Ed Dale on “Struggling”

A pretty awesome post by Ed Dale about productivity and getting things done.

Well, he didn’t actually mean for it to be a post about productivity and getting things done by somehow it provides several nuggets in that aspect.

What I Want Thirty Day Challenge Plus To Be…

I have at least two lofty goals for you. None I have any control
over but that’s ok.

I have two things to do.

1. I need you to do stuff.

Yep, every day, or for some specific period of time. I need to
motivate you to get something done. To move your business forward.

This, of course, is folly.

Unless you move, I can give you all the techniques, strategy and
stuff that will give you goosebumps when something really cool
happens….

BUT

Unless your ready to move… not much I can do, I’m not Tony
Robbins, the Dia Lama or even that guy from Fantasy Island.
I’m just a simple country boy from Beechworth who STRUGGLES EVERY DAMN DAY to get something done.

I’m sort of a recovering alcoholic, without the alcohol (if Pepsi
max and Genevese coffee were alcohol, I would have had more trips
to the Betty Ford clinic than the entire population of Beverly
Hills.)

I’m no different to you, maybe with one tiny difference…no,
actually there is no difference. I have this evil demon called
procrastination and his horrible friend rationalisation sitting
there much like the need for drink never really leaves the
recovering alcoholic…

YAY.

Am I making you feel SUPER AWESOME yet…At least you can see why
I’m no Tony Robbins….

I do have some good news…

I know how to tell if your ready.

Have you been putting off that article, ignoring the keyword
research you KNOW you need to do, you get angry with yourself
because you just spent 34 minutes watching those cute japanese
puppies on USTREAM (I’ve been there sister, don’t worry…)
Seriously, you really get annoyed with yourself. Perfectly
legitimate things (Thanks for nothing Mr Rationalisation!) just get
in the way of building a business.

Are you angry, are you maybe, a bit disgusted with yourself, maybe
a lot disgusted with yourself (That was me yesterday – so we’re
pretty similar!)

The good news is your ready.

Your at the point where you can make this Internet Marketing thing
really work for you. (Of course this also works for that book you
need to write, that song you need to play or that medium format
early morning sunrise shoot you always tell yourself you are going
to do.

Your ready.

And together we are going to take this little thing called Thirty
Day Challenge Plus and we are going to make it happen.
(Note the lack of trademark Dale exclamation point!!!!!! to end
that last sentence – you don’t need exclamation points – you need
detail.)

So how are we going to take this frustration and build a business
out of it.

The awesome part is the secret to that is so easy!!!!
(ooops, sorry couldn’t help myself with the exclamation point
thing…)

Are you ready to read what it is, you don’t even have to sign up
for Thirty Day Challenge Plus to get this secret.

Are you ready.

Here it comes.

You may want to sit down (Oh, you are, cool, two steps ahead
already!)

For the next five day period take a kitchen timer, set it to thirty
minutes.

(For those of you blessed with the iPhone there is a handy function
built in  and you can set your own song as the end signal. My
personal favourite "In The Air Tonight")

Ok, got that timer, hit go.

Then work your ass off and don’t stop  for the thirty minutes. Do
hard core market research, get that blog up, create that adwords
campaign, write the article, don’t edit, don’t stop and for the
love of the deity of your choice stay away from those cute little
Japanese puppies!

WHAT?

Not sexy enough for you, Not magic technique enough? Not darn ,
"doin it on the kitchen table in your underwear" easy enough for
you!!!!!!

Let me ask you something….

How’s that stuff been working for you…

I thought so. Me too.

Oh, by the way, congrats for reading this far, your part of the
awesome thirty percent who are fed up and want something different.
You and I, we can work together. Those others will be chasing down
magic pills until hopefully they realize there just aren’t any.

Look, there are awesome techniques, using Market Samurai the way
God and Nobel Samurai intended makes my heart sing. Creating a
video that is fun to do, fun to edit and blow me if it didn’t
convince a bunch of people to do something that they wanted to do
but had never been motivated enough to do until they saw that video.

That’s all great, but…

You see Thirty Day Challenge Plus is full of those techniques, we
cover the latest stuff first and more importantly rather than be
the first to rush to twitter about this cool widget or this new
content creation method. We take some time to show you HOW this
fits into your marketing and heaven forbid actually use it and test
it ourselves.

Just having a subscription to the latest hot toy feed or web 2.0
blog is NOT ENOUGH!

It’s UNDERSTANDING how these developments relate to you.

Is it going to be for Market Research…

Will it get me some more precious traffic…

Will this help show people why they want to do this NOW and help
conversion…

Will this help me produce interesting content…

Or will it just suck your time and soul into a vortex of self
destruction causing you and your life to turn to stone!!!

