I’ve been procrastinating. Big time.
I’m so close to completing the editing of a video product I’m about to launch. The exciting thing is that releasing this product into the marketplace will enable me to better leverage my time, since the product can share my expertise with entrepreneurs I normally cannot reach due to geography and time limitations. And because I’m committed to keeping the price significantly lower than my in-person consulting rates, I see it as a win-win for me and my clients.
But I digress…..
For the past week, I knew all I needed to do was review the lesson audios and cut out certain spots where I babbled on too long or didn’t quite make my point clear enough – and then plug in a few new audio clips.
Simple enough, right? Nope!
Here’s the bottom line: I can’t stand doing tedious little detail-work like that! (Which is probably why I put it off until the night before I committed to delivery!)
There’s just something about doing this type of work that just makes me antsy. After 15 minutes of poking around in the editing program, I went to my contact database and started searching for people who I could hire to do this!
Yep, that was pretty much my reaction to this portion of the project….hire someone.
I instantly felt guilty and heard the voice going, “Jennifer, you’re being ridiculous- just do it yourself, it won’t kill you!”
I should be able to spend just one quick hour doing some work on my laptop, for a project that I’m passionate about, right?
Again, the answer is no!
I quickly called my mentor, concerned that the activities I excel at, along with my strengths, seem to lie in a narrow little niche, and that I really need to expand that channel in order to achieve greater success.
First she disagreed. Then she gave powerful advice.
She said, “Jen, it’s not that you can’t do the work, it’s that you are fully aware of what it costs you to do it.”
That made me realize that what I was calling “being lazy and stupid” was actually my keen awareness of the fact that we all have our own unique abilities, and that when we focus specifically in those strengths, powerful results occur.
And when we operate outside of those unique abilities we can quickly become drained and de-motivated.
Maybe I can handle the drain and de-motivation, but why put up with that? A quick fifty bucks to someone within my network bought an hour of his time and completed the editing in 25% of the time it would have taken me to do it on my own. Do the math - I definitely came out ahead!
My point? To best leverage your time and energy, find an alternate solution for those activities that drain and frustrate you. Forcing yourself to muddle through them is a waste of your time & energy and cost you income-generating opportunities!
