I have to read way too many posts about social media this, amazing success secret that, blah blah blah.
The thing is: it’s all total bullshit.
It amazes me how much time I can waste focusing on the minutia while ignoring the work that matters, the work that would make a real and genuine difference to my career and life. There’s just too much fiddling about with the knobs and the doo-dads instead of just getting some of the real work actually done.
What Do You Want?
If you don’t know what you want then it is pretty hard to go get it. And if you know what you want but you haven’t stopped to really think about the strategy, then maybe you are busy but wasting your time.
- Reading about music recording software is not the same as recording an awesome album.
- Doing a class on how to write better is not the same as writing a book.
- Tweeting and updating your Facebook status…
- adding SEO keywords to your website…
- reading articles about how to automatically connect your seven different social media platforms together…
- reading another e-book about how you can do make it big…
- surfing the web trying to decide if you need a business coach…
- re-re-organizing your filing cabinet…
None of this is the real work. Sometimes it might be what’s needed – but most of the time – it’s all distraction.
Stop Rearranging Deckchairs And Do Something Worthwhile
You look at the top performers in any game and you will see that the thing they do best is the hard work that matters. They are action orientated and they choose to focus on high leverage actions.
Gotye spent years in his recording studio perfecting his music, and from what I have read, he put effort into getting the music into the hands of the music business decision makers. He didn’t spend a lot of time tweaking his LinkedIn profile.
Make no mistake: I have been as guilty of this as anyone else.
Here’s what we need to understand and remember every day: If you spend your time doing the work that actually matters, you will get a lot further.
Of course the thing is – and this is why so many people spend so much time getting distracted by irrelevant bullshit – doing the real work can be hard.
Focus. Faith. Effort. Sacrifice. Persistance.
No free lunch.
