How do you create consistency in your life?

Showing up, fully engaged is a big part of work.  Being a machine, like Seth Godin, like NameTag Scott is the way to have wild success, wild wealth, and more of what you want.  The quality of your ideas is less important–by far–and less novel–by far than the execution.

Ideas are everywhere.  Execution is 90% of it or more.  “Idea guys” are worthless.  Utterly entitled useless pieces of crap.  The idea isn’t the novel thing, and the older and presumably wiser I get the more  I know it.  It’s easy to have a dazzling idea, a new and novel thing that you could make some day.

It’s hard to get up every day, look people in the eye and serve them with all of your heart, mind, mind, soul & strength.  It’s hard to show the patience and confidence you need.  It’s easy to be the smart kid, it’s easy to be the one with the answers.  It’s hard, really hard, to show up every day and have the enduring faith that it takes to work towards your goal, especially when instant results are out the window.

How many exciting, great ideas have you had that would be AWESOME if they were put into practice?

How many NBA players had roughly the same physical gifts as Michael Jordan (Dominique Wilkins, Charles Barkley, Anfernee Hardaway) but didn’t hit the same heights?  MJ’s mental gifts were far more novel than his physical gifts.

Right now, I’m trying to learn to develop the consistency needed to get past the ‘next level’ and go to the one beyond that.  It’s not about intellect, acumen or acuity, it’s about just blocking out distractions and doing it.  It’s about getting up and rolling.   Not getting-ready-to-roll.  Preparation has its place, but only in moderation.

Lots of little things help.  Keeping a list helps.  Clearing a schedule helps.  Paying a little bet on a debt every day helps.  Morning pages helps.  I’ve come farther along than I thought possible.  But I need to be hitting it hard.

How do you create consistency?  Are you really doing it?  Are you being honest with yourself?

Ideas are everywhere, and without execution totally worthless.  A mediocre idea executed with passion and fervor will beat the hell out of genius ideas that sit in drawers.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

Consistency is What It Takes: Don’t be an Idea Guy

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According to Basecamp, I have 13 projects right now, in various stages of completion.   Everything from blogging work to setting up my long delayed personal website at http://rightrightnow.com (I’ve had more fun connecting with people here).   I have two ebooks I plan on getting out, and about 6 blogs do deliver for clients by the EOY.  It’s all manageable stuff, most of the work is waiting on feedback, and I have plausible reasons (people not calling me back) for most of the issues.

Problem is, some of the stuff has been going on for weeks, and it is a momentum killer.   We only have some limited amount of bandwidth and we can’t have umpteen half done projects waiting for us.  David Allen aptly puts out the notion that each unprocessed loop consumes some amount of psychic RAM that keeps us from doing things more effectively.  And this is true (though I’ve taken in a ton of work lately).   So–in addition to the planning that I do, I have to have an action plan for when a project loses momentum–what to do.

I don’t really know the answer for this.   Sometimes the client absorbs the energy and is the obstacle, sometimes it’s circumstances (and sometimes, it’s simply my fault).   A conscientious freelancer needs to have a plan in place for this stuff though.  It’s not really about ‘causing’ or ‘manifesting,’ the loss of momentum.   It’s about having a plan in place to ensure it never happens.   So…instead of phrasing it ‘planning for the loss of momentum.’  Let’s say ‘ensuring that projects go fast and well,’ and accounting for normality.

Here are thoughts on how to do it–none of them are exhaustive–or even complete.  This is more or less a brainstorm:

• Acknowledge the issue proactively at the beginning of projects.  “We’re going to plan–in advance–for the BS that happens on projects…and do something about it.”
• Financial Incentives: Clients can be motivated by money, and having an understanding that if we have to chase down documents, etc, etc, we charge more than if we don’t.  Making this explicit can help everyone get the deadline done faster.
• Check in:  Schedule Check ins on your calendar periodically, and don’t accept reschedules.   Have a mutual commitment to one another.
• Stay far far ahead of deadlines: This is way more important than you think–really.   If you stay out in front, then there no issues in that regard.

This is preventive.  When momentum is lost, what then:

• Regroup ASAP.  Reschedule milestones and deadlines ASAP.
• Try to abbreviate the remaining workdays till project delivery & focus on the ‘lost sheep.’
• Have a ‘back on track’ plan written in advance for the major stuff you do frequently.
• Deliver SOMETHING the day you recognize momentum is gone, daddy, gone…a milestone, anything.  Stop other projects till the last sheep is in the fold.

I think that’s it for now.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

Planning for the Loss of Momentum On A Project.

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I needed to make sure that I was doing things the way that I wanted to, and I wanted to make sure that I had time to run my money projects as well as the rest of the stuff I was doing & trying to do. So, I created a schedule for myself. It’s pretty intense, but I get to do different things all the time. I can meet what obligations I have and really understand what’s what.

The color codes are semi self explanatory:

Red – family time,
blue = gym
green = writing
gold = money earning stuff (top line lead gen)
purple: straight on execution.
brown: whatever i need to gtd/etc.

You can see the whole thing if you like. I can set you up too, if you like. I’m in week 2 of this thing, and so far it works fine.

I need to be in bed by 11:30 to make 5:am not be a burden and that’s the hardest part of this splendor quest thing.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

Moving Towards Splendor: Getting a Schedule That Helps You Do What You Do.

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Since last week, I’ve accepted a lot of relatively challenging demands on my time.    I’ve joined toastmasters.org I’ve been invited to become a regular contributor to Blown Mortgage.  I’ve committed to a posting schedule here that is gonna be challenging, and I’m committed to getting really serious about tracking my performance next week (weight, money, time spent + new jobs).

The big things:

• Getting Amazingly Fit (#1 Goal).  (50 minutes of working out/day/minimum)
• My morning routine.
• Posting here, on TDT and on Blown Mortgage  (2 hours per/6 hours total)
• Working on a great book. (4 hours)
• Do some endurance training (Schedule 2008 Cols. Marathon).
• Weekly GTD review.
• Toastmasters (a speech roughly 3x monthly)
• The accountability project.
• Marketing for TenDayTeam
• Finishing projects
  • Ten Day Team Ops manual
  • 2004’s taxes
  • Family Constitution
• Starting up rightrightnow.com (both the site and me)
• Prospecting/running the business. (25/fewer hours/week)
• A date with Heather
• Hanging out with my family.
• Coffee with someone else.
• 3 books a week (Just so I don’t lose any more ground to Scott)
• Xenos stuff.

This stuff is important to me.  It’s all stuff I want to do, and it’s all stuff that will enhance my life more than other stuff (stuff like mastering DTD, following the Buckeyes, and everything else.  Some of it needs to happen every day, some of it every week, but having a schedule is important.

I’ve over scheduled  myself in the past–having this fragile, unrealistic schedule that I can’t do; having an insane checklist based schedule that gets you killed.  Basically, if I did: 12 hours of prospecting, 10 hours of marketing,  Mike would be able to do all the loans (since he’s superb at it).

I’ll have a schedule written out later on this afternoon–and find some accountability project for it.

This post originally came from the Freelance Sales Blog GenuineChris.com My company is http://flatratewebjobs.com/ go check that out when you get a moment. .

Scheduling time for spontaneity

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