THIS is your practice now

Have you stopped to think about how much time you spend on routines?

We brush our teeth, walk the dog, check email, and watch our favorite shows. We meet up with friends, head to the gym or go for a run, and maybe even meditate.

Yet so often, we don’t find time for our deepest work. (When I say ‘work,’ I’m referring to the thing that you’re driven to contribute in the world.)

Your Practice

In yoga, there’s lots of reference to “your practice.” Sometimes people think it refers only to the physical poses you do during yoga class, but it’s more than that.

ANYTHING can be your practice. (In fact, everything can be your practice.)

Just getting yourself onto your yoga mat can be the practice! Brushing your teeth can be a practice (it demonstrates your commitment to personal hygiene). Watering your geraniums can be a practice (it reflects your dedication to nurturing or creating a pleasing home).

All that matters is that you show up and do it.

It’s a psychological and even spiritual transformation of the mundane and tedious. Whatever you commit to – whether daily or weekly – should have a reason, and it should make you proud.

Your Practice, Take 2

Today I’d like to send a loving reminder that your work is your practice now.

Those “urgent” things that you tell yourself to finish before you begin your work? Not your practice. Doing things for others, when you know your own work is neglected? Not your practice. Keeping up to the minute on your social media feeds? Not your practice.

If you feel short on time, there are so many things you can let slide. Even if you used to commit to them diligently, they have served their purpose and can be retired.

Once you feel the call to tap into your creativity and contribution, you have found your practice.

It doesn’t matter if the way doesn’t seem clear. It doesn’t matter if there’s a hurdle you’d rather avoid. It doesn’t matter if you’re scared. And it doesn’t even matter how much you do on a given day. 

All that matters is that you show up and practice, today.

This is your time,

Jenna

Feeling unmotivated? You might be fiu.

The sun is shining and the summer waves are calling, but you’re stuck inside staring at a computer. All of that thrilling excitement and enthusiasm you had when you began this work seems to have vanished.

You’re so over it.

You shut your laptop and scribble a note for your door:

“Temporarily closed because I’m feeling bored and burned out. Be back someday.”

But if you were in Tahiti you could have saved some ink:

“Closed for fiu.”

What’s fiu?

Fiu (pronounced "few") is a word used in French Polynesia (the Pacific island chain encompassing Tahiti, Bora Bora, and about 119 others) to describe the feeling of being bored, fed up, burned out or tired. At the same time, there’s this underlying wish to just relax and get away from it all.

Wait, Jenna. You’re seriously telling me that people in Tahiti just want to get away from it all?! Where in the world do they get away to?

It’s real, people. 

I’ve seen it with my own eyes.

• Shops closed in the middle of the day in high tourist season

• road construction sites sitting empty with lonely looking machinery

• breakfast cafes that finally open at noon

Turns out, dwindling motivation is universal and affects us all at some point. The only real difference is that some cultures acknowledge (even celebrate!) it, and others … not so much.

But I’m already behind! I don’t have time for fiu!

There are two ways to move beyond your fiu. The first is definitely more fun, but sometimes the second is more necessary.

1. Go outside – Disconnect, get out in nature, get your body moving … do whatever it is that feeds your soul (filling your days crossing tasks off of your at-home to-do list doesn’t count). It’s crying out for a refresher, and the inspiration you long for will be so much more accessible if you just. take. a. break.

2. Go inside - Tap into the bigger picture of why you’re doing it and how it fuels you, and remember that – just like other practices whose best effects are felt over time (yoga, running, meditation, cooking) – this is your practice now. Double down and “breathe” through some more work … some mindset work! Ask yourself if there’s something else that’s really going on.

How do you know which to choose?

Here’s a tip for what to do if you’re feeling unmotivated:

Look back on what preceded your mental fatigue, and do the opposite.

 If you’ve been working overtime, either with single focus or too many balls in the air, you probably need that refresher. Don’t guilt-out over it. Revel in it like a polynésien.

If you can’t quite manage to get started OR this is a part of a pattern OR you just returned from a fiu-break and still don’t feel energized, it’s time to start asking yourself the big questions.

(What do I really want? How am I willing to grow to achieve it? Is this my intuition telling me to take another path, or a lens revealing my own resistance to happiness and success?)

I sincerely hope this post helps you get back to your happy place a little more quickly and shed some self-doubt. When it creeps in, remember that the ebbs and flows of motivation are part of the human experience. 

