your imagination, until you can barely tolerate the pain of not doing it.

Only when you can barely cope with the idea of spending another second sitting, doing nothing… should you get up and do things. Take the memory of your desire with you. Never forget it. Do what you want to do and watch yourself grow and evolve, even as your desires do.

We don’t find fulfillment by doing the things we have to. Or thinking about the things we should. It is what we want and our ability to create it that defines us.

It doesn’t matter if you’re looking in the blogosphere or the book store – Lifestyle advice is all around you. Build a business to support your dreams! Yay!

Lifestyle is the new black. Minimalism rules and pundits are trying to find the new definition of “enough”. It seems that any self respecting entrepreneur is supposed to build a micro-internet business to support their ambitions. Those ambitions usually revolve around tropical retirements and/or working from your PJs while homeschooling your kids.

Sounds great right?

Yet the psychology of these “lifestyle” entrepreneurs indicates they’re more unfulfilled, fatigued and miserable than ever before. 

In New Zealand, land of sparkly waterfalls and lush rainforest, there is a thing known as a “Lifestyle Block”. This is essentially a hobby farm, a couple of acres stocked with all the barnyard animals and organic vegetables that a single nuclear family can ably take care of.

Moving to a Lifestyle Block is the solution to the urban existential crisis – when yet another day in the office seems like it’ll kill you. People swap expensive metropolitan rents, move to the sticks to bask in rural serenity as they nourish their body and spirt on self-sufficient produce.

At least, that’s what is supposed to happen.

The reality is much different. They also talk about the “Death-style Block” phenomenon in New Zealand That’s when moving to a lifestyle farm results in, practically speaking, the end of your life.

City slickers who want to grow tomatoes, keep bees and have a few pigs running around… don’t have a clue. They don’t realize the kind of work that is required. They naively believe they’ll be sitting out on their porch, snacking on roast pork, night after blissful night.

In reality, lifestyle farmers are up to their elbows in pig shit. Not once, but often – because any farmyard task that needs doing now will also need doing again. Soon.

The truth is, running a Lifestyle Block is damn hard work. It’s a never ending cycle of repetitive dirty work, with only the shifts in season providing any kind of variation… and even the seasons get repetitive after a while.

When people get seduced by the lifestyle farming dream, what they’re really looking for is what you get after you successfully farm. They’re pursuing a fantasy of end-of-season apples, fresh laid eggs and dripping honeycomb. No bee-stings, thank you.

The parallels should be immediately obvious. Entrepreneurs who dream the “lifestyle” dream are the same. In fact, all entrepreneurs can get sucked into this.

Wannabe writers want to “have written” not actually write.

Start-up dreamers want to “get funded” but not actually build a business.

Most of all, the home-business folk who want to sell info products, an e-course and some kind of consulting service… they don’t know what they want!

Trying to build a business to fuel your lifestyle design is attempting to do something part time that entrepreneurs with serious street-cred almost kill themselves over.

You’re lusting after the milk and honey, without thinking about the bee stings. You’ve probably never even seen (or smelt) a cowshed.

Think about it. Imagine overnight success, then multiply it by a decade. Imagine your online dog trainer coaching school (or whatever) being booked solid… year after year, after year.

Three years in, would you still be enjoying the “lifestyle” this business creates for you?

Imagine doing whatever you’re doing now (or want to be doing)… then imagine what it would feel like to do that, round the clock, for years.

Still sound like fun?

The idea of building a business so that you can do something else is a dangerous one. Most businesses fail. The ones that succeed require the kind of work that few people apply to their full time office jobs.

The only successful (and happy) lifestyle farmers are those who wake up pumped. Pumped to muck out the pigs, shovel fertilizer and do other uncomfortable and squishy things.

If you naively allow yourself to be seduced by the lifestyle dream, you’ll expose yourself to all kinds of mental self sabotage. Your unconscious mind knows you don’t really want to spend your time training dogs or whatever – especially if you’re only doing that to pay for your exotic vacations. Your unconscious self, in it’s infinite wisdom, will work hard to make sure you spend as little time possible on your business.

Eventually it will “save” you from having to run your lifestyle-business all together! Other people will call this “failure”.

Your business is your lifestyle. If it isn’t, you’re not really an entrepreneur. You’re just someone looking for a better job to do, to pay for your playtime.

The only successful (and happy) entrepreneurs are those who enjoy every step of their entrepreneurial journey, from day one to year twenty. And every day in between.

Planning is the sneakiest form of self sabotage. Entrepreneurs know they have to do it (it’s essential) yet it’s also a huge source of needless procrastination.

The fact that we need to plan cannot be denied. This post provides a practical guide for preventing your planning sessions from morphing into time-sucking, momentum killing monsters. 

Strategy #1 – Put a time limit on planning

When did the attitude that “planning takes as long as it takes” become a default?

