The good thing about instigating is that so few people actually instigate, you’re competition is pretty limited.
This make success (in any venture) possible and way more probable than you might expect.
The bad thing about instigating is that so few people actually instigate, you’re not going to have very much company on your way to the top (or once you reach the top).
The hard part when starting any worthwhile project isn’t the competition – they are few and far between (and often imaginary). The hard part is trying to get there by yourself, because for large parts of the journey, you’re on your own.
The Enemy knows this.
And the Enemy will do everything in its power to break you down and get you to quit.
The Enemy will use fear and uncertainty to cloud your mind and confuse your goals. The Enemy will hit you when you’re weakest – when you haven’t had success in a while – and get you to question yourself (“why am I even doing this?”), critique yourself (“this isn’t good enough”), and ultimately beat yourself (“I can’t do this anymore”).
The Enemy can use these tactics because you’re alone, and it knows that when you’re alone you’re most susceptible to one of the Enemy’s most effective attacks: negative self-talk propaganda.
Negative self-talk propaganda is all the terrible, unproductive, fruitless, worthless, silly things we say to ourselves when we’re building something worthwhile.
The Enemy uses negative self-talk propaganda against us any time we’re doing something courageous.
“In order for there to be courage, of course, there must be risk. It doesn’t take courage to open the refrigerator, because there’s no downside.” [The Icarus Deception]
And fighting alone to create your life’s work is the riskiest thing you can do.
The thing to remember is this:
The Enemy can’t fight (effectively), when we’re engaged in our worthwhile project because it means we’re taking back brain map territory.
“The actions we perform more often, the movements we practice more consistently, and the senses we employ more frequently, begin to control more brain map territory.” [The Art of Instigating]
As long as we're taking back territory, we keep the Enemy at bay.
The key is to know the Enemy will attack us in predictable ways, to anticipate this ahead of time and plan for how we will deal with it, and, when the time comes, to follow through with our plan.
The best way to beat the Enemy’s negative self-talk propaganda isn’t to think happy thoughts.
It’s not to repeat motivational quotes to yourself in the hopes of creating a positive mental attitude.
It’s not even to imagine how good you feel as if you’ve already accomplished your goal in the hopes of attracting the solution to you.
No, none of these will help you beat the Enemy.
The only way to beat the Enemy and overcome negative self-talk propaganda is this:
Get to work.
The negative self-talk propaganda in your head will fade when you sit down to write your next page, build the next part of your business, or initiate your project's next move.
And that's it - that's all there is.
Get to work and you'll beat the Enemy.
Simple, but not easy.
New? Join the Resistance:
Success isn't random.
Creating a successful project is no different.
A business (whether an individual writing novels, a corporation selling insurance, or a nonprofit doing charitable work) is nothing more than a series of projects.
A successful business, therefore, is nothing more than a series of successful projects.
Look at any successful company – Coke, Nike, Apple, Kickstarter, Amazon, Chic-fil-A, Lululemon, Rogue Brewery – do you think their success is simply luck?
Or is it more likely that these companies have a system for instigating successful projects?
Creating a successful project is not about luck or coincidence (although either may help or hurt your project).
On the contrary, there are historically proven steps you can take in order to be successful.
*note: Every single one of the companies I listed above follows some form of this model for upper and lower level management when taking on any new project or product launch.
The following are 3 proven steps to guarantee your success in any project you're about to instigate:
What’s the last goal you set? Did you reach it? If not, where is that goal right now? Above your computer? In your wallet? Taped to the visor in your car?
A goal is only as good as your focus.
There are great tips out there for creating compelling, powerful goals (the SMART method is excellent: Specific, Measurable, Attainable, Relevant, Time-bound), but none of it matters if you don’t review your goal daily…
And then take action daily to achieve the goal.
Goals give purpose and direction to our actions, but we need to review and maintain the goal daily to make sure we don’t get sidetracked.
Tip: Set a goal, write it down, and review it every day. It seems so painfully obvious it almost hurts to write – but how often do we put this common sense to practice?
