I have been repeatedly told I am impatient. For years, those closest to me will tell me to “slow down” or “calm down” or “just wait.” The ironic thing is, that makes me more impatient…but I digress. The fact is, once I decide I want something, I want it right now. I remember thinking it was weird when older relatives would tell me they “enjoyed the trip” on the way to vacation. What? I just wanted to be at the beach. But here’s the thing…that is not how you create real success. The real success comes from the small act of putting one foot in front of the other…every day. The real success comes in the grind. And real success takes time. My daughter, Skylar Hasseman is struggling with this right now. She is an aspiring dancer (she was mentioned on this blog here) and is working to create a name and a brand for herself. She has started to do a “Daily Dance Video” (subscribe to her Youtube here) and is putting herself out there. But she is wondering why it’s taking so long. The thing is, it’s not.If you are watching from the outside you see that. People are sharing her videos. She is gaining engagement. Other dancers are even starting to copy some of her ideas (that’s when you know you are making progress). It’s about consistency and patience.Gary Vaynerchuk has a great response to this in this cool Q & A session from one of his talks. In this short video Gary talks about being quick on the day to day (taking action) but being patient with the long goals. Most of us, as Gary says, get this backwards. I know I struggle with it. It’s a long game. We need to play it that way.In his new book, The Motivation Myth (pre order here), Jeff Haden blows this up. He says that so many of us are waiting for the motivation or the inspiration so we can act…and then we will succeed. Haden points out that we have this backwards…and he’s right. We need to have the courage to take small actions in the direction of our goals. Once we do this, these small successes will actually give us the motivation we have been waiting for. It’s not about some big “aha” moment. It’s about taking action…over and over.Why is this great? Because it’s not about genius. It’s not even (to an extent) about talent. It’s about showing up when everyone else does not. And YOU control that. Now…go do it.Want to keep up all the time? Make sure to join our VIP List! Our VIP’s get an email with the latest content…and other special offers as well. Join here. Oh, and if you are in sales and want our Sales Playbook, click here and sign up…we will send it over!
Please allow me a “proud dad” post here. But I think you might get some value out of it as well.
My oldest daughter Skylar Hasseman is an aspiring dancer. She just finished her Freshman year at Kent State University (and did very well) but it struggling with the idea of whether to return. Like many young people (and not so young people) she is trying to decide which is the best path for her to reach her dreams and goals. So in working to build her own personal brand, she has decided to create dance videos that showcase her dancing and her choreography skills. (You can subscribe to the channel here).
Her first video went up last night and (again proud dad here) I think it looks great. You can check it out here.
But what does this all mean to you? Great question. I think she is battling with what many of us work on. How do we work toward our goals? How do we stand out in a loud world? What if no one likes what we are doing? You understand. If you are like me, you have heard those voices in your head.
So here are 3 Lessons you can learn from my daughter and her video.
1. She Chose Herself: Dance is something where you can wait your whole life waiting for someone to “choose” you. You go to auditions. You are judged at competitions. You wait to get chosen. She decided to take a different (or maybe just an additional) path. She created an opportunity to showcase her skills on her own.
2. She Took Action: How many times have you said, “I have an idea…” only to let it go because it might be too hard? It’s those ideas that you need to take action on if you want to stand out.
3. She “Shipped:” The project is never done until it’s out there. She could have waited to get one more shot. She could have continued to work and edit and wait until it was perfect. Instead, she pushed it out into the world. I am proud of that. This first project can be deemed a success. That’s great stuff. Now, if she wants to really take this path, she needs to create more and more consistent content to build her brand. Whether or not she does that is up to her. But what’s cool, is that she knows that now.
