NickVenturella.com 9-29-14

All or Nothing

September 28, 2014

All or nothing.  Do you have that attitude,?I know I often do.  I envision myself with a new business idea and what it would be like to build it to success.  Then I think about how I would build it into success and fit that "building" phase into my current reality with all the other things I have going on.  My business idea quickly gets deflated.I think this happens to me because I want to really ride the wave of momentum from my initial enthusiasm for the idea, and as soon as I see that the initial spark, that absolute highest level of enthusiasm may not be completely sustainable I disregard the idea altogether.  My being, "if I can't focus all my time and energy on this one new idea, then I can't make successful quick enough for my taste."Maybe you have a self-sabotage cycle like that.  I don't think it's unique to me.  Although, how you deal with it and push through it positively to still make something happen, perhaps on a slower timeline than you would like, is likely better than disregarding the whole idea altogether.As entrepreneurs and creative folks we hardly ever live in black and white where decisions and outcomes are either this way or that way and completely predictable. I know people that spend their entire lives trying to control situations to ensure they can live in black and white.We live in the gray area.  We live somewhere between black and white.  In fact, most everyone lives in the gray, whether they admit it to themselves or not.So how do you approach your ideas and success when you have the realities of your current life thrwarting your momentum?  Perhaps you have a day job, family obligations, bills to pay, and all sorts of other responsibilities that demand your time and energy pulling you in too many directions to allow you to spend the ample amount of time and energy needed to get your new idea off the ground.  Sound familiar?Embrace the gray area.  There is a reason all of those responsibilities demand your attention -- they're important to your life and the impact your life has on your family.For example, if you have a day job that pays all of your bills and supports your family, even if you're not satisfied with that work, it's important because the result of your work supports your families needs.  However, your work/life balance or the actual work you do may be having a draining impact on you and your family and that needs to be addressed.  So, start taking small action to address it.  If you're working 60hours per week, see what would happen if you focused on being more productive during your work day to reduce your weekly working hours to 55.  Then in the next few weeks work toward reducing that to 50 hours.  You will be forced to get creative about it, but it can be done.Focus on small incremental changes that have a big impact over time vs. big sweeping changes that drastically change your focus and direction (for better or worse).These days patience is something our world doesn't seem to fully embrace, but if you're going to embrace the gray area to be able to incrementally move in new directions and explore your new ideas you're going to have to embrace patience as well to reach your success.  Your success may not happen as quickly as you want, but with consistent effort and "intentional patience," you will reach success much more quickly than through the self-sabotage cycle of fits and starts that ends up happening when you spend energy to live in black and white.Need help planning your "intentional patience?" This can help.  Hit reply and let me know how you embrace the gray area.