Mary Cravets

Living in Northern AZ and driving to the Phoenix metro area on a consistent basis makes me very reluctant to clean my car. You see, it’s dusty here and then it will sprinkle a little, turning that dust to a caked on layer of crud. And don’t get me started on the bugs you encounter on the two-hour drive to Phoenix!

So, this is embarrassing, but my car generally looks a bit sad and dejected. Cruddy and buggy. But I just can’t see the point of getting it washed all the time, because it will just get cruddy and buggy within two days anyway.

When I finally broke down and got my car cleaned, I was shocked by how clear everything looked through the windshield! I had gotten accustomed to everything looking grainy and fuzzy, but since it accumulated gradually, I didn’t even realize it was something I could easily fix. In fact, before I got the car cleaned, I started thinking I should get to the eye doctor!

Instantly I thought about how we get used to cruddy little things in our lives, and they diminish our clarity, our vision, and our results. Cruddy habits are easy to ignore, especially since they tend to accumulate so slowly over time we don’t even notice them. Eventually they obscure our vision and we judge ourselves, thinking there is something fundamentally wrong with us.

If you’re feeling unclear, take a step back. Evaluate what you’re doing, adjust your habits, and – most importantly – make a clean sweep of what’s really clouding your vision.

I was in my favorite thinking place (the shower) today, musing about goal-setting. I hear a lot of positive-thinking teachers preach, “Just create the perfect vision of your goal, and the “how” will take care of itself.”

Well… not exactly.

My delightful imagination helped along this line of thinking by providing me with scenarios of two people achieving the same goal of getting a brand new Mercedes:

1.    A woman wrestles herself out of a brand new black Mercedes. She is on the phone, frowning, juggling her keys and purse and at the same time trying to look at something on her iPad. She is disheveled, tired, anxious, and she’s running late. In other words – a hot mess.

2.    A woman swings herself out of a brand new black Mercedes. She grabs her purse with a smile on her face and heads off with a spring in her step. She looks put-together and comfortable, she’s happy, satisfied, and well-rested.

Both women got the Mercedes, but only one is thoroughly enjoying it (and life in general). The difference between being refreshed or exhausted when we reach our goals is how we get there. Do you struggle, worry, avoid, get distracted, and overwork? Or do you plan, implement, evaluate, and enjoy?

The “how” matters, and with a little attention, can be just as fulfilling as the goal.

This video made me cry and feel hopeful.

To see a corporation do something so powerful, so good, so unifying – it left me speechless.

My questions are:

Is transformational marketing limited to big corporations with big budgets, or can small businesses with small budgets do it also?

And how?

Just went for a bike ride and it was AWESOME.

I biked up a big hill, barely making it to the top. I enjoyed the view and, while biking down the hill, took my time so I wouldn’t feel as though I was at risk of breaking my neck. I rode by a huge nursery I’d never noticed before, and even caught a glimpse of a bunny rabbit hopping across the road.

I felt so strong and capable and happy. So different from another recent bike ride where I felt weak, frustrated, and exhausted.

What was the difference? Comparison.

You see, on my energizing ride, I was on my own, creating my own experience based on my own strengths and goals.

The frustrating ride? I was riding with someone else with totally different strengths and goals. I compared myself to them the whole time, trying to keep up and feeling like I was falling short the entire time.

Think of it – two nearly identical bike rides, but one felt like a success and one felt like a failure. Comparing myself to someone else changed my entire experience.

If you’re feeling frustrated, I encourage you to check in with yourself, and see if any comparing is going on. Trust your abilities, forge your unique path to success, and enjoy the ride!

Many years ago, I met a real estate agent at a training seminar. As we chatted, it became clear that she was really stuck. Being a naturally curious gal, I started asking her questions about her marketing.

She told me that her primary marketing efforts focused on advertising, and she was spending $1,200 per month on it. I then asked about how many clients she got from her ads, and she said, “Oh, I don’t get any clients from it.”

Uh… ok. Bewildered, I asked one more question – “If you don’t get any results, why do you spend so much on advertising?” She replied, “Well, I’ve always done it, and everyone else does it, so I have to do it.”

I was speechless at the blatant absurdity of it. Spending over $14,000 per year on ZERO results?

When we’re looking at other people, their mistakes are so obvious, aren’t they?

Not so obvious is how we do this to ourselves – spending time and money on things that do not work, just because everyone else is doing it, and we’ve always done it.  So let’s unearth the gunk that is draining your time, energy and money. It’s easy. We’ll use the real estate agent’s statement as a guide.

1.  “I’ve always done it.” What do you do now that used to be effective, but no longer serves you or is totally out of step with the times?

2.  “Everyone else does it.” What strategies are assumed necessities in your industry or community, but that aren’t producing measurable results? (social media is often the worst offender here!)

3.  “I have to do it.” What do you think you “should” be doing, but doesn’t actually bring you any results?

Give yourself an honest evaluation, and remember that it’d be better to do nothing than to waste time and money on actions that have a proven track record of not working. Cut out what is wasting your time, and allow new, more effective solutions to emerge.