Like any other business activity, your focus should be on the bottom line when you plan – which means paying attention to the indirect (but significant) cost that your three day planning retreat (metaphorical or otherwise) has on your business.

When you’re planning you’re not engaging in sales activity, hustling with your marketing or developing new product. That absence of action has an impact. It means that planning actually costs your business dollars per minute. By taking yourself out of “operations” to “plan”, you’re effectively hiring yourself as a consultant (but you don’t get paid) and sending your chief “doer” on vacation.

Because planning is business, treat it that way. Put a time limit on it.

You’d never hire a consultant and say “Figure this out… three hours or three days… either is fine”. Don’t treat yourself that way.

Before you kick off your planning session, make a contract with yourself to quit planning at a specific time and go back to “doing mode”. Even if you don’t finish planning in time, you can always circle back to it later… and you’ll be better off for it.

Always plan to end planning.

Strategy #2 – Build experimentation into your planning

Experimentation keeps your planning based firmly in the realm of action and reality. By building testing, measurement and trials into your plans you’ll naturally push yourself to “do” sooner rather than later.

The idea is to always design a plan that requires some form of real-world experimentation for the plan itself to be complete. Not only does doing this build better quality plans (based on facts), it creates a habit of smooth transitions between planning and doing.

Don’t fool yourself that experimentation is only available to those in the geeky, techie realms of the internet. Although Google Analytics lends itself way to such trials there is always an opportunity to experiment, no matter what business you’re in. I recently ran a one month trial of B2B direct sales interactions, totally offline and 100% old school. Nevertheless we measured and then planned accordingly.

The key is to use a short burst of measured action, measure the results and then bring your data back into your planning as quickly as possible. Rinse and repeat that formula and you’ll be well on your way to business success.

Strategy #3 – Find a “stop me planning” buddy 

This is the extreme solution. The Planners Anonymous tactic for entrepreneurs who just can’t stop planning and start moving. If you’re crippling yourself with procrastination through planning, you need an accountability buddy.

Grab a friend – someone with basic business chops or even just street-smarts. Have them read through your plan (yes, you should be writing it) when you think you’re almost finished. Have them poke holes in it and ask questions. Ask them to hold you accountable to getting started as soon as possible.

When a buddy is constantly bringing you back to the “When can you start?”, things get uncomfortable. The best kind of uncomfortable – the kind that precedes big action and big changes.

Combine the three strategies outlined here and you’ll become an unstoppable force for making big things happen. You’ll never again get caught up planning and re-planning in circles. You’ll never again be seduced by what feels like the most productive form of procrastination.

Planning, whether it’s writing a fully fledged business plan or simply figuring things out, is only useful to an extent. Don’t shun it completely. Do stay aware though – never forget that the vast majority of entrepreneurial planning is a waste of time.

Don’t psychologically side-step the important action your career and business needs. Stop planning and start doing.

“There’s no such thing as failure, there’s only learning experiences”

It’s the ultimate business owner’s reframe. The final word in any post-disaster discussion. “What did you learn?” is the default question for business coaches and consultants the world over.

Learning is always good, right?

Except when it isn’t. Expect when learning is killing your ability to succeed as an entrepreneur. 

A few weeks back, I published an article about a powerful cognitive phenomenon known as Sunk Cost Bias. It’s an ingrained mental habit we all have, that dramatically impacts our behavior as entrepreneurs.

Turns out it isn’t the only bias we have.

Information Bias is our tendency to seek information even when it cannot effect action.

This is going to be a short post, because that really says it all.

As entrepreneurs, we have information bias up to our eyeballs. If you’re reading this blog, you’re probably one of the more seriously afflicted.

Why? Because we love learning. We’re enchanted by the idea of expanding our awareness. We hunt down magic bullets to business success in what ever format we can get our hands on.

We seek out info, analysis, expert opinion… all in an effort to slake our thirst for rich, useful information.

But does our cup runneth over?

There comes a time in every entrepreneurs career when action not information is needed. As a crisis unfolds, doing is more important than learning. 

When a customer is angry about something, your swift action will un-frazzle them and perhaps make them loyal for life.

When a supplier drops the ball, your swift action will ensure you (and your customers) are not left in the lurch.

When your marketing plan is planned and your sales pitch is practice-perfect, only action will create actual sales.

Only action puts dollars in the bank.

Be aware of your Information Bias. Keep a weather eye out for the tendency to look for nice, comfortable learning experiences when doing is what’s needed.

It’s far less scary to check your analytics again… or hunt for another how-to guide… than it is to do the thing you know you should do. If you give in to your information bias you’ll simply learn that you already know what do. Again.

Would you like to be a little less smart and a little more wealthy? There are no wrong answers to that question – so let’s hear your perspective on Information Bias! Leave a comment…