Is there anything that drains you like FORCING yourself to do something you don’t like to do?
I don’t think so.
Willpower is a precious, limited resource that gets drained EVERY TIME you have to push yourself to do something.
What is willpower?
We all want cookies.
Kelly McGonigal in Willpower Instinct defines it as: “harnessing the three powers of I will, I won’t, and I want.”
Doing things that you don’t like, is the #1 killer of willpower. Why? Because it’s STRESSFUL.
McGonigal explains, “Stress is the enemy of willpower. So often we believe that stress is the only way to get things done, and we even look for ways to increase stress— such as waiting until the last minute, or criticizing ourselves for being lazy or out of control— to motivate ourselves. Or we use stress to try to motivate others, turning up the heat at work or coming down hard at home. This may seem to work in the short term, but in the long term, nothing drains willpower faster than stress.”
Your willpower is the most precious resources in your business universe. Why? Because willpower is the motor for accomplishing critical tasks and missions such as:
– Starting a new project
– Finishing a big mission
– Training a new skill
– Learning critical knowledge
It is now a well researched fact (read: Willpower Instinct and The Power Of Full Engagement) that willpower is a FINITE resource.
As much as some of us would love to be like the Terminator and stop at nothing, it’s just not realistic. We only have a small amount of willpower and once it runs out, it’s over.
Yes, every day you wake up and you have a SET amount of “Willpower Fuel”. Once the gage hits “E”, it’s over.
I experience this every time I go travel. My goal is not go crazy with food. I can usually muster the willpower to stay on track for about 7 days. After that I usually hit the “to hell with it” button. Once my willpower fuel is drained, my dietary goals often fly out the door.
Step 1: Create A List Of Things You Hate To Get Off Your Plate
Sit down and Think.
The simplest solution to this is: make a list of all the things you don’t love doing and outsource it.
Here’s the list (and order) of things to outsource in your business asap:
- Customer support
- Webmaster
- Graphic designer
- Accounting
- Operations (manager)
Those 5 tasks are often on top of people’s “hate list’. None of those tasks add money to your bottom line (except maybe graphic design if it boosts conversions). All of these tasks can be grouped into “operations”.
You should limit your operations time to 20% (or less). THIS IS ONE OF THE BIGGEST MISTAKES NEW ENTREPRENEURS MAKE. They waste most of their valuable time on tasks that aren’t gonna bring home the chocolate dipped bacon.
If you want to 3X Your Productivity, you should be spending 80% of your time on Money Moves(tm). Get your FREE copy of the 3X Your Productivity book to read about Money Moves and a lot more.
On a personal level, if you want to have more time for business AND enjoying life — here’s a list of things to outsource:
- Cleaning
- Shopping
- Misc. tasks
- Cooking
Obviously, if you love to cook — keep doing it.
However, if you’re an entrepreneur — what’s the value of your time? Is it smarter to pay someone to prepare meals for you in advance? What if that saves you 5 hours a week? 250 hours a year? What can you do with that time?
I really dislike shopping, driving in Panama and cleaning. This is why we have a full time maid, and two local assistants. I have people paying my bills and doing tasks in Panama (massive waste of time doing it myself).
98% of my time is spent either:
- A) Rocking on money making activities
- B) Enjoying life
Everything else gets outsourced.
Now that you know what you don’t like to do or shouldn’t do…
Step 2: Outsource And Hire someone else to take care of it.
Just hire the right person to do it for you.
Inside the 3X Your Productivity book (which you can get here for FREE for a limited time), I reveal how to hire and build great teams.
It’s critical that you hire the RIGHT PEOPLE. Hiring the WRONG people quickly becomes a major source of problems and stress.
What if you’re just getting started and you can’t afford it?
Temporary Pain
Life is hard, so stay strong!
What if you can’t afford it right now to replace yourself or to hire help? Well sometimes you have to look yourself in the mirror and say “toughen up cupcakes!”.
Make sure you have a game plan to get the crap off your plate as fast as humanly possible.
Use the pain as LEVERAGE to motivate yourself to grow your business faster.
Even if you’re making a LITTLE BIT of profit, reinvest that profit into hiring people PART-TIME to take over the tasks you don’t enjoy. You can up their hours to full-time as your business grows.
Passion, Love And Excitement Are The Seeds To Greatness
Can you reach greatness in a field doing something you don’t enjoy? I will bet big that it’s damn near impossible.
To become the top of your field or become a great businessman, you need PASSION, LOVE AND EXCITEMENT.
Passion is what drives you to read books and study your craft late in the evenings and on weekends.
Excitement is what sparks ideas, projects and experiments. Many evolve into successful businesses and money machines.
Love is what keeps you going when the times get tough. When your willpower is drained… when your experiments have FAILED… when the market beat you up. Love reenergizes you. Love makes you stand back up and keep going.
What if the only thing on your plate are things that you LOVE TO DO? You’ll wake up and be EXCITED to tackle tasks and projects. That’s the first step to Passionate Profits™.
This is the FIRST STEP in the 3X Your Productivity process. To get the 9 other steps (plus dozens of tips, tools and strategies: enter your name and email below to get instant access.
