OK, so I don’t want to get all woo on y’all, but since I wrote you last week about how shy I was feeling about putting myself front and center, the following things have happened to me:
- got nominated for the prestigious Spirit of Entrepreneurship Award
- booked a fun speaking gig for the Professional Photographers of America
- am being profiled for a feature in Carpinteria Magazine (a small town magazine with a BIG impact because of all the tourists and celebrities who come through here : )
- got an article I wrote accepted by The Good Men Project (1.8 million page views/month)
- looks like the musical I wrote has a *very* bright future – stay tuned!
Now…I am not saying that proximity equals causation.
Most of the things on the list above have been in the works for some time now.
But it’s amazing how they all hit on the same week my new site went public, isn’t it?
Here’s what I know for sure:
When You Do Things, Things Happen.
Sounds laughably simple, I know.
You take an action and there’s a ripple effect. You post a photo of your new jewelry design on Instagram and suddenly someone wants to buy 30 of them. You give a talk to a room of 12 people, and afterwards, three of them want to talk to you about working with you privately. You publish a little ebook and you get offered a monthly column in an important periodical.
You’ve seen this ripple effect a grillion times, right?
But what about when you DO NOT take action?
What about when you procrastinate?
When you dither?
When you let your fear and perfectionism hold you back?
Same thing:
When You Don’t Do Things, Things Happen.
But not good things.
When you don’t show your work, you get even more nervous about showing it.
When you don’t give a talk, you become the best-kept secret in town, and your revenue drops.
When you don’t publish your ebook, all the people that you could be helping are left stranded.
And the cumulative effect of breaking your promises to yourself over and over again causes your self-esteem to wither, and your self-confidence to plummet.
(The Shame Spiral….it would make a pretty hilarious ride at a theme park, don’t you think? Floating heads chanting, “you’re not good enough!” and “who do you think you are?” as you caroom down a slippery circling slide…deeper and deeper…and then maybe at the end you get spit out on to a therapist’s office couch….#heeheehee)
Anyway –
All this is to say that YOUR PROCRASTINATION IS HURTING YOU.
And it’s time for it to stop.
Spend 15 minutes *right now* on the project that matters most to you.