And now if you’ll excuse me, the sun is shining, and my puppy and I are going for a hike.

Here’s to late summer fiu,

Jenna

How to be truly uncommon

There’s something that I spend a good amount of time wondering.

When are we being different because it truly jives with our inner self, and when are we doing things in a contrary way just to prove that we’re different?

Put another way, when do our choices stem from something intrinsic to us, and when are they prescribed by what’s around us?

I think of this when I see counterculture groups spring up. Punk, goth, biker, hipster … you can spot the members quickly because they all look so similar.

In not subscribing to the mainstream, they look really, really conformist!

I also think of it each time I’m tempted to buy a pair of skinny jeans….

But who cares how people look, right? That’s something we can play around with on the daily. What matters is who we are.

On that topic, my husband and I have spent our road trip trying to decide on a name for our son. It’s a big deal. After all, a name ends up forming part of a person’s identity.

I came up with one that I loved (Logan) … and then something made me check its popularity: #6. 

Number six? I don’t know anybody with that name, or anybody that has given their son that name. How can it be number six?

Before I knew it, I was seeing Logans everywhere, including in movie titles and superhero names. It quickly became much, much less appealing.*

But so what if we share things in common with other people, and if we’re not perfectly unique? So much of that is beyond our control. There’s nature, there’s nurture, there’s circumstance …. We are who we are.

Which makes me think that the only thing that really defines us is what we do.

And that brings us back to the original question about the choices we make.

We all want to give ourselves the freedom to walk an uncommon path, but we’ve got to make sure that we’re doing more than just reacting to what’s around us (even when it comes to naming a child). 

At some point, it becomes less about turning left when others turn right, and more about taking the time to understand ourselves, our preferences, and what matters to us ... and then following that guidance regardless of what others are doing – even if they’re doing exactly the same thing we are (and that drives us up the wall)!

To be truly uncommon – or to truly walk our own path and live life on our own terms – we’ve got to constantly question ourselves and our motivations.



And we’ve got to do it despite the fact that it’s impossible to ever know everything that drives us, because the search for our own, uncommon way isn't just a reflection of who we are … it’s what we choose to do.

Here’s to making your choices count,

Jenna

And now I’d really love to know what’s important to you. Where do you do things differently than those around you? What do you wish you did differently? When does it not matter to you either way?

*A little background here. My full name is Jennifer. On the day I was born, there were 8 other Jennifers on my hospital floor. Throughout school, my name always included my last initial because there were so many other Jennifers. Never has there been a phenomenon like Jennifer: described as “an epidemic,” it was the most popular name in America for fourteen straight years!

So I’m a little biased against common names.

Why curiosity beats waiting for intuition, inspiration, or complete information

*Do you feel like if you could only figure out what you want to do next in business or life, you’d finally be able to close that gulf between where you are now and where you actually want to be?

Last week I suggested that your best tool for making that happen – even if you have absolutely no idea what you want to do – has been sitting right under your nose.

It’s your curiosity.

This tool is simple and effective! It worked for me and so many others, including Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love. Right when things seemed darkest in her life she decided to sign up for an Italian class, and that one decision eventually led to her writing the bestseller that would change her life forever.

Let me show you why it works:

Both intuition and inspiration are tricky

If life were a Hollywood movie, you’d wait until you had an intuitive hit that told you exactly what you should be doing. It would happen when you were staring out over the ocean, or while reading a passage in a book.

In real life that doesn’t happen very often, especially if what you’re considering is something that feels risky.

Many times what we think is our intuition (telling us to cool our jets) is actually fear (telling us to play it safe).

Sometimes people wait to feel inspired in order to write that great novel or take the next step in their business … but that waiting can go on for decades.

In a crazy twist, the best way to activate your inner motivation and tap into your creativity is to show up regularly for yourself and your dreams.

Just think back to school and how many times you dragged your feet over writing a paper, only to find the words flow once you actually sat down and started writing.

That’s probably why a woman who has inspired thousands of people to launch and grow businesses loves to remind people:

“Clarity comes from engagement, not thought.” – Marie Forleo

What if there were no wrong decisions?

One of the biggest mistakes we make is taking our options too seriously.

We do that because we’re worried about making the wrong decision, and then being locked into that wrong decision forever.

