We live in an age of information over-abundance and finite attention
spans. As a result, both writers and readers have come to depend on the
quick fix. People don’t have time to read drawn out explanation and
analysis. They want answers up front in an easily digestible format.
Lists, bullets points, and quick tips have the advantage of speed and
efficiency, but if you aren’t careful, getting caught up in the quick fix mentality
can seriously hinder your progress. Here are some suggestions for
developing a sustainable growth strategy that isn’t determined by the
day’s hot topic.
Schedule Solitude
When you’re ingesting hundreds tips and ideas every day, the hardest
part is mentally organizing them well enough to take action. Even if
your head is filled with great advice, it won’t be much use if you form a
coherent plan.
A habit that I’ve been cultivating that addresses this problem is
scheduling solitude. Every day I make a point of taking a walk by
myself, preferably first thing in the morning before everyone else is
awake. This alone time might seem insignificant, but it gives me the
chance to be alone with my thoughts, away from distractions. I use this
time to evaluate the previous day, plan my current day, and sort out the
ideas in my head. You’d be amazed how much more effective and
purposeful you become after only 30 minutes of solitude.
Develop a Longterm Strategy
Regardless of what your goals are, there will always be new ideas
popping up that claim to be the latest and greatest. Once they start to
generate buzz, it’s tempting to change your plans to jump on the new
opportunity.
The problem with this is that it fails to develop a long
term strategy. If you keep jumping from one opportunity to the next, you
become a follower without real direction.
Don’t expect the latest and greatest thing to solve your problems.
Instead, use what you know to develop a longterm strategy. Your strategy
will change as you learn about new opportunities, but don’t abandon it
because something looks easier. The world is full of frustrated
opportunity seekers — don’t be one of them. Thinking in terms of
strategy is an enormous advantage.
Stay Consistent
Along the same lines, people are often way too willing to change
their plans for the promise of a quick fix. If something doesn’t work
out immediately, it’s on the next opportunity, and the next after that.
Behaving this way allow you to develop skill and experience.
Of course most ideas don’t pay off immediately, if they did everyone
would be successful. Give each new idea a full trial before abandoning
it. Stick with it for a while, and do your best to make it work. After a
few months, if the results aren’t there it might be time to make a
change, but at least you’ll know why it didn’t work.
Don’t Try to Fix Everything At Once
Another dangerous mindset is trying to fix everything at once. We
want to find the solution that allows us solve our problem with one
giant swoop. I’m particularly guilty of this myself. In trying to build
up this site as quickly as possible, I got into the habit of writing
every post for optimal social media performance. When you can get on
Digg and drive 30,000 readers to your site in one day, it’s tempting to
try to do it every time.
The problem with this is that building an audience all at once is
impossible. It requires making thousands of individual connections and
that takes time. By trying to make every post a big hit, I wasn’t being
faithful to myself or SKA Oceans Blogging loyal readers. I thank the readers
who spoke up to complain. From now on the focus of this site will be
providing the best possible content, not social media performance.
For those of you who enjoy list posts, don’t worry either. We’ll
still be employing them, but they’ll be balanced with more substantial
posts that are the heart and soul of the site. The lesson here is that
important accomplishments take time and effort. Trying to find
shortcuts, even if they provide a temporary boost, will only hinder your
progress.
In the age of quick fixes, it’s easy to get distracted. By forming an
intelligent strategy and implementing it consistently, you’ll have an
enormous advantage over those who flock from one opportunity to the
next. Don’t let a short attention span or the pursuit of easy answer
kill your progress.
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