The Brutal Truth About "Doing Everything" to Get Ahead in Your Career

One of the most blatant and frankly, dangerous lies that we all tell ourselves, is that we're doing everything we can possibly do to achieve our dreams. It's never true, or at least rarely. And today, I'm going to show you just how far apart those two things can be, the truth and the belief that you're doing everything by being honest about just how bad I am at doing the things that I need to be doing to grow my own business. The reason I think it's important is because it can be incredibly dangerous when you believe that lie. Not only are you blinded to the things that might actually have the biggest impact on your outcome, but you're also risking your mental health. When you think you're doing everything right, when you think you've done everything you could possibly do and you don't succeed, you either end up completely resenting the world, thinking that everybody's against you, that you're not getting a fair shake or you end up just consumed with self-doubt because you did everything. You tried everything and it didn't work out, so it must be you. But if you really didn't do everything, if there's more you could have done, if you were just avoiding the things that you probably knew deep down, we're going to be the biggest opportunity for you because you were scared or because you wanted to be in a better position before you had to do them? Well, then none of those things are true. And all you need to do is figure out, be honest about what it is you should be doing and go and do that. You know, for me, it's pretty easy to see why I sometimes believe my lie. And it's simply that I am still pretty productive. Most of us are. I do a lot of things. For the past year, I've been saying I'm doing everything right, or I'm doing everything I can, as I try to grow this channel, as I try to get a business off the ground But when I look at all the things that I could be doing, I realize that I am nowhere close to doing everything, and I'm definitely not doing the most important things. The last couple of weeks, I spent time building an app. An app I'm really proud of that helps people find their business ideas, or refine the ones that they already have. I built a game. There are things that I share on this channel here. You can click the links in the description but they're not the most important thing that I could be doing. They're not everything. In that same time, I haven't posted once on LinkedIn about my business, even though LinkedIn is probably the best ground for people who are trying to escape their nine to five jobs, who are trying to start businesses, but I haven't done it because I still feel a little weird posting about it when it hasn't fully gotten off the ground yet. I could be running ads to my program. I've had people ask me to be on their podcasts and I'm avoiding it because I wanted the channel to be more successful. These are all things and I'm delaying because I'm just not where I want to be. And I know that feeling incredibly well. I've been using that lie my entire life. In my 20s, I was living in my parents' basement trying to get my first business off the ground. And I had all these dreams about what I was going to do when I finally succeeded. That's when I was going to have more friends. That's when I was going to date more I'm used to delaying all of these things that I want or things that I should be doing in pursuit of some goal. But the problem is, I'm either missing out on life or I'm missing opportunities that'll actually make that thing more likely. Right now, there is so much that I could be doing, but the first idea I had was that I would grow this channel. And this channel would build a community and that community would funnel to my program. And my program would create more fans and we would also all go off into the future in the sunset feeling happy and good. But that's just the first idea I had. It's not the only way I could be growing this business. And I have to realize that. I also have to realize that I don't even to hustle more. I don't need to wake up at 5 a.m. I don't need to do anything differently because I don't use my time particularly well It's easy to go to sleep at night feeling like I had a pretty good day. I made another video. I worked on that app, but I never talk about the couple of hours that I spent playing video games to get into the mood or the time that I spent just obsessing over something that really didn't have any value. That's what we all do. You know, we're all going to start dating more when we get into better shape. Right now, that's another lie I'm telling myself, I'm going to be in the best shape in my late 40s And I'm making some steps towards it. I'm always doing something towards it, but just because I go to the gym doesn't mean that I'm doing everything. I'm still eating chips for lunch. I'm still having cereal two or three times a day because it's easy and fast and because it makes me happy. And that's okay. I think that's the other thing about this lie. You have to ask yourself, why are you telling it to yourself? Are you doing everything you can within the construct of the life you want? If so, that's okay. sometimestimes you don't want to do those things because they're going to be too much work. They're going to disrupt the time that you have with your family or your friends. Don't lie to yourself, just say, this, I'm doing everything I'm willing to do. Other times you're just telling that lie because you're scared, because you want to be seen a little bit better. You want to be more successful before you go out and do something. Or just, you don't want to have to admit that there's more to be done. but whatever it is for you, I just want you to think about that. If you really do want to change your life, find love, start a business, be honest about whether or not you're doing everything you can be doing and be okay with the answer. If the answer is that you're not, well, then you have to decide what you want to do about that, what you're willing to do And if you are willing to make some changes, and if you really want to achieve that goal, that might be what you have to do. doesn't have to break the bank. It doesn't have to break all of your energy and the life you're living right now, but if you want to achieve it, sometimes, yeah, you got to do a little more. You can't just count on the project getting you the promotion. Maybe you do have to go to the networking event. You can't just count on the channel feeding all the customers that you need to your program. Maybe you got to spend a little money on ads. Maybe you got to make some cold calls or find a new partner. You've got to do something. Otherwise you're just repeating the same mistake over and over again, going to sleep at night feeling like you're doing everything right and then waking up wondering why it hasn't worked out for you yet If any of that resonates with you, then try it out. Just be honest with yourself. You don't have to record it, but be honest about whether or not you're doing everything you can. And if you're the type of person that needs a kick in the pants, at this type of video, where I talk about either my own shortcomings, so the things you're probably lying to yourself about, well, then take a look at this playlist. This is still one of my favorite series of videos that I've ever made, but nobody has really seen them before. and it's all sarcastic takes on the lies we tell ourselves. If you're interested in this kind of thing, check out this series, I think you'll like it a lot.