 There's a cruel monster in the business world Reaching out from the depths of the underground dragging you down holding you back from everything that you want That monster is shiny object syndrome So you can leave this video right now and go get distracted with something else another shiny object We can stick around and you can actually figure out why is this happening over and over again to all of us And what can you actually do about it? That's what we're going to talk about today So right here, I've got eight ways that I finally beat shiny object syndrome No, I still fall victim to it I still fall prey to shiny object syndrome just like the rest of us But I have actually overcome it enough to hit my initial goals in business to get real momentum and build something That has lasting power and get out of that cycle of just starting things over and over again Avoiding that pain going into something and then as soon as it gets hard or an interesting or dull or boring Leaving for something that looks way cooler Now there's something that you need to understand here and it's that our brains are basically computers that are programmed From environmental inputs. Okay, the hardware of our brains is biological It's inherited but then the software that's running on the hardware is largely Based on environmental inputs and if you are in the United States right now or even anywhere in the world Most of us are kind of brought up culturally Around certain universal paradigms and principles So the education system teaches us a certain way it rewards a certain way And it's this deeply embedded software in our brains that causes us to behave in certain ways and seek certain results and Understanding this can really be used to our advantage in a lack of understanding is going to cause you to keep behaving in ways That aren't in your best interest overall So one thing you have to understand about The software in your brain is that humans are always going to do what's easiest in the moment. It's our natural instinct is to not to exert more energy than we have to our Biological imperative is to stay alive and we're going to exert as little energy as we have to to stay alive And so your brain you probably hear us all the time doesn't give a shit about your goals It it cares about doing what's easiest in the moment and conserving energy and staying safe And so we have to understand that so we can put things in place to kind of override the biological impulse So how I finally beat shiny object syndrome? Number one is have a tangible goal now We got to think about this for a second. So if we're talking about business And we're talking about getting monetary results. We're talking about making an impact or Helping somebody with a certain kind of problem. Those are very abstract things that we want to go after So we may have a very strong vision of that in our mind of what we want, but it's still so Abstract we need to turn that goal into a tangible goal now think about this What do we get in school all of us growing up? We get a report card in school We get that piece of paper and we get a diploma so already we've been programmed and conditioned to want that Tangible thing at the end we want that piece of paper that says I did it Now in the real world doesn't really work like that, but we can use substitutes Think about this in sports again Like if you think about becoming the best athlete and winning the race Or they the big game or the national championship or whatever it is like that's really cool But it's still really intangible now think about that vision that you can have in your mind of winning What do you usually get? Like the Super Bowl I think you get a Super Bowl ring right and in the Olympics you get a gold medal So there's that tangible aspect of the goal that you're after it's a byproduct of getting the results But it allows your mind to focus in and go after the thing you really want so let me show you something I just got back from Being in Asia for about six months but this came I think in March or in April and So I haven't actually seen it yet. So let's see if you can see this So we've got a Christian Martin digital nomad.com 2018 to come a club award So it's just like in the record industry when you get that gold record. I had this goal in my mind That I wanted to hit a million dollars in one year with one funnel And again, that's pretty specific But it's not that tangible and so when I was able to put that gold record in place and say I Want this gold record and I want it on my wall right here and picture that every single day So I walk down the stairs in my house and every single day I picture that gold record right there on the wall and I was finally able to walk in my house Put that up and see the completion of that vision that I've had for so long So I turned that thing that's kind of intangible into a tangible goal. That's number one on how to finally beat shiny object syndrome Number two I have be willing to suck One of the biggest reasons that people don't make it through shiny object syndrome is they start a new project They start an adventure a new business And it's really fun at first because they're learning a lot and there's kind of like beginner gains Like if you if you start going to the gym for the first time You're gonna get beginner gains like really fast progress and then you're gonna level out on plateau So the same thing happens in business is to get beginner gains And then as soon as you have to break through that plateau you realize that you're not actually that good at what you're doing and Most people can't tolerate not being good at things And so they're just gonna walk away from