I know some of you will say that I am over-simplifying things, and others will disagree with my trick, but this is what I discovered after being Mr. Serious about my life and business.
Everything in This Life Is Just a Game
Do you know that person who you sit down for a few drinks while playing a board game or cards and they start taking the whole game as real and thus play it when they are too serious?
They keep getting mad and expressing frustration every time their moves backfire and celebrate like crazy when they beat you in a game, and in all that time they can’t keep the conversation going because they are too busy in the game… Yeah, I’m talking about that person.
Maybe you are that person when it comes to Internet Marketing.
If you keep taking things so seriously, then you have a hard time creating your posts. If you must figure out how you should craft your emails, what colors you should use for your headers and whether you should send your emails at 9 am on Wednesday, or 6 am on Thursday, your life as an internet marketer must be uninteresting.
These are things that should take you seconds to decide. I was there too and making this decision was like deciding to go to World War 3 or not. I was a perfectionist and wanted to nail every decision. I didn’t want to leave anything to chance. At times, it even took me a full week to create one blog post because I had to ensure everything was perfect.
Later, I realized it was not fun.
These days, I flip a coin. Seriously, I mean every time I need to make such simple decisions, I flip a coin. Even if I have no facts to back my choice I do it anyway. After all, it is better to take the wrong action than staying there and taking no action at all.
Sure, hurry has no blessings, and hurried decisions can turn out to be the worst mistake, but so can slow decisions. But there are no results for no decision. You will go nowhere with no decision.
Anyone who has ridden a bike can tell you that it is easier to take a new direction when on a move than it is to turn the bike when you are not going anywhere.
And the ultimate difference between a wrong and right decision is not the decision or the result you get after your decisions. Instead, the difference lies in how you react. If you make a poor decision, beating yourself up about it will not help.
However, if you view internet marketing as a game, a bad decision is simply a way to show you to take another direction. You need to pick yourself up and take a better direction this time. At least you are now wiser as you know one more way that you cannot succeed.
One of the best ways I use to overcome a bad choice is to laugh at it. As I said, this is a game. Life is a game.
If a team gives up two goals in a football match, do players give up in between the match and start thinking of what they should do next? No. they get the ball and continue playing, this time with a different approach. If you encounter something surprising or new in a video game, do you abandon the game and give up? No, you try your very best to beat that challenge. The best you can do is to pause the game and search online on how to tackle the problem. In a few minutes, you will go back in the game, fully loaded with the knowledge you need to overcome the challenge and win the game.
You should think of any obstacle that comes your way as a game. And just like in a game, adjusting your mindset can make a big difference…
A friend of mine went to join a military boot camp. He visualized the whole training period as a game, and afterward, he told us that the boot camp was one of the easiest and fun things he had ever done. Other people in the same camp were taking things so seriously, that they literary got sick from it. Remember this is the same boot camp, but with people having two different mindsets.
Another friend of mine was in an IRS audit in the U.S. It is a scary procedure, and frankly he was frightened and ready to do anything- including paying handsomely- to sweep things under the carpet. Then after consideration, he changed his mindset. Now, instead of staying frightened, he opted to see at this whole scenario as a game; him against them. And he declared, let’s see who will win this. His fear subsided, and he took action. And at the end of the audit, he was paid by the IRS.
Do you want to launch a new product? Start an online business? Approach 25 bigwigs in the next 25 days? Make it a game and four things will happen;
• You will feel relaxed, and the brightest ideas come to you when you are relaxed
• You will have fun, and people are more productive when they are having fun
• You will keep stress at bay, and you will consequently be happier and live longer
• When you have done what you intended, regardless of the outcome, you will be eager to try something else because you had fun doing the previous project.
Yeah, this is a serious business, done by a serious person in a fun way.
It doesn’t matter if you choose to be fun or look at things in a fun way, all you need to do is to make your life fun.
Life is a series of choices and decisions, and one big choice is to decide how we want to frame what we are doing.
For me, I choose to make it a game whereby I can’t wait to play the game the next morning. A game that will also let me earn money. Lots of money in this case.
So, how about you?