Why Yesterday SUCKED & Today Almost Did Too - #Day1 #YourTurnChallenge
Yesterday SUCKED & Today Almost Did Too, Until...I found Seth Godin. Seth is not exactly "new" to any small business person or individual who has any interest in bettering themselves. Seth is just kind of the baseline, as in this example of a makeup artist, that @CeciNewYork (kindly sign up for her newsletter and score me some points, will ya?) conveyed to me. Business: Makeup artist. Ceci: "What makes you unique?" (Me chiming in: I think she was coaching her on branding). MA: "I make women look beautiful." (Me: Gagggg, but this is Ceci's example.) Ceci: "Well isn't it your JOB to make women look beautiful? That's not special, exactly, that's pretty much required." (Me: Yeah, dumbs--t.) So where are we going with this, you ask? Here, hang on.
Yesterday did NOT start off biting the bullet, but boy, did it bite it fast, mostly because I did not take my own advice. I started with a hike, my key list of tasks that would move the needle on my business, minimal appointments in order to accomplish said tasks, massive momentum on reorganizing my social media stuff and tracking, and then everything hit the skids. Something small at work, conveyed to me by a personality I don't gel with, alarmists, set me off. And I KNOW better. I KNOW not to let these people, non-entrepreneurs, non-risk takers, vanilla milk toast at best, get to me, but not yesterday. I bought into it and let that person take me down. And I take full responsibility because I took the bait, hook, line and sinker. So the afternoon was sunk, I wanted to curl into a ball and just give up.
No, really, now is when I am NOT exaggerating.
Here's What I Wanted to Do:
I wanted to just throw in the towel and say, ya know what world, you were right. All of the colleges I didn't get into, you were right, I shouldn't have. Hee hee, I was stupid all along and you knew it first.
And then I took my mother's advice. She would always tell me that when things just seemed black and unmanageable and just unfixible, just stop. Just walk away and do something else. I hate that advice, mainly because it's hard to imagine my perfectly coiffed, mannered mother, ever having something seem, oof, "unmanageable", but I took the advice anyway. After calling my therapist, but I took it.
And today, I took a break. I hope my web designer is reading this, because she'll know why she didn't get the photos for the new site she's waiting on (translation, that I've been hammering her on). I took a break and put on no makeup and set up a GrubHub (food delivery) account. I hate setting up new stuff like this. Shocker. OK, double shocker, I know that I don't have a food delivery service on speed dial. (Two side bars, as I don't think I've had enough ADHD medicine today: 1) Pasadena and my area pretty much have a ban on plastic bags. 1) Just realized though, that if you order take out, somehow you get it in one of those evil bags. Ha! I am currently fusing evil plastic bags and making fabric out of them, another blog for sure, but now I found a way to get good bags delivered, legally to my doorstep, rather, Nugget's doorstep. 2) I just forgot what #2 is, so I'll insert something here: I decided to type this blog, and then the food came and I brought it upstairs to eat in bed, because that's what I do in my house, but I'm at my boyfriend's, while he's at work, in a real job, with people who wear ties and everything. So, of course I go to whip out my food. Fricker man, he's totally OCD, and I am sure one crumb has never dusted this set up. But I need to write. What to do? I'm going to eat in bed, cop to it when he gets home and probably end up getting him a new comforter in the process because there will probably be soy sauce involved here in a minute. And oh by the way, this isn't some scandalous post, I'm in sweats on top of this whole set up, I'm just happy up here in my little castle. I'm not shooting porn. Nobody tell Nugget. Actually, his phone is probably already ringing. Traitors.) Back to my break.
I'll admit, I was feeling sorry for myself. I let this "associate" - note first 3 letters in this word, get to me and ring a bell I've rung in myself before: Making more out of something than it is, then beating myself up for not catching an error, that, ahem, was not mine to catch in the first place, unless, me as the entrepreneur is now supposed to literally walk mail out and hand it to the postman, and then letting it take me off my game. Tired of my pity party, and the short list of my sweet friends who sensed something brewing so sent me multiple texts to check in, I decided to go to one of my failsafe spots: Reading. (I had exhausted Pinterest. Full disclosure. A lot of pins on getting stains out, for the girl who doesn't even do laundry. I know. Judge me, why don't you.) First I went to Astrologyzone to see what in the heyllll is going on with the Sagittarians of the world. Mercury in retrograde coming up, I think someone in my house is fighting with Jupiter, no wonder. Then, the next logical step, of course, I went to Seth Godin's blog. Astrology-Seth. Natch.
I hadn't been on his app in a bit, so read I clicked on this link about how Winnie Failed. I was like Winnie? That's a cool name. Actually, I almost named my middle son, Gopher, so Winnie is really workin' it. And I read the rest of Seth's post about how Winnie hadn't really failed and so I was like, oh sweet Jesus, I'll drink the Kool-Aid, Seth, and click on the link to find out "how Winnie didn't really fail." Video goes to Winnie and her struggle blogging after three weeks straight and then she stopped. She felt horrible, Seth told her she hadn't failed and she did something even better and started this blogging challenge for all of us to blog daily for a week. #YourTurnChallenge or #YourTurn, so you can start "shipping", Seth's new concept in his book. I wasn't even going to put the hashtag because I'm not sure I want this to be my #Day1, but whatever, I'll give it a shot. Cheerful sweet Winnie in that video hadn't failed, she just did what we all do, she hit a bump in the road. (BTW, sweet Winnie looks like she has not hit many bumps in the road, and in my next life, I would like to come back looking, talking and acting very composed, just like freaking, flipping, perfect, GD Winnie.)
Winnie Hadn't Failed
Reading about Winnie and her lack of failure, even Seth agreed, kind of got me off my dime. I whipped out my laptop and decided to post to you guys in case any of YOU have gotten knocked off of your horses. Maybe Jupiter is warring Venus or something in your chart. Hey, what are we supposed to do if everyone's all mixed up, upstairs? Well, me, I'm blogging. (And going to start a new Pinterest board, on, ahem, said "associate". Don't forget the first three letters of "associate.") And you know what? Now I feel better. My little chyrsanthemum tea is kicking in, I kind of feel a little vengeful/better that I vented, and actually know I'm good for one more battle in the long, windy road of entrepreneurialism. Because you know what? hitting the bumps is just what happens. Like Ceci's makeup artist. It's the baseline, just like Seth. You want to read good stuff, baseline, read the newspaper, read Seth. Wanting to make women beautiful, that's just the basic part of what a makeup artist does. The making them beautiful with 24k gold eyelashes or something is the secret sauce, the unique selling proposition, but the absolute, par for the course, is making them look good. And if you want to be an entrepreneur? Guess what, you BASELINE will now include many bumpy, somewhat self-conscious lumpy days.
Thanks Winnie. And Seth. You deliver every time.
And yours truly is back on the road to feelin' fabulous. #Snap.
Tell me what you're struggling with. Lawdy, it'll make us all feel better.
xoxo and Happy Weekend.
PS - If you want more on "How to Succeed Even If You're Not the Brainy Type", check out my article on Entrepreneur. I start started contributing for them. #Love. #DontGiveUp
PPS - Another "Winnie" I like is Winston Churchill and his quote: "Never, ever ever ever ever give up."
Trackbacks/Pingbacks