But what if the majority of our decisions weren’t completely right or wrong, they were just different? And each one would teach us what we needed to get us to our final destination faster than if we’d done nothing at all … like two roads that meet at the same intersection.

If that’s true, then 50 years from now you’re going to wish you had lightened up and enjoyed the ride.

Think about it this way: 

You will never have completely perfect information.

And even if you could make the absolutely most “right” decision – if there were such a thing – eventually you’d change course anyway. Whatever it was you had or were doing just wouldn’t completely fit anymore. 

Because that’s what people like us do. We evolve.

You’re missing the bigger picture

Wasting too much time on just one decision is short sighted.

I’m a huge advocate of inner game work and introspection … up to a point. But eventually you need to get into action.

Because if you look at the big picture, you’ll see it’s not about whether you’re a person who lives here or there, or does this or that, or wants widgets or wodgets.

It’s not about the specific life change you make. It could be as dramatic as running off to a Buddhist monastery or as benign as planting a garden.

What matters is that you’re a person that evolves, or takes risks, or won’t settle, or whatever else resonates with you. And your next step helps you learn, gain momentum, remain limber, and walk the walk.

It all comes down to who you are, and your transitory choices are mere reflections of that identity.

When thinking about your business, remember that it’s not about the specific step or even the specific business.

It’s about you being an entrepreneur. And the next step helps you acquire skills, and understand both your customers and your own preferences more fully. It helps you walk the walk.

So when you’re not sure what to do, think less about your choices, and more about what making a choice says about you.

Live in integrity with how you want to be in the world, and you’ll probably end up surpassing your original destination.    

And your curiosity – because it’s almost always instantly available, because it’s lighthearted, and because it’s a reflection of who you are - is the best place to start.

Here’s to walking the walk,

Jenna

P.S. Extra credit: Watch Ruth Chang’s TED talk, and ask yourself if there really are right decisions.

P.P.S. I'd love to know what YOU are feeling curious about! Are there times when you've waited too long to take action? Let's talk about it in the comments.

What to do when you have absolutely no idea what to do

Right now you’re here in life, and what you really want is to be there.

So you plug your destination into GoogleGoals and it spits out a plan. If you speed a little, you can even arrive before scheduled. Simple, right?

If only! 

In reality, we often only have vague outlines of how we’d like our life to be, and absolutely no idea how to get there.

The problem when people tell you to get started now

The problem with reading posts like Why You Need Clarity Now is that they can make you feel worse about yourself.

They tell you why you need to Seize the Day! and Get into Action! … but how are you supposed to do that if you can’t figure out what direction to take?

If you knew what to do, you’d be doing it.

Can you tell me what I’m supposed to do?

I’ve written before about the West Village fortune teller who broke my heart when she wouldn’t tell me what I should be doing with my life. (It was one of those end-of-the-rope moments. Don’t judge.)

She said that I, unfortunately, was the only one that could decide. 

She was right, of course. But it wasn’t what I needed to hear. It left me more confused than before and didn’t move me even one step in the right direction.

Here’s what I wish she had said:

It’s time to follow your curiosity.

This is how it works. 

I call it the Curiosity Concept.

If you’ve done your brainstorming, your journaling, your reflection, your research, and your meditation, and yet you’re still exactly where you started…

It’s time to get moving.

And in the absence of clear direction, the best way to find clarity is to follow your curiosity.

Here’s how the Curiosity Concept works in business: 

If you have no idea what kind of business you should launch, but you’ve been feeling curious about whether there would be demand for that thing that comes so easily to you…

If you’re struggling to decide which social media platform to focus on, but there’s one that seems more interesting…

If you’re undecided about which provider to use, but you’re intrigued by a package offered by one of them…

…then follow your curiosity.

Ask yourself, “What would I be interested in learning about, writing about, and speaking about for the next six months or a year? What would I be curious to work on or with?”

Here’s how it works for life in general:

If you don’t know what to do with your life, but you’re feeling curious about a course at the local college…

If you know something needs to change in your life (but don’t know what), and you’re feeling curious about Toastmasters…

If you want to meet the partner of your dreams, and you’re feeling curious about rock climbing…

…it just might be the stepping stone you need. 

Ask yourself, “What would I like to spend time doing? What’s something that has always seemed interesting, and keeps turning up in one way or another? What’s something I’d like to know more about, talk more about, and experience more?”