Another one that seems obvious, but how often do we actually commit AND follow through with our projects?
There are ways to measure the success and failure rate of start-ups There are ways to determine the revenue generated from a specific advertising campaign. There are ways to identify the conversion rate of your product's splash page.
There is no way to measure all the projects that failed before they started.
There’s no way to determine the success or failure of a project if we never make it through the brainstorming and thrashing stage.
If our great idea stays an idea, it fails.
If we set a goal but never follow through, we fail.
Tip: Once you've identified your goal, commit your time, energy and focus toward realizing it. Don’t stop until it’s finished. Follow through.
This is what separates successful companies from failed companies.
The pattern of all great companies (and all great instigators) is to create, ship, measure, refine, and ship again.
The beauty of this method: it plans for future failure.
When Pepsi released Crystal Pepsi in 1993, they pushed the marketing and advertising campaign hard. And, for a short (very short) period of time, it was successful.
Until it wasn’t.
Pepsi didn’t push the failing product; they pulled it from the market. They tweaked the formula and released a citrus variation called Crystal from Pepsi, which you probably never heard of, because that failed too. They pulled it from the market.
Pepsi didn’t try to release a new version; the clear-Pepsi thing simply wasn’t working. So Pepsi took the measured results and used them for future product and marketing campaigns (Sierra Mist).
Pepsi can get away with more large scale product failures than we can, but we can still mimic the fundamental pattern of how they create and introduce new products to market (a system that has more wins than losses).
Eventually, one of these products will be successful. That’s the nature of measuring, refining, and shipping; you will eventually create something successful (i.e. something people want and will pay money for).
It’s not guess work; the creation of a successful product is very much a scientific process of measuring results and modifying inputs.
Tip: As long as we learn from our mistakes and use that information to shape future projects and products, we will inevitably create a successful offering. Always measure, always refine, always ship.
The success of a project has nothing to do with luck.
Serendipity and providence can help us, sure, but if we rely on either to propel us toward success, we’re destined to fail.
Serendipity and providence only help those who don’t seek them.
And while we don’t have control over our lucky breaks, we do have control over something more powerful: our actions.
"Life is pretty simple: you do some stuff. Most fails. Some works. You do more of what works." - Leonardo da Vinci
On July 1st, 1916, in the early morning dusk, the whistle blew.
Thousands of men emerged from the trench line and charged into No Man’s Land.
The largest army the British had ever fielded began advancing across a poppy field in the hope of pushing the Germans out of their entrenched position and routing the German lines.
As the British advanced, German machine gun fire tore down wave after wave of British soldiers. At the end of the first day, the British had advanced only dozens of yards, and their casualties reached close to 60,000 men.
"there came a whistling and a crying. The men of the first wave climbed up the parapets, in tumult, darkness, and the presence of death, and having done with all pleasant things, advanced across No Man’s Land to begin the Battle of the Somme." [The Old Front Line]
So began the Battle of the Somme, a four and a half month battle of attrition, where each day, the whistle blew, and men went over the top.
Every day, when we tap into the creative part of our brain, we enter No Man’s Land.
The Enemy (that ruthless group of bad habits and negative self-talk propaganda) doesn't want us to make it across. The Enemy wants to cut us down before we reach our objective.
We fight for every inch of progress; every filled page, every shipped product, every filmed scene.
It’s not pretty moving through No Man’s Land. There will be casualties. Sometimes your work won’t make it. Sometimes the thing you poured your heart and soul into gets turned down by publishers, rejected by producers, or shot down by critics.
Sometimes, the end user – the person you made it for – hates it, or worse, dismisses it.
At times like these, it’s easy to give up. To forget why you started and simply quit. To say enough is enough and walk away.
It’s much harder, when that whistle blows, to go over the top one more time.
Fighting your own creative battle? Let us know in the comments below.
p.s. if you're fighting alone, don't. Join the Resistance instead:
You’ve made the decision; you’ve stepped into the arena.
You’re fully aware of what this means – there will be pain, setback, and failure.