that and try and find something that's easier now That is a huge mistake and so To beat this to stay in the game. I have this mug and it says create something today even if it sucks and I actually have a couple of these mugs and So every morning when I'm drinking my coffee and I'm looking over my goals I am reading this while I'm drinking coffee create something today Even if it sucks and what does that do that puts me focused on the process and not the outcome So my focus is on creation and producing things because how you actually get the results you want in life That's money or fulfillment or whatever is to create and produce things for other people And money is just gonna be a byproduct of that creation So if you're not creating things for other people every day You're not gonna get where you want to go and so that put my focus back on creation rather than outcome because we can't Always control the outcome. Okay, we're not gonna win at everything that we do and in the beginning Especially the things that we produce are not gonna be that useful to other people But the only way to get better at producing useful things for other people is to show up and create every single day So the point is even if you suck in the beginning, which you absolutely will Keep doing it When I was in yoga teacher training my teacher said you got to show up and suck in order to show up and be Good someday So number two be willing to suck Number three I have short-term losses for long-term gains. Oh my god This is such a fucking problem in the industry is that people come in and they look at education or they look at a program a training program Or a business and they want to make an ROI on that investment in like two days, which is absolutely ridiculous One of my real estate investor friends is in town right now and he was talking about doing renovations on one of his rental properties And he was talking about a $10,000 renovation that would pay itself back in two years And he mentioned it like that was the quickest ROI out of anything that he could do in his business He's like so two years and I'm gonna be break even on that Can you imagine if people thought like that in the internet marketing industry if they made investments? And they got an ROI in two years they would everybody would be so much better off We wouldn't have shiny objects in them because people come in and they wouldn't ROI on their investments in two weeks without actually doing anything When you get new training or new skill sets or things like that You have to use them long enough for them to pay off And so first you have to go through and learn the material and you have to practice it Then you have to implement it then you have to realize where you're still not good at it And then you have to go implement it again over and over again So it's all about reps as Arnold Schwarzenegger would say it's all about the reps And so when you're looking and getting an ROI on something you need to lengthen your horizons You need to be willing to take short-term losses for long-term gains Okay, we need to be in the habit of making investments in ourselves knowing that over the long term That's gonna produce an exponentially better result than somebody who doesn't make investments themselves ever because they're not willing to take Any short-term losses who gives a shit about short-term losses? Okay, you have to play the long game and you're not gonna get there without taking any losses so Your goal is to level yourself up and increase your earning potential. It's not to Be a millionaire on day one. Okay, it's just not gonna happen You want to look ten years out and say how do I hit these goals? And it's gonna require short-term losses to get there just like investing in a new business Just like when you buy a house and you're down money at first and then over the long term you pay off your mortgage And now you have a cash flowing asset that you actually own It's the same with your skill set You're gonna go on the whole to get started and then that's gonna have an ROI over time So be willing to take short-term losses for those long-term gains Number four, I have listened to the market So shiny object syndrome as soon as products would get hard as soon as a niche would get hard Or I'd have a couple bad clients in a certain industry I would want to jump ship and I want to want to try different things or if I launched a new product or service and It's what I thought that the market wanted and it wasn't really hitting I would kind of think like okay, maybe I should like go do something else When in reality all I had to do is listen to the market They were telling me exactly what to do So for example like my current webinar funnel I had like three or four different iterations of this funnel that I got that two comic club award for That were kind of like directed at different client avatar and they had a different name And so I had to actually shift and rework that over the course of like a year And rebrand each time to find the one that actually finally hit So just like Russell runs and says you're one funnel away you are it's going to take you a couple funnels to get there No matter what industry you're in so you're not going to hit it first try, but if you listen to the market They'll tell you what to sell them So this is why I always laugh to when people are hating on marketers because it's like eventually Everybody who's in business is just offering what the market actually responds to so We're not going to put marketing out there that nobody wants to see we just put marketing out there That gets the best response. We look at data. We see what hits We see what