That’s way too easy!

Sound too good to be true? It’s not. Next week I’ll show you why this works.

You don’t have to quit your job, invest in an MBA, then move across the ocean in order to make your dreams happen. You just need to take one tiny step forward.

Don’t do what I did. Don't waste over a decade waiting to “know.”

During that time, I talked myself out of literally hundreds of business opportunities. (And tens of potential life partners, too.)

In the end, it took a combination of thinking AND moving for things to begin to gel.  

Here’s to the power of your curiosity,

Jenna

P.S. If you'd like to speak to someone personally about your specific fork-in-the-road, let’s hop on a call and see if it makes sense for us to work together.

9 signs you’re an abstract thinker

Are you an abstract thinker?

And what does that mean, exactly? Does it mean that your thoughts resemble a Picasso?

Ahem. Well, maybe a little. But more on that later….

The truth is that we all utilize both concrete and abstract forms of thought depending on the situation. It’s just that most people naturally gravitate to a dominant, preferred style. And that makes a big difference in how you are in life.

Concrete thinkers are more comfortable in the here and now, with what they can witness and demonstrably prove. They want to know the exact steps and often have little patience with changing plans or new ideas. They don’t like it when they have to try to read between the lines, or when instructions are ambiguous.

Abstract thinkers can’t help but think about how everything relates to the bigger picture. What’s the deeper meaning, what are the trends and patterns, what are the possibilities? They quickly make cross-disciplinary associations and are comfortable with metaphor and subtext. And if they have some basic familiarity with a subject, they'd much rather receive general guidelines than step-by-step instructions. 

So maybe it’s not too far-fetched to say a concrete thinker’s thoughts are more Photorealism while an abstract thinker is more Cubism.

Put another way:

Imagine that a concrete thinker and an abstract thinker both attend a webinar on generating Facebook engagement.

A concrete thinker might focus on the exact tactics that have been proven to work for others.

An abstract thinker might be more interested in what those tactics say about human nature and how the lessons can be applied to all aspects of human interaction within business (and beyond) to motivate, inspire and create connection.

Here’s another example. When people first attend yoga classes, they spend a lot of time focusing on the exact technique for the poses and breathwork. They want to get everything exactly “right.”

Only later will most people start to realize how much the lessons apply to life in general – mindfulness, non-reaction, accepting your limits, and safely challenging your limits. While it’s a great way to exercise the body, yoga poses are first and foremost a way to concretize the more abstract concepts of yogic philosophy.  

Ok. Without further explanation, here are 9 signs that you’re an abstract thinker:

 
1) After hearing a new piece of trivia, you find yourself thinking about how something completely different might be related to what you learned. 

2)  You know those kids that keep asking, “Why?” They’ve got nothing on you. You ignore the eye-rolls and don’t stop questioning until you’re satisfied.

3)  Instruction manuals might be ok the first time, but afterwards you assume that the principles apply to all similar equipment. 

4)  You’re more interested in the intent behind the rules than the letter of the law.

5)  You have trouble remembering precise historic details, but you can talk about the general trends.

6) You spend time thinking about the Big Questions. What’s the meaning of life? What’s the nature of consciousness? Why?

7) If someone wants to motivate you, they’ve got to tell you why it’s important, and not just how to do it.

8) In fact, scratch telling you how to do it. You just want the objective and maybe some minimal guidelines, and you'll do the rest. Step-by-step instructions make you yawn. 

9) You get bored with routine. You tend to look for new ways to do things, and don't mind changing course if it might provide a better outcome.

Both types of thinkers have it easier in some ways than others, and are better suited to certain tasks than others. I’ll talk more about that in the future.

Jenna

In the meantime, is there something in this post that you relate to (or is completely unlike you)? Let me know in the comments, or head over to our Facebook group, Women Taking the Leap, to find others who think similarly.

5 great things your indecision says about you

We’re surrounded by advice to start before we’re ready, push through the fear, and act on ideas quickly. So if you’re feeling uncertain and struggling to make up your mind about what to do next, it’s easy to feel deficient.

(Cue the negative self-talk…)

But when reasonable advice becomes so prolific that you feel surrounded, chances are high that groupthink has come into play. So let’s take a second look.

Maybe your indecision isn’t such a bad thing. Maybe, it’ll serve you really, really well in the long run….