But running blindly into battle isn’t the point. Any ‘go-getter’ can take an idea and run with it straight into oncoming traffic.
No, the skilled fighter understands that while he will take a beating, that’s not his job – his job is to give a beating.
The point of accepting future failure isn’t to justify recklessness; it’s to prepare accordingly to ensure success.
Before conducting any form of operation, military leaders do something called Intelligence Preparation of the Battlefield, or IPB for short.
The purpose of IPB is to identify failure points.
IPB is a process where military leaders define the battlefield environment, describe what effects the battlefield will have on friendly and enemy forces alike, evaluate the enemy threat in the area, and determine possible enemy courses of action.
Its purpose is to let us know where we are weak and where we are strong, but most importantly, to let us know where we are most likely to fail.
Here’s how you can apply IPB to your project so you can:
The following are 4 simple steps to identify and overcome failure before it happens:
Before we dive straight into writing our epic 1,000 page novel, it behooves us to take a step back and consider the environment where we do battle.
If you’re writing a 1,000 page novel, you’re not in the comic book arena. Nothing a comic book writer says should affect your writing.
If you’re building a new monthly subscription / web-based software platform, you’re not in the digital download arena. Your content is web-based on purpose; people pay to use it monthly and expect all the benefits of cloud based service. Nothing a digital download developer says should affect what you create.
If you’re the CEO of a small startup that sells rubber kettlebells, you’re not in the treadmill arena. You’re also not in the free weight arena. Your product is very specific and serves a very specific audience.
Key Takeaway: Identify your area of operation and your left and right limits. Make sure you know your objective, what you’re doing, and how you plan to get there. Avoid distractions. If you don’t, you might find yourself wildly off course and months behind deadline because you wandered into someone elses battle space (i.e. started drawing pictures instead of writing).
“Nothing is more difficult, and therefore more precious, than to be able to decide.” [Napoleon Bonaparte]
Once you understand where you’re doing battle, you can begin to analyze how the battlefield will affect you and the Enemy.
If you’re writing a novel, the journey is long, lonely, and has virtually no intermediate reward. The payoff, if any, will be at the end. This can break even the strongest spirit.
On the contrary, writing a novel is a solo project and requires virtually no capital. You don’t need a team, just yourself. The downside risk is limited, the upside potential unlimited.
The Enemy benefits from the long journey (more chances to stop you, break you, and make you quit), but because there are less moving parts, the Enemies efforts to disrupt your progress will be limited.
The small business owner has a team to support him, but more moving parts mean more possible failure points.
The Enemy can’t use the same psychological warfare on the person with a small team that he can use on the solo writer, but he can create even more diversions by making the owner focus too much on one aspect of the problem, or get him to sidetrack the entire project to work on a tertiary aspect of the business.
Key Takeaway: Get to know the environment you’re working in so you can better prepare yourself for the (inevitable) Enemy attacks. Understand that every battlefield environment can benefit you in some way and hinder you in some way. Never forget the same goes for the Enemy.
This one is a given.
You’ve entered the arena. This is where fights take place.
Only a fool would enter the arena not expecting another gladiator to emerge.
Key Takeaway: Analyze and study the Enemy. Know you will encounter the Enemy. Find ways to break the Enemy faster than he can break you.
“Know your enemy and know yourself and you can fight a hundred battles without disaster.” [Sun Tzu]
By using historical examples from your own experience and others who have gone before you, you can predict with relative certainty how the Enemy will try to thwart your plans.
For the writer, the Enemy will use psychological operations to destroy morale. The Enemy will taunt the writer telling him he can’t make it, his work isn’t’ good enough, he doesn’t know anyone in the business, and who is he to even try. The Enemy loves using status quo propaganda against the writer, and will constantly work to stop the writer from doing what he must do: write.
For the entrepreneur, the Enemy will use disruptive bad habits to destroy the project. The Enemy will focus on developing poor time management skills in the entrepreneur. The Enemy will create disruptions and diversions by drawing attention to tasks that don’t need to be completed (to actually ship the product), or superficial time wasters that have no impact on the success of the venture. The Enemy will keep the entrepreneur from doing the one thing every entrepreneur must do: sell the product.
