Fuse Chamber

As an icebreaker, I frequently ask people - what would you do if you won the lottery?

* People give answers that reflect what they would do if there were no constraints or demands put on their time, location or finances

* This is where people describe their visionary work, OR the downtime things they would do to feel free, relaxed.

* My question is - ok so why not do it anyway?

* We assume we have constraints, and that money or some other windfall is an obstacle to getting started.   You can get started with 10 dollars and 10 minutes - probably even less

* I’ve noticed that when you approach the world with a service mindset, things like money and time tend to get sorted out at exactly the right moment

* You need to trust in the importance of your dreams, and how working on your dream goals attracts the right help and opportunity into your life - simply because your passion will be infectious

Despite your most disciplined attempts to show up every single day, inviting the muse, yet not leaving things to dumb luck, you sit down for your daily ritual, and nothing comes.

This is made all the worse by a looming deadline, or being behind in production.

So what do you do when you doing everything right, and nothing comes?

* Let it Happen.   Reduce the stress and stigma around having a block.  It’s natural

* Immerse yourself in unrestricted thought

* Talk with friends, fantasize, argue, debate, discuss

* Stay immersed in your topic - read, research

* Don’t resume writing until the ‘spark’ appears

So you’ve worked it all out - you have a master plan for launching your product….but what if you build it and nobody comes?

* This happens more than you think

* It’s important not to measure success against big league players that you’re trying to model.   This takes a while, and there’s no such thing as overnight success

* The best thing you can do is change your approach - experiment with new techniques.  The worst thing you can do is change your style, your vision, your unique offering.

* Find small successes along the way to validate and inspire you.

* You have to be comfortable with hustle.

So you’ve worked it all out - you have a master plan for launching your product….but what if you build it and nobody comes?

* This happens more than you think

* It’s important not to measure success against big league players that you’re trying to model.   This takes a while, and there’s no such thing as overnight success

* The best thing you can do is change your approach - experiment with new techniques.  The worst thing you can do is change your style, your vision, your unique offering.

* Find small successes along the way to validate and inspire you.

* You have to be comfortable with hustle.

Although we’d like to believe that we have what it takes, sometimes we worry that we’re going to be seen as ‘arrogant’, over-confident or full of ourselves.   This alone can keep us from starting.  What’s the difference between confidence and arrogance and how can you build the former without seeming like the latter?

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Limiting Beliefs - concepts of what we are capable of are limited by our fears, which talk to us in sentences that start with ‘you can’t’.   Believing in the information to the contrary

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Arrogance - belief in your abilities and entitlements in ignorance of external information to the contrary

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Confidence - belief in your abilities and entitlements even in light of external information to the contrary

Both limiting beliefs and arrogance can only be destroyed one way - through experience and reflection.  The initial spark of belief that surrounds arrogance is important for overcoming limiting beliefs though.

There are two kinds of habits: good ones and bad ones. So often, we focus on the bad ones that we need to break, but how often do we take the time to focus on the good habits that we have integrated or need to integrate to continuously move us forward?

* You have to have a habit of having habits :-)

* Create a prioritized list of of habits you want to have (come on, you know what they are).  They could be mindset habits or actual practices

* Take on no more than 2 or 3 at a time - it could take a few months to habitualize them

* Make sure your habits roll up to achieving a larger goal, like increasing your audience or revenue.

The Public Demands more content, more frequently.  This seems foreign to many of us as we grew up with a new book, music or movie release from our favourite artists maybe once per year or less.  You need to change your mindset to reflect the new virtues and values in the marketplace.

The Public Demands more content, more frequently.  This seems foreign to many of us as we grew up with a new book, music or movie release from our favourite artists maybe once per year or less.  You need to change your mindset to reflect the new virtues and values in the marketplace.

People who achieve everything they set out to do in life are masters of protecting their time.  How do they do it?

* Time is the only thing you can’t reclaim once its been spent

* Protecting your time is your right and your duty.  You must actively and continuously monitor and protect it as you would any priceless resource

* The biggest challenge is changing your mindset about time.  You own your time, no matter where you work or who you have in your life.  Only you can dictate how it is spent.

* Commit to tweaking or leveraging resources to minimize time spent on non valuable things, or find things to cut out altogether.

Could we flip the script on our thinking about experimentation?   Rather than seeing experiments as risky, or as a synonym for failure, we should be embracing experimentation as the fastest way to learn about what works, and what doesn’t.