(For the record that last one has not happened as far as I’m
aware…but it could…maybe…)

These techniques are IMPORTANT – Make no mistake.

But getting you to do them is tricky. Because I can’t get you to do
anything.

Recently, I was sitting there watching those cute japanese puppies
(That’s the internet equivalent of a druggie hitting rock bottom)
and I picked up a book which rocked me to the core.
It’s called the "The War of Art" by Steven Pressfield

I was staying in Tokyo at the Mandarin Oriental and I always feel a
bit weird eating breakfast by myself. So I grabbed this book to
look "busy" while I was having breakfast.

After Page 2 I felt like I had been kicked in the head by a mule. I
was floored.

It’s funny – I’ve had that book for ages. I’d never picked it up.
"When the Student is Ready the Teacher will appear" I’m not sure
who’s quote that is but I believe it. I’ve seen it too many times
in my life to discount it.

I had a similar feeling when I read Tribes, The Creative Habit and
On Writing.

I reckon that "The Art Of War" might just trump the lot.
As I get older, and with a bit of luck wiser… it is so clear to
me there are just fundamental principles and work practices that
when you align with them you can move mountains (even if you didn’t
mean to)

Take for example the phenom any new Internet Marketer feels after
they write their very first blog post. The internal commentary is
almost universally. "that was ass."

You see, your brain is comparing your first bit of writing with
stuff that you read in the paper or your favourite books. Perfectly
sensible.

But OH SO WRONG.

You see the first pass of anything that is created – Particularly
when you start out  – is what you would technically describe as
"Blowing Chunks"

What you should be comparing is your first draft with the first
draft of another beginner.

You see anything that you read in print thats really good – has
been edited and reviewed with in an inch of it’s life. Think about
your favourite bands song – the reason they knock it out
beautifully live is because well – they have played it HUNDREDS of
times!!!!

The TRAGEDY in all of this is most people cant get past the
"Blowing Chunks" period of their creative lives.
I’ve read dozens of books and highly creative people are not born.
They are forged on the fire of hours spent blowing chunks,
publishing doing it over and over and with time, getting better.

IT"S NOT YOUR FAULT!

Pro’s create content completely different to us amateurs.

First Up – They work to the clock!

How uncreative – wrong , quiet the opposite. they relies that
creative work comes from producing a lot of content (aka coal) to
produce the good stuff (aka diamonds)

Second  – they never ever EDIT or JUDGE on the first draft.

Seriously this rule is just INSANE when you relies it’s power for
the first time. It’s a bit like when I show somebody the "rule of
thirds" in video and photography…BOOM – Instantly better pictures.
Pros don’t stop when they start writing , jamming, painting, taking
pictures. They don’t make edits , don’t correct spelling, don’t
fact check  – they do it all in editing, all in post.

Because they relies one thing. Every time you edit, you break your
flow and when that happens, you go back to the beginning and every
writers first paragraphs of anything blows chunks!

Gary Halbert, my mentor used to throw out the first couple of
paragraphs of his writing sessions because he knew instinctively
what we now know as scientific fact…your brain needs to warm up.

Here’s the cool thing and it happens EVERY SINGLE TIME.

Let me repeat – EVERY SINGLE TIME.

You set a timer and start writing, after about ten minutes  – if
you haven’t stopped and tried to look up something or heaven forbid
-watch Japanese puppies on ustream  – your writing will get better,
you will start making sense.

You may actually write something great!
This is the new part of things I want to explore in thirty day
challenge plus. Because what was "hippy science" and gut feel 15
years ago has been proved scientifically.

It’s a damn shame the schools have not caught up.
We are going to tackle this in 30dc plus. It’s not sexy but I
reckon you might find it the damn most important thing you have
ever learnt

Just as a matter of interest – I’m writing this at 9.30 pm on a
Friday night in a hot and steamy Tokyo summer – I have the timer
set on my iPhone and I’m making myself do 30 minutes of writing
without stopping.

I have committed myself to doing this every half an hour of a
weekday and I didn’t do mine today.

But, I’m committed – so I’m delaying watching "Fringe" to get this
done.

You need to be the same way.

Thirty Day Challenge plus is going to make a difference

As long as your prepared to make some time.

Are you game?

Ed
PS: You can join me at www.thirtydaychallengeplus.com and for a
limited time you can get a thirty percent discount that’s LOCKED IN
- make sure you use the coupon code 30dc’

Ed Dale
Marillion Partnership
http://www.thirtydaychallenge.com/