– by Wenn Lynn
“Don’t worry about what you can’t do, focus on what you can” – Tony Doherty
When you focus on what you can’t do, you get scared, worried, overwhelmed… and give up long before you’ve even tried. This is a classic case of paralysis-by-analysis.
There’s the saying, “you miss 100% of the shots you don’t take”. To me, that just doesn’t make sense, because you didn’t even shoot in the first place. So how can you miss?
The average human lifespan is 75 years; that’s 27 375 days. To put it into perspective, here’s a breakdown of how many days you have left, based on your age:
As humans, we like certainty and stability. That’s why we hate stepping out of our comfort zone – because the risk and uncertainty of failure is beyond our control.
But one thing is certain – and that’s death. Now that’s a real reality slap isn’t it?
Once you realise that death is your ultimate fate, you’ll see that success and failure really isn’t a big deal. It’s the hard work that you put in and what you make out of the journey that matters.
Don’t let the fear of striking out hold you back. Because there’s nothing scarier than knowing for certain that you could have done something but didn’t.
So get started. Just do something.
Once You’ve Started, Keep It Consistent
These days, people come up with 3-year, 5 year, or even 10-year plans, when they can’t even stick to work for an hour without checking their phones, Facebook or Instagram.
So f*ck your five year plan. #FYFYP
Motivation is fleeting and unreliable. If you want to achieve anything in life, you have to stick to it and make it a habit.
Transform your yearning for success into a quiet, evidence-based belief by consistently putting in the work. Nike was onto something when it came up with the ‘just do it’ quote, because no amount of visualization and motivation cultivates self-belief more than action itself.
And Then Be Prepared To Fail
Don’t tell me you didn’t see this coming.
Have you ever heard of the ‘Minimum VIable Product’ (MVP) model? Basically, it’s a model that prevents spending excessive money and resources on the development of products that does not fulfil customer demand.
Here’s how it works:
- You develop the most basic version of a core business idea, with only 1-2 essential features.
- You release it into the market and see how customers respond
- If they like it, you know you’re on the right track, and just keep adding more features.
- Repeating the cycle to develop your business idea.
- OR if they don’t like it, at least you fail cheaply and quickly – no drama there.
This model embraces failure, and uses it to provide feedback to drop features that focus on developing those that do.
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