How many books do you have in your Kindle library that you haven't read yet? How many times have you said to yourself, “I should really learn how to write better copy,” or “I should really learn Photoshop,” or “I should really learn how to shower more regularly instead of rotting away in my yoga pants with grease dripping down my hair follicles, fisting the keyboard like a caveman while blankly staring at the screen with absolutely zero drive, motivation, creativity or brainpower, mildly hoping that, at the very least, the one email I've been waiting for my whole life will land miraculously in my inbox practically begging me to become a Hollywood star, and then I'll have a reason to join society again and MAYBE EVEN TALK TO OTHER PEOPLE THAT AREN'T ON THE INTERNET.”
How many times?
The fact is, you get so sidetracked by the day-to-day logistics of running a business—emails / invoicing / meetings / texts / requests / complaints / customer service / order forms / websites / tweets / comments / more emails / hair pulling / peeing / procrastination / another meeting / fuck, did I eat lunch? / another email from the same person saying thank you to my thank you / client emergency! / WHERE ARE THE LEAN CUISINES / are they really not paying my invoice? / what? the link didn't work? / pound pound pound / wine?
…that the important stuff doesn't get done. What's the important stuff?
MAKING SURE YOUR GREATEST ASSET— YOU
—DOESN'T BECOME A DANGEROUS LIABILITY.
You're a liability when you know less than you should. You're a liability when you're not working as smart as you should. And you're a liability when your work isn't as good as it COULD be. Because businesses are run by people. And if the person behind the business is stagnating—so will the business.
I've found that the biggest reason that most people don't make time for the important stuff—for reading that book that could change your way of thinking forever, for taking that course that could add $50,000 to your bottom line this year, for learning the skill that would help you up the ante 10 fold—is because they feel “guilty” because they should be “working.”
What they fail to realize is that this is the work. So here's what I recommend: If you find yourself falling into this mindtrap—I feel guilty any time I'm not checking items off my immediate to-do list that sucks me into a hamster wheel of misery while everything I really want to do sits on the backburner!—
—try actually tracking & paying yourself hourly for any time you spend reading a business book, learning to write better copy, tinkering in Photoshop, or something else that's been on your “to-do someday when the whole world doesn't feel like it's relying on me to support it.”
Which doesn't exist, by the way, because the world is a needy uptight diva CRAZY PERSON who will always be sticking out her hand asking for more, until you finally learn how to look her in the face and say—
—I'M BUSY WITH MY OWN STUFF, BITCH.