Do you know when talking is your enemy?
This is something that no one tells young eager beavers, full of energy and ready to tackle the world. So purely out of love and kindness, I’m going to spell it out for them. If you like you can pass it along to them and that way, if they get offended, I’ll be the bad guy.
What would I tell them?
It’s so boring for those who have been at the game of life for a while to hear about all the things new people say they are going to do … that they never do. Don’t be that person.
Think about all of the people you know who’ve talked about starting their own business. They have lots of ideas. They want to be their own boss and have a better work life. They want to make more money and control their destiny. They have opinions on how everything could be done quicker, cheaper, better. Yak, yak, yak.
But do they ever take the plunge and launch that dream business? No. Getting the point? Don’t be that person. No one respects you.
Why does talking work against you?
What happens is that once you start talking about all the work you’re going to do, your mind can become convinced that you’ve already done it. So you never actually do it.
Of course you need goals and need to be committed but yakking about it to everyone you see won’t get you there. Work will. You can either be great at telling people what you’re going to do, or you can be great at actually doing it.
Wait and take pictures.
Wait until you do it then take a picture of it. You can’t take a picture of something you didn’t do, so you know you haven’t achieved your goal until you take that picture. When you do, you know you’ve turned your plans into action.
Now you have respect. Now you know what it takes to win. You’ll be seasoned by accomplishment. Since winners are unique in a world of mediocrity and failure, they’ll be an audience for what you have to say. You aren’t likely to be spouting off empty promises, predictions and pronouncements. You’ll have insights others need and want to hear, because they’ll want to duplicate some or all of your success.
In the meantime focus your energy on doing and asking questions of those who know more than you.
There will be plenty of time to talk after you’ve “done it.”
