It is far too easy to get caught in a tunnel and keep pushing on according to the latest thing we read on best practices: 10 tips of how to get people to (insert marketing goal here).
Far too easy.
It’s far more smarter – and a little bit harder – to develop a strategy that makes sense to you, and your goals.
It’s time to project our thoughts to the long term.
Case Study Time
So we make this newsletter and send it out quarterly, and in 4 years, after we’ve sent out 16 of them, what will that look like and how do we define success? If we assume that each newsletter is carefully crafted for 3 days (24hrs) by our well paid interns at $20/hr, are we finding a return on investment for one newsletter at $480? After 4 years $7680? After the newsletter has been crafted so meticulously and sent out, where does it retire to?
It’s your answer, not mine.
It’s foolish to think that just one is all that’s necessary: just one newsletter will capture their hearts and they’ll be fans forever; if I make just one widget that sells millions, I’ll be set for life!; I’m going to buy just this one last laptop and make sure it’s the best I possibly can buy and it’ll last me a lifetime.
Sure, just 1 may be all that’s necessary about 1% of the time, but in investments, we want to do everything we can to increase that percentage.
Yes, your time is an investment, and so is the time of every person whose employ you are responsible for.
I’ve talked about this before in a personal mission statement. We define what we want life to look like in 10 years, then we define missions to live by for the next 5 years that will drive us in that direction. Then we break down each one of those missions into critical tasks to focus on day in and day out that when adhered to will find us rolling down in the direction we have planned for all along.
This is not the easy way. This is not reading an article on a cool website with Chinese symbols and following a top 10 things to do to make life count list.
This is pounding the pavement, doing the due diligence. This is planning for success.
This is being aware of the habits you’re getting into and asking yourself why?
- Why am I doing this?
- Why has this been integrated into my life?
- Why do I think this is a smart investment?
- If I do a case study from my own life, does history prove this logic correct?
- Does this align with my goals?
The more you ask yourself this question, the quicker you’ll get at identifying whether it does align or not. Further, it helps to remind us to consciously think about our direction in life, and encourages us to go forth with fury because we are certain it is our quest. With this confidence, it is impossible to hold back.
Perhaps you have a strategy you use to identify the why that works great for you? I’d love to hear in the comments below.