doesn't and we do more of what works and less of what doesn't work And so as a marketer you're basically just parroting back to the market what they tell you that they want So if you look at somebody's marketing and you hate it or it makes you angry and you wish Why can't they just be more straightforward or what are they tell so many stories or? Why are they so hypey or anything like that? It's because the market's telling them. That's what they're responding to But if you're out there, and you're trying to beat shiny object syndrome and instead of switching opportunities completely try Just tweaking what you're doing based on what the marketing is telling you Number five recruits support and encouragement. I Have support and encouragement as two things here. So number one support Whatever you're trying to do whatever niche you're in whatever industry you're in Honestly join a program that teaches people how to do exactly that it blows my mind that people don't want to spend money on education When any training program you join is like having a thousand people that have already gone through the process Tell you exactly what to watch out for and what has worked and what hasn't and so people are like I'm gonna go out there and do it on my own free YouTube videos. Those people are never successful They never make it everyone. I know who's successful goes and they join training programs Because it's leveraging the power of everyone who has been through that program before you you're getting so many more data points Then if you go out and you do something on your own It's gonna take you 10 years to make as many mistakes as those thousand people are already in the training program have had and When you hit a wall and you hit an obstacle instead of suffering in silence You can go to your training program and say hey who's had this problem before and somebody's gonna be able to help you solve it So it's gonna be direct tactical support and strategic support in the goal that you're trying to accomplish You have something very specific to that. You also need encouragement. Okay, and that's because we are social animals We respond to social cues and we're gonna do What makes us fit in with a group and so if our group is saying starting a business is done Eventually we're gonna give in to those social cues And we're gonna say I'm not gonna source a business because it doesn't feel safe Now if we surround ourselves with people think building a big business is awesome Then we're gonna want to live up to that expectation It's gonna raise our status to succeed in business and we're gonna feel really good and connected when we actually hit our goals So I have a group called funnel homies And we are all in this goal together to get a two comic club board And so I could have done it without funnel homies because I knew they thought it was cool I knew they'd be super stoked when I actually got a two comic club board And they offered me a lot of encouragement along the way. Whereas my friends who are in a business You know, they don't really care about that stuff. So you need to have a support and encouragement Number six how I finally beat shiny objects syndrome. I Have put yourself in work jail. Now I've talked about this before I used to go into an industry or business and I would have moderate success. I'll get those beginner gains and then like six months later 12 months later or 18 months later. That's kind of my three milestones. I would jump ship and I would go do something else So I'd have some moderate success at first and then I would get bored quote-unquote bored because my mind would tell me I'm bored And then I would go do something else entirely now I got so sick of that doing that for so many years and not hitting my goals not getting to the million-dollar mark That I really wanted to get to that I said You're in this for two years. There's no jumping ship. You're not allowed to leave this business model You can tweak your marketing angle, but you're not allowed to leave this business model for two years No matter what and so I want to leave so many times. I would get frustrated Something would go wrong. I've had a bad week or a bad month and I would want to leave But I put myself in work jail for two years. There was no getting out. So it was a non Issue in my mind. There was no discussion happening. There wasn't oh, maybe I'll leave this industry or niche Maybe I won't it was no you're in for two years too bad suck it up And so that way to stay in because the longer you stay in something the closer you are to mastery and mastery doing something extremely well Covering the fundamentals extremely well is how you're actually going to get the results that you want in life It's not by finding the perfect opportunity just by getting really really good at the opportunity that you've chosen to stick with So number six put yourself in work jail tell yourself. I'm in this for two years full time There's no getting out no matter what at the end of two years I can evaluate and make a different decision if I still am really unhappy But that's going to help you fight through those hard times and get which one to go Seven money is just a number and this is a two-sided thing It's like number one is we make such a big deal out of it And it seems like an impossibility to make more money and things like that. It's just a number So if like if you can make a thousand dollars, there's no reason you can't make ten thousand dollars There's no reason you can't make a hundred or a million dollars. It's just a number. You're just doing the thing over and over again So take the emotions out of the money Stop tying it to your ego like