Image by Amy Palko, the official Location Independent Photographer.
Anonymous says:
I want to create a location independent business. I’m very interested in old cars and I had the idea to tear down my classic VW beetle, clean it and restore it and then write an ebook or infoproduct about it, which I could sell.
But I’ve lost motivation because that’ll probably take me at least 18 months to do. It’s not something I can do in a reasonable time. I’d love to do something that’s related to my interests (cars, building things), but I can’t think of an idea that’ll get me a location independent income now. Any ideas how to get unstuck?
The Coach’s Answer
Cath says:
Managing focus and motivation over time when you have a dream and you just want it right now, is a biggie for anyone wanting to custom-design their life.
Because a custom-designed life goes against the grain, it’s often a little tougher to establish than just going with the flow.
Resource Alert: “I’d love to do something that’s related to my interests (cars, building things)”.
It’s great that you already know what you love – you’d be surprised how many people have lost touch with their unique interests, through years of trying to fit in with what we’re “supposed” to do and dropping our dreams when we face disappointments.
When you’re doing what you love, you won’t have to use willpower to motivate yourself – you’ll be naturally and automatically fired up. And that’s a good thing, because you’re going to need your motivation for the hard work and long-haul that establishing a solid business requires.
So here’s what is getting you stuck…
A Quest for Instant Gratification
“I’ve lost motivation because that’ll take me at least 18 months to do. It’s not something I can do in a reasonable time.”
What’s your “reasonable” time-frame? And why the urgency? In spite of all the hype about the low barriers to entry and the quick bucks you can make on the internet, the reality is that solid skills (and businesses based on those skills) take time to develop.
If they were that quick and easy to develop, then those skills wouldn’t be valuable because anyone could do them and the market would be flooded. Seth Godin does a great job of explaining this in his book, The Dip.
We all go through 4 phases whenever we’re developing skills:
1. Blissful Ignorance
This is when you don’t know what you don’t know – and of course you have nothing to worry about because you haven’t a clue and you don’t know how much you’ll suck at the task or venture you’re embarking on. It’s usually at the beginning of the learning journey. This is the stage that the “make-big-money-quick-online-with-my-guru-mastermind-group” schemes are hoping you’ll be in when you stop by their sales page.
2. The Truth Hurts
This phase happens when you get started and realize that it’s not as easy as you’d thought (or as the get-rich-quick schemes told you it would be).
At this point you’re coming up against some obstacles, either in reality or in your thinking and you start to struggle a little. And you start to understand enough about the scenario to be able to know what you don’t know and to recognise the gaps in your skills and competence. Ouch!
This is a TOUGH place to go and it takes courage to look at these gaps. Most people dip their toes in this phase, start to see reality, drop their project and go running back to blissful ignorance. But if you want to actually learn and progress your business, you’ll have to stick through this phase and find ways to stay motivated and keep your confidence up, even though at times you feel like a total loser.
3. Practice Makes Perfect
Once you’ve seen the ‘truth hurts’ phase and figured out what you’re going to need to learn, it’s pretty easy to find resources to show you how to learn whatever you need to learn. The next tough step is putting your knowledge into action.
Everything you learn about setting up a location independent business is only worth anything if you actually go and do it. And it’s this implementation phase that takes the time. The reality is that there are many mini-learning journeys within this phase, where you keep going back to phase 2 as you discover more things you didn’t expect and more obstacles you have to learn how to navigate.
4. Easy Does It
Aah! Success, the Promised Land! This is the place where we all want to be, all the time. It feels great, we’ve got great results, we’ve got great confidence and the money’s flowing. This is the phase that people are proud to tell the world about – and we all do our best to cover up any evidence of the other phases because we worry other people will think we’re incompetent.
And those guys that talk about quick bucks on the internet…find out how long it took them to develop their business and how many ideas they tried before they actually made any money – and you’ll see how universal the learning cycle is.
Hopefully understanding these 4 stages will enable you to be a bit more patient with yourself. It sounds like you’re young and have time on your side to develop solid skills that could be valuable and marketable. The sooner you start, the sooner you’ll get to the promised land of phase 4, but don’t expect to find an easy route there – you can’t skip stages 2 and 3!
And here’s the Twitter-style answer:
Learning and success are valuable because they’re rare – because they’re difficult to do. Doing what you love can sustain you through the tough trip.
If you’d like help overcoming a specific challenge in your life, submit your “Ask The Coach” question here >>>
NEW PRODUCT: Cath & I have also created a new short guide for those of you right at the beginning of designing your location independent life “A Guide To Get Started Designing Your Location Independent Lifestyle”. You can purchase it here >>>
I think that this is a trap we’ve all fallen prey to. What I (try to) do is really focus on the end result and think how absolutely worth it it’ll be once I’ve accomplished my goal.
I’ve learned such patience while building my business. Interesting thing though the more patience I have and the more I work slow and and steadily the faster my success comes!
@Alessio and Alex: when we have a strong desire for something, it’s natural to feel a bit impatient, isn’t it? Especially if you’re a “Renaissance Soul” who wants to fit in many careers and ventures into your life!
Being an entrepreneur is probably one of the best character-development programs you can put yourself on – You either adapt and learn stuff like patient focus, or you do yourself in!
And Alex, I think it’s cool that you hold the paradox so well: of being patient, but also going forward now/ not putting it off till “someday.”(that sort of patient waiting for your ship to come in is a heart-breaking waste of potential, isn’t it?)
Cath
Good post!
Anything worthwhile always takes work. Everyone wants to have the rock star lifestyle but few are willing to put in the years of sacrifice to reach the pinnacle in their field.
We all have bad days when we don’t feel like working on our dreams anymore. That is normal. The factor that separates the peak achievers is commitment. Those who can consistently put in the effort even when it is not fun, are the ones who will earn the rewards. It is easy to give up and start something new, but that will just have you jumping around from idea to idea.
The best way to stop worrying about how long something will take or how difficult it will be is to just not think about it. Do something small towards your goal now. Worrying about all the thousands of hours you will spend on the car is not productive. Just think about what you are going to do for the next hour and make sure you put in that hour or two every day.
Very little progress can be noticed day to day, but over weeks and months you will be able to see the results of your efforts.
It is like that for music, sports, business and car restorations.
I think it’s worth mentioning Number 5: It’s never going to be perfect
You’ll always think of ways you could of done better, new versions of your product, or a new service to launch. That’s part of the fun of being a LIP business, but it brings home the point of just ‘doing something’ to get you through 1 and 2.
This post was right on time for me. I was just speaking to a friend about my growing impatience, and she shared a quote she came across: “Infinite patience brings immediate results.” The quote – and your post – catalyzed the a new way of thinking for me. Thanks for the reinforcement.
This is more a direct answer to the problem,
Why not break the task down into smaller chunks, create a membership site on rebuilding the beetle, start stripping back now and build two to three weeks on content – the weekly tasks to restore a beetle, then you can start your business much sooner and add to the content as your renovation project goes forward.
I’m into camper vans and I know this sector is quite busy, but don’t let this discourage you.
Great article. I’m currently working on a big, complex project of mine and unfortunately it’s hard for me to concentrate on this one thing. When other smaller issues are coming up, my main project gets side-tracked and overall results are far from expected.
Still, I hope to implement some of your advices and get more efficient soon.
Good luck!