Focus on the Work
The 100th book I read during the 112 Books reading challenge was Ego is the Enemy by Ryan Holiday. There is a line in the chapter titled "Talk Talk Talk" that caused me to evaluate how I do things. Here is the quote: “It’s a temptation that exists for everyone-for talk and hype to replace action.” p.24
How often do we talk about things we have yet to do? You see, up until that moment in my book challenge, I would take a picture of me with the book and share it on social media. I'd say I'm going to read this or #currentlyreading. People would ask me what it was about or if it was a good book and I couldn’t respond. My blog posts were also shallow because I wasn’t ready to review a book I had not read. Going forward, I decided to read a book, write a blog post reviewing the book, and then share on social media. I had so much more insight and could connect with people better. That small simple change made all the difference.
Allow me to share why this simple shift was huge for me. In the sales world we are all about forecasting, setting lofty goals, competing and bragging. To simply shut up, put your head down, do the work and THEN share the work is not the way I’ve gone about my life professionally. Everyone wants to know what you are “working on” and how you foresee executing something. If I am honest there is a part of me that likes the validation I get. I like when people are excited to see what I am reading. Talking trash motivates me and makes me accountable to what I’m about to do. But I’ve found greater rewards as of late from focusing on the work. I still get the validation but now with better results.
This week I got a suggestion to throw a party for the launch of View112.com and the View 112 Podcast. The idea was to help showcase my work and market the platform. My immediate response was meet with surprise: absolutely not I said. I went on to explain 2 reasons why:
I don’t believe I’ve accomplished anything worth celebrating. I’ve invested some money into a website that is less than a month old and recorded 3 podcasts. What is the party about? In Ego is the Enemy, Holiday warns that by celebrating or telling people about your aspirations early, you could fool yourself into believing they are already accomplishments.
If you are going to build a tall stage and cast a wide spotlight, you better put on a killer show! I’ve run a company before and I am a pretty good sales person. My biggest mistake as a business owner in the past is to drum up business that my team was not prepared to handle. I did not have a good production plan in place to accommodate orders causing a lot of stress on my team and failed delivery times for my customers. I need to have strong content, posting schedule, and delivery in place.
Trust me when it is time to party, I will be there with my dress and champagne! I just want to make sure I’ve done the work.
How often do you talk about things you have yet to do? What will you do differently?