Key Takeaway: Predict possible Enemy attacks so you are better prepared to deal with them. Knowing how the Enemy will attack allows you to counter the attack and finish your project on time.
Have you identified your failure points?
If not, you’re betting on luck to get you through to the end.
Take the time to identify your failure points and prepare yourself ahead of time.
Your success depends on it.
If you haven't had a chance yet, make sure you sign up for the Resistance Broadcast. It's a free weekly newsletter with exclusive tips and tricks to help you start, finish and ship your product.
Never fight alone. Join the Resistance:
Whether you recognize it or not, you’re at war.
This is not a conventional war:
The battle lines change every day. The warzone is rarely defined.
Sometimes the enemy is very clearly in front of you, pummeling you with everything they've got; other times, the enemy is lurking in the shadows right beside you, waiting for a moment of weakness before they attack.
And your allies aren't who you would expect – but they’re more powerful than you realize.
The warzone is not your physical environment – although the physical environment can help (or hinder) your campaign.
The enemy is not a person – in fact, the enemy is nothing external at all.
And your allies are not your friends or family, nor are they the people in the cubicle next to you at work.
This is a war fought in the neural trenches of your brain.
The enemy is the army of bad habits you've accumulated over the year – building and expanding its empire one brain-map territory at a time.
Your allies, if you choose to call upon them, are the virtuous and productive thoughts you put into your mind; they will support you when you are weak, and help you expand your territory when you are strong.
And you are the insurgent because you seek change, you desire improvement, and you want to build something of value.
You are outnumbered and outgunned.
The enemy controls nearly all brain map territory.
Your allies can help, but they can't fight the battle themselves; they need you to lead.
Will you choose to fight? Will you lead? Will you instigate?
You're at war whether you recognize it or not.
"Finally!" Sarah smiles. She’s got it: the perfect idea.
After an afternoon of brainstorming with her group, Sarah’s come up with dozens of brilliant ideas, but one in particular resonates with her.
Something about the idea just makes sense; it has tons of money making potential (after crunching the numbers, it works, no question about it), and it energizes her just thinking about it (so she knows she’s passionate about it).
And even better, after hours of thrashing, she’s managed to come up with a solid plan of attack.
She backward-plans from her ship date and comes up with specific dates for keystone events (finalize the document, write the copy, connect with affiliates, put up the splash page, and so on).
After a long (and productive!) day, Sarah puts the pen and paper down, shuts off the netbook, and decides to relax for the rest of the night. She’ll start tomorrow, she says to herself. She deserves it.
Tomorrow begins with a rush; Sarah’s alarm doesn't go off and now she’s going to be late; she races to work but a car accident causes a traffic jam and she can’t get around it; when she finally gets to work, her 8 bosses let her know about her TPS report cover sheet mistake; she needs to skip lunch to catch up on work because her team member, who is on vacation, forgot to finish his part; after several meetings and a pep talk about standards from one of her bosses, Sarah is finally ready to leave for the day.
When she gets home, Sarah realizes how messy everything is and starts cleaning; as she cleans, she sees that the pantry needs to be reorganized; as she reorganizes the pantry, she makes a list of items she needs to buy at the store (might as well multitask and kill a few birds with one stone, right?); as she’s writing her list, she remembers she still needs to pay her utility bill; Sarah hops on the computer but gets sidetracked by Facebook; while surfing, she makes dinner; after another hour of clicking links, she yawns and realizes how tired she is. Sarah gets ready for bed and makes a mental note to finish cleaning and organizing. Oh, and the project; she’ll get to that tomorrow when she has some time and energy.
But tomorrow evening she has a dinner date, and the day after that book club, and the upcoming weekend a wedding…
In three months, Sarah happens upon an old pile of notes tucked into a magazine left on the coffee table. She scans some of the things she wrote down and sees the “perfect idea” she came up with and the deadlines she had set. Sarah looks at the calendar and realizes she should be shipping the product to market next weekend.
