I have been thinking a lot about comparison, judging others, and not staying focused in our business/creative lives. Face it, we are distracted by the lure of social media, shopping sites, business round tables, what ever drives you away from creating your own personal magic. I believe there are a lot of reasons for that, but mostly it is fear.
What would happen if for several months we put our blinders on and created our own thing? We focused on what we were doing? We did what we were doing really well? I truly believe that we could all be doing something AMAZING.
We don't do that, and I am JUST AS GUILTY as you, because we are afraid of both failure and success. We don't hone into our true talent because what if we blow the roof off or the roof falls in.
So, how DO we do it? How do we shut off the noise and distractions if we are too afraid?
Small steps.
Start every single day with an intention to move yourself forward. It could be writing a blog post, spending a few hours on your craft, writing an amazing proposal, or just organizing your space to get ready. It doesn't have to be everything all at once, but if you start every day with a time and action dedicated to what you and your plans and do that well, you will see you move forward.
Stop comparing. Stop distracting yourself. Focus on doing your thing well. That's it. It isn't rocket science or brain surgery, although if those are your things I hope you are focusing on them! It is about shutting off the TV, Twitter, Facebook, other peoples blogs, other peoples stores, other peoples everything and focusing on what you can do today.
The reason you have to shut it all off is because the comparison of others will kill your drive. It is a slow slipperry slope towards doing nothing. And because of the ease of social media it is super easy to see how well everyone else seems to be doing. Here's the thing, they aren't showing you their messy days. Well, they might be because that might be their "thing"... but that is another story. What I mean is they are taking photos of their perfectly done cupcakes, tweeting about their rocking business lunch with a client, posting their conference speech on YouTube... they aren't showing you the day they blew the meeting, ruined the frosting, lost the job or got the rejection letter. So you are comparing yourself ONLY to thier very best. Not their very real self.
So, just stop and spend that time that you are envying them and dive into you and your projects. I promise that you will see success. Promise.