Can’t decide what to do with your life … or even what to do next? Here are 5 ways that it can help you in the long run:

1) At least you recognize that you want change

Sometimes, realization is the most elusive step. But you’re already there. In the words of philosopher Eric Hoffer, “It is the awareness of unfulfilled desires which gives a nation the feeling that it has a mission and a destiny.” The same can be said of individuals. Unlike too many people that you probably know, you have the self-awareness to recognize that something’s not right and the desire to overcome that dissonance.

2) It shows that you’re open to possibilities

If you refrain from choosing an option because you tend to come up with new ideas or your ideas evolve with changing circumstances, you likely have a high level of creativity and openness. And those are two traits absolutely essential to companies that are struggling to innovate and remain relevant. Scientific American describes openness as “the drive for cognitive exploration of inner and outer experience,” and says it is the “personality trait most consistently associated with creativity.”

Besides, your first ideas are usually the most conventional, says Wharton professor Adam Grant in his book Originals: How Nonconformists Move the World. There’s nothing wrong – and a lot right – with stopping to consider the big world of possibilities out there rather than following along with what seems reasonable. Like the discoverers who said, “There might be something there beyond that ocean” despite prevailing wisdom, openness to possibilities is a trait of visionaries.

3) You’re thinking strategically

Even if your hesitancy is due to analysis rather than a constant influx of new ideas, it points to a useful skill: strategic thinking. “If this happens, then that would happen, and then either this or that, and if so then.…” It’s an important survival skill that just happens to be important in business, too.

While the chessboard analogy feels outdated in today’s business environment, strategy and anticipating the future will never go out of style. In the words of hockey star Wayne Gretzky, “A good hockey player plays where the puck is. A great hockey player plays where the puck is going to be.” In business (and life), the best players stay ahead of the competition.

4) You want to make informed decisions

There’s an important psychological term called “planning fallacy” which describes is a delusional optimism leading to poor decision making rather than a rational weighing of gains, losses and probabilities. You don’t want that. Information-gathering aids in the decision-making process, period. (Yes, too much information can lead to analysis paralysis, but that doesn’t mean we should throw the baby out with the bathwater.)

When the U.S. military tries to bridge the gap between a complex, ever-changing environment and actionable tactics for moving forward in that environment, they use a process called “operational design.” The key first step in that process? Develop a thorough understanding of all aspects of the surrounding environment.

5) Reflection and introspection are attributes of the gods

Too dramatic? Maybe. Let’s put it this way: experience teaches, but so does “the intentional attempt to synthesize, abstract and articulate the key lessons taught by experience.” (Otherwise known as reflection.) Reflecting on the world around us helps us process and retain information better, leading to better decisions.

Even when people are introspective, turning their gaze inward and reflecting upon their own tendencies, feelings and behaviors, it correlates to better consistency in planning and decision-making and increased business performance.

To tie this up, I’ll explain how this all relates to what I’ve been saying over the last month:

A few weeks ago I shared an impassioned story, imploring you not to wait another minute before acting on your dreams. In the following weeks, I talked about the biggest mindset shift necessary to take that leap. Then this week I thought, “But what about people that don’t quite know what they want to do?”

I deeply and wholeheartedly relate to your pain.

For years I struggled with a burning desire to DO … but little direction. It was heartbreaking. I felt like my life and potential were being wasted, and I hated myself for not being more decisive or having more self-understanding.

Today, my job is to help people in similar circumstances get into action … which is why many act surprised when I point out what’s so great about their indecision.

But hindsight and decades of education are beautiful things, and I’m simply telling you what I wish someone had told me:

The inclination towards indecision is grounded in wonderful traits that can serve you well in the future, so hold your head high.

Now I would really love to hear: What kinds of decisions are you struggling with? Which of the points to you most identify with? Let me know in the comments below.

Here’s to taking just the right amount of time to act,

Jenna

P.S. While it’s fantastic to recognize the positive traits that restrain impulsive decision-making, it goes without saying that your eventual success will require action. If you’re at the point where you’ve spent enough time on analysis and want to move forward, or simply need someone to hash through your ideas with, let’s hop on a call to see if it makes sense for us to work together.

