It’s 10:27 pm on Thanksgiving night. My 2 year old, Etta, is in her room. My 4 year old, Xander, is crashed out on the couch because he ‘likes to stay up late with Dad.’ (Why argue with him when he falls asleep happier and quicker?!)
My wife is out braving the not-so-cold, actually-beautiful-unseasonably-warm, Black Friday sales with my sister-in-law. A little barbaric, but she lets me stay in the safety of our home with the kiddos.
Me? I’m blogging. I’m pouring myself into a brand new wordpress theme. I’m hustling. While processing all the tryptophan through my system, I would rather be doing nothing else right now.
The act of doing, creating, building, succeeding is habit-forming. In grade school, I was one of those intelligent, underachieving, ‘bored’ students because it was easy and I had no drive or motivation to push myself. Procrastination comes naturally to everyone.
One of my favorite movies is “Yes Man” starring Jim Carrey & Zooey Deschanel. In simple form, Jim’s character, Carl, is stuck in a rut. He’s not doing particularly poorly in life, but he feels stuck. And then he stumbles into a seminar where the guru is teaching one simple concept to change your life:
Say “YES” to absolutely everything. Period.
It sounds insane at first. Of course, applying this concept to every decision you encounter is impractical and impossible. But for most of the big important things in life, is saying “YES” really such a bad thing?
I think that stepping out on a limb, putting in the hard work, and taking a chance is hard for people because it’s uncomfortable. It makes you feel vulnerable. You’re afraid of success. What if it works? What if she says yes to that date? Then what have I gotten myself into?
There is always an excuse for why we can’t do something. I don’t have enough time. I’ve been busy. Work sucks. My car exploded. Stop with the excuses and start being honest with yourself. Say “YES” to absolutely everything for a while. It is life-changing.
The more times you decide to jump, you’ll notice those fears, irrationalities, and excuses suddenly start to disappear. According to HubSpot’s 2017 sales statistics, it takes an average of 18 call attempts just to connect with a buyer. Once you get past rejection, pride, and ego – you realize the way to succeed is to just go and make it happen.
Saying “YES” is addictive. So is accomplishing even a small task. It’s like Dave Ramsey’s Financial Peace University ‘Debt Snowball Plan.’ Those tiny first-step payments start to roll downhill, and soon you have the ability to allocate more and more to the big debts, it grows in momentum and eventually is an unstoppable monster of credit-free living. It feels incredible.
If your business is not accomplishing something because (fill in your favorite excuse here), stop waiting for tomorrow to come around. If you are catching yourself saying phrases like, “I really need to <goal/project>, but <lame excuse>” it’s time to make a change and take even a small step at putting a plan into action. Send an appointment invitation for a meeting. Upgrade the equipment that is slowing down productivity. Invest in yourself. Call your mother. Whatever it is, stop reading this post. Do it now.
…unless it’s Black Friday shopping. Then you should definitely say no.
I would love to hear what it is that you, “really need to <goal/project>, but <lame excuse>” in the comments below. If you need help following through, shoot me a tweet with the hashtag #yesman in it.