It was just a silly idea anyway and probably wouldn't have worked, Sarah says to herself. She was busy doing important real life things anyway. It probably would have been a waste of time and she recognizes that the idea doesn't really motivate her anymore (not to mention the money making potential seems exaggerated at best).
Sarah’s job isn't so bad, she lives in a nice place, and the weather outside is great. She’s happy, she thinks to herself - her chest slightly tightens and releases. She just barely notices. Sarah puts the notes into a binder on her bookshelf.
Sarah’s proud of her ideas from that brainstorming session three months ago, even if it never got off the ground. That’s part of the process, isn't it? Eventually, she says to herself, it will be worth doing another brainstorming session to come up with the right idea – something she can really put all her energy behind. No rush; she’ll have even more life experience and knowledge the next time she starts. She’ll get around to a better idea soon and that’ll be the one that works out.
Sarah gets a call from her best friend and remembers she has plans to go out tonight. As she talks to her friend, Sarah forgets what she was thinking about and starts to get ready.
The enemy is happy; another battle won; more territory gained...
The enemy is in no threat of losing this war...
When will you start?
That's really the question, isn't it?
It's not a matter of what to do; if you’re reading this, deep down in your gut there is something calling you. Go do that.
It’s not a matter of how to do it; want to know how to create a blog? It’s free online. Want to know how publish a book? It’s free online. Want to know how to create a business selling shoes? You guessed it – free online. Pick a direction and go with it.
It’s not a matter of whether it can be done; it's your choice, there are books and people that can show you successful ways to do it, and even the seemingly impossible is proven possible (again, and again, and again).
No, the question you have to ask yourself is: when will you start?
You either start now or you don't.
Anything else is an attempt to rationalize fear and justify hiding.
Start now.
How often do you start your day backwards? You know, by checking email, or phone messages, or reading the news?
Do any of those things directly impact the project you’re working on, or the brand you’re creating, or the book you’re writing?
Do any of them impact the rest of your day at all?
My guess is that if you didn't check email or read the news, you'd be just fine. Life would go on without a hiccup.
These things don't impact your day because they are easy, trivial activities.
And that's precisely why we start our days with them.
It’s easier to do trivial things that are urgent than it is to do important things that are not urgent - like thinking – and it’s also easier to do little things we know we can do, than to start on big things that we’re not so sure about. - John Cleese
The problem isn't that we check email, or send text messages, or read the news, it’s that we don’t use our time the way we ought to (if you care about drawing your own map, that is).
This lack of action compounds over time.
The minutes we spend checking email, sending texts, and reading the news eventually adds up to a day...and then a week...and then a year...
And in ten years, we still haven't written that novel, or built that business, or bought that investment property.
Right now a still, small voice is piping up, telling you as it has ten thousand times before, the calling that is yours and yours alone. You know it. No one has to tell you. And unless I’m crazy, you’re no closer to taking action on it than you were yesterday or you will be tomorrow. You think Resistance isn't real? Resistance will bury you. - Steven Pressfield
When we waste the beginning of our day on something impactless (yes, I made that word up), we are giving up precious hours we could devote to something important.
Instead of using daily action to propel us toward the realization of our goals, we slowly kill off any chance of doing something remarkable.
Cutting out time during the day to do the work is the first step.
Figure out what time you can carve out, what time you can steal, and stick to your routine. Do the work every day, no matter what. No holidays, no sick days. Don’t stop. - Austin Kleon
The next step – the one that requires us to take an even harder look at ourselves – is to determine if what we’re actually creating is any GOOD.
Life’s not about getting stuff done, it’s about getting the right stuff done. It doesn't matter how productive you are if the ideas you’re building on don’t represent the best you have to offer. And the best you have to offer rarely ever comes when you’re filling every nook and cranny of mind-space, every waking moment of every day. - Jonathan Fields
Once you’re able to form a habit around doing important, GOOD work every day, you’re on the path to creating something remarkable, and therefore being remarkable.
Whatever you do, don’t stop.
Do the work (the important work) and do it every day.