Use this to get unstuck and give perfectionism the boot

“Nobody tells this to people who are beginners, I wish someone told me. All of us who do creative work, we get into it because we have good taste. But there is this gap. For the first couple years you make stuff, it’s just not that good. It’s trying to be good, it has potential, but it’s not. But your taste, the thing that got you into the game, is still killer. And your taste is why your work disappoints you. A lot of people never get past this phase, they quit. Most people I know who do interesting, creative work went through years of this. We know our work doesn’t have this special thing that we want it to have. We all go through this. And if you are just starting out or you are still in this phase, you gotta know its normal and the most important thing you can do is do a lot of work. Put yourself on a deadline so that every week you will finish one story. It is only by going through a volume of work that you will close that gap, and your work will be as good as your ambitions. And I took longer to figure out how to do this than anyone I’ve ever met. It’s gonna take awhile. It’s normal to take awhile. You’ve just gotta fight your way through.”  

- Ira Glass

What Ira’s describing here – the belief that crappy beginnings will turn into mastery with enough practice and trial+error – is a “growth mindset.”

Embrace it, and you can watch your confidence, perseverance, and learning ability soar. It will even help you cultivate self-acceptance when you’re starting something new, so you can escape the death grip of perfectionism.
 
That’s why it’s usually the very first thing I dive into with my confidence or performance coaching clients.

Unfortunately, the growth mindset has an evil alter ego that you need to watch out for: the “fixed mindset.” And it's much, much more common!

A fixed mindset assumes that if your initial product is crappy, then you’re probably just not very good at that kind of thing. (Sound familiar?) Extra work won’t change reality.

Here’s an example. It doesn’t surprise us that we can 10x our athletic performance and mold our bodies if we sweat it out at the gym long enough with a great personal trainer. 

But as for things like talent or mental performance? Well, most people think they've either got it or they don’t.

Not so fast. It turns out that cognitive performance can be increased. (And according to Ira, so can creative mastery.)
 

Dr. Carol Dweck, the Stanford psychology professor who first coined the terms growth and fixed mindset, found that many underperforming children held the belief that they weren’t smart (or “just weren’t good at math,” as I used to tell myself). 

But when those same children began believing that learning was a process of trial and error where they could always assume they’d get better over time, the children not only scored better on tests but became more motivated to learn. 

Once you start to pay attention to real-life examples of the fixed mindset, you’ll be amazed by how limiting they are … and how they start to sound like excuses:

>>> I couldn’t build a website. I’m a dunce when it comes to technology.

>>> I’d never be able to afford a trip like that! I’m just not a good saver.

>>> I could never write a book. I’m just not disciplined enough.

So next time you’re unsatisfied with your work and tempted to use that as an excuse to stay stuck, give your crappy first efforts some love and remember that they’re what’s getting you closer to the mastery you dream about. Your next tries will be better because of it.
 
(And usually, it’s really not as bad as you think.)
 
Here’s to our incredible ability to choose, change and grow,
Jenna     

P.S. What's one area where you'd love to gain mastery? Get the support and accountability your need at the Uncommon Way Community Facebook group. Go ahead - tell us something you commit to working on ... declaring yourself in public has incredible, lasting power! See you there.

This old website makes me cringe!

As a recovering perfectionist, I know a thing or two about hiding my projects away. 

For most of my life, whenever I looked back on something I'd produced that no longer met my standards, I'd make it - um - disappear. And don't even get me started on all the things that never saw the (public) light of day.

But in the last decade-ish, I've started thinking about things in a different way. And to prove it, I'm sharing my old travel blog with you, Follow Ben and Jenna.

To be honest, I still cringe when I look at the blog. They layout is all crowded, there are broken links, the menus on the mobile site hardly work at all, and some of the writing is ... ahem. (Especially my earliest posts, like this one. "First we went here, and next we went here, and then we went here....")

But now I cringe in the way I do when I see a gawky preteen photo of myself. It makes me laugh and remember how awkward and new everything felt at the time. It makes we wish I could throw my arms around my earlier self and tell her, "Believe me: It's all going to be okay."

Coming to terms with the fact that we all start somewhere, that most of our early work is kinda crappy, but that it's totally okay and expected because that's exactly how we learn and get better, is the single most important thing for an entrepreneur or creative to wrap their head around.

Plus, people tend to be far more understanding than we might fear.

Fail to give perfectionism the boot, and you'll waste A LOT of unnecessary time and subject yourself to much unfortunate self-flagellation.

And next week I'll talk more about how exactly to start doing that.