are you the kind of person that can do this or not is just a number and a bank account The other thing is if you're only chasing money after you hit your goals, you're gonna feel the same way You're gonna feel like Like keep doing this, but it's just a number on the computer screen keeps going up Doesn't have any real meeting so you want to make sure that you are doing something that you believe in and number one Thing is that you care about your clients and the result that you provide for them because that's where your fulfillment is actually Going to come over the long term and when you're questioning yourself like why am I still doing this? It's just a number. I already got the initial number that I wanted Staying it for your clients is Going to make all the difference So I've been thinking about this a lot and a lot of people have a saying like you should find your passion You need to find out what you're passionate about so you stick with something over the long term you get good at it I don't think you need to find what you're passionate about I think you need to find who you're passionate about like who do you want to be hero to and then go into that market and Then just fall in love with your customer and continue to provide solutions for them So if you focus on who you're passionate about instead of that number That's gonna make it a lot easier to stay in the game and get results If you've noticed there's a theme here staying in the game is the number one thing to fight show me Number eight last I have here is how do you next goal ready to go? So I hit that Gold record like I said, I think it was back in March or April and this had been a goal that I had in my mind so intensely for so long and I wanted it so bad. It was driving me forward every single day and it caused me to Produce quite a lot try a lot of different things put in a lot of work Have a real sense of urgency because I wanted to get this thing and as soon as I got it a lot of the pressure that had Built up was taken out of my business. And so it's like, okay, I hit my goal now What I was kind of like, okay, I already did that and there's much less pressure And I felt really burnt out like I just didn't have a stamina that I used to have I wasn't being as productive. There wasn't as much pressure. I wasn't being pulled upwards It's like I already hit the goal. You know, what's even the point now? so You really have to have the next goal ready to go or you're gonna feel really deflated after you hit your initial goal Whether that's to have your first thousand dollar month or ten thousand dollar month or a hundred thousand dollar month Whatever it is hold that goal really strongly and intensely in your mind Have a tangible reward for it like a trophy or a trip or whatever it is Maybe you take a trip with your friends when you hit your first ten thousand dollar month But after you hit that goal celebrate it and then you have to reset that goal Immediately after you're done celebrating and that's gonna put the pressure back in so after I realized that I had no more motivation after hitting this gold record I set a bunch of new goals around Influencing the clients how many clients we impact how we impact those clients and then also The size of the company. So we're trying to 10x that gold record now and get the The so I think my camera's memory cards filled up there But we're just wrapping up have the next goal ready to go to rebuild that pressure in your business Now to finally be Chani object syndrome You're eventually going to have to just embrace the pain because the reason that we have it is because things get hard They get painful in one way or another emotionally Financially whatever it is and so we leave that opportunity We go to something else and we never break through that pain threshold and it's like imagine working out And you never push things to the point where they're painful You're never gonna break through those plateaus And that's exactly what happens in business with shiny object syndrome And so eventually when things come in your business and they're painful say that things break down your ad account gets shut down A client's a pain in the ass instead of that being a reason to walk away Lean into that pain embrace it and try to love that pain and ask yourself. What is this teaching me? What is this showing me? There's a great book in this is called the obstacles the way And the things where the breakdown in our business are really just showing us the path forward the path to success Because those are our weak spots. That's where we need to improve to get to the next level So how I finally beat shiny object syndrome and got my two comma club award for doing over a million dollars a year in sales In one funnel have a tangible goal be willing to suck Short-term losses for long-term gains. Please think long-term. Don't be afraid of short-term losses. Listen to the market So let the market tell you what to sell Recruit support and encouragement put yourself in work jail. You're in there for two years. No matter what no leaving money is just a number Both sides of that Don't be intimidated by it and also don't think that it's the end all be on life because it's not as soon as you have about $70,000 in income Beyond that your life satisfaction is not going to go up exponentially before that you're so worried about survival that Once you hit that point, you're gonna get a lot happier from having you that much money. I'll be honest And then eight have the next goal ready to go. So go out there put these into practice Let me know your experience with shiny object syndrome in the comments and I'll see you on the next video