Here's to giving perfectionism the boot,
Jenna

That time Samsung stole my homepage copy

I could NOT believe this was happening again!

But I heard it with my own ears. My homepage copy, read aloud on national TV during one of the biggest television moments of the year. All the effort, late nights and rewrites ... down the drain?

I'm sure you've been through some version of this yourself - the kind that ends with, "Wait! That was my idea!"

But even though we've all been through it, not everybody reacts the same. I used to react totally differently than I do now. And it's the reaction, not the story, that's worth talking about.

The Samsung Story 

I'm cuddled up on the couch watching the Oscars with my favorite chocolates and my puppy Skye, when YouTube sensation Casey Neistat appears on my screen and begins speaking into the camera. It's a Samsung commercial about out-of-the-box creatives who are doing what they love on a shoestring budget, each in their own way.

There's something familiar about what he's saying.

Well, I tell myself, The Uncommon Way is all about getting your ideas out there, so of course that feels familiar. But for some reason, the hairs at the base of my neck are standing at attention. What's going on?

"When we're told that we can't, we all have the same answer...," Casey pauses for effect.
Suddenly it clicks. "NOOOOO*!!!" I scream, causing poor Skye to jump off the couch in a panic.
I know exactly what his next words will be. I know, because my homepage says the exact same thing. 

"WATCH ME."

Oh no he didn't!
But he did. That was MY tagline, MY message, guaranteed to resonate with my ideal customers...! 
I'd used everything I'd learned during my years creating copy for fashion brands, together with every ounce of creativity and intuition that I could muster.

But now ... I definitely couldn't use it anymore. Now it was just some stale copy from a Samsung commercial.

Those thoughts swirled around my head for, oh, ten-ish minutes. And then I snapped out of it.  Because here's the thing: I've been here before.
Domain names, business concepts, taglines ... I've been through it all.

The Eat, Pray, Love Story

Like the time I told my friend that I was going to quit my job and travel the world, and write a book about it. I had a wedding to attend in Italy, and after that I'd fulfill my dream of studying yoga in India, and of course I'd have to visit Bali....

My friend's expression turned from confusion to pity. "Wait. You haven't heard of Eat, Pray, Love, have you?"

Here's the thing. Back then, I used to let things like this squash my dreams.

I never went on that around-the-world adventure. And there are countless businesses I never launched.

I couldn't bear the thought of following in someone else's footsteps, of being unoriginal. And I definitely never thought I could profit from something that had already been done.

Flipping the Script

This is where a lot of people get tripped up. We fail to recognize that really, there are no new concepts under the sun, only new interpretations.

Even if something exists, OUR VERSION of it will never exist until we risk bringing it into the world. All it takes is the courage - and the humility - to do it.

Here's one of my favorite quotes from Marie Forleo on the subject: "Can you imagine if Bruno Mars said to himself, 'You know what? There're enough sexy guys that can sing and dance. Why even try?'"

Contrary to what we might like to believe, ideas are pretty fluid. 

In fact, Elizabeth Gilbert, author of Eat, Pray, Love, wrote a book almost entirely on this subject.

It's called Big Magic, and I wish she had written it earlier so that I could've read it before cancelling my trip of a lifetime.

In it, she argues that ideas are autonomous, longing to be brought into the world, and if you don't act on them immediately they'll move on to another human to get the job done.

My personal belief is that there is such thing as a collective unconscious, and it goes beyond the instincts and archetypes that Carl Jung first suggested. It's where ideas float around waiting for someone that has the balls to make them happen.

That explains why more than one person can be working on the same thing at the same time. Why independent scientists on opposite sides of the globe end up winning the Nobel Prize for the same thing in the same year.

Back to that Samsung thing...

So really, that Samsung thing? It's a great sign, and maybe even a lucky break. Without it, you might not be reading this.

And it proves that I'm on to something. Somebody else agreed with "my" idea, and also thought it would make a splash.

Apparently throughout the world there's a strong, growing desire to look doubt squarely in the eye and simply say: 

WATCH ME.

Here's to flipping your script,
Jenna

P.S. If you're struggling to gin up the courage to make your idea happen, let’s hop on a call to see if it makes sense for us to work together. Get clear on the #1 thing dragging down your confidence and how to break its power over you, so you can stop thinking and start doing.

*Full disclosure: What I really shouted was decidedly more colorful than "no."