Last time around, we looked at hustle and how it relates to filmmaking and business, focusing specifically on three sporting greats – Pete Rose, Roger Federer and Tiger Woods. We talked about gamification and seeing your life and business as a sporting event.

We looked at how you can imagine your business and success as a tough sports season, for example. If you haven’t already, give it a read, as it’s a good article and leads nicely into this one.

There’s No Time Like The Present

Whilst we’re on the subject of The Hustle, we need to cover some things that might get in your way. You see, there’s a nasty theory out there that seems to be in-built with a lot of people who go after success in business and filmmaking.

It’s a kind of insecurity that will damage your hustling efforts…if you let it.

The idea of always needing to read something more in order to be successful. Or hear something more. Or watch something more.

We can see this “phenomenon” (and I use that word in the worst possible way) in many self-development arenas, but it’s never more evident than in the area of improving one’s business.

This is an arena that takes courage to get out there and try things. A lot of people are looking for any excuse not to get out there and take action. It’s easier just to sit inside and watch re-runs of Friends.

Or, worse, yet another business book.

Many people getting into this area will kid themselves that they “just need to learn this one last thing,” or just need to read “ one more book ” before they’ll get out there and put things into action.

It’s a terrible mentality.

Where does it end? How long will the procrastination last? And what purpose does it really have?

The Root Of This Kind Of Procrastination

It’s rooted in insecurity and negative thinking. It’s a way to avoid taking action. And you need to avoid this negative mindset at any cost.

You’re aware of it now, and that’s power in itself. Following all the exercises below will go a long way towards avoiding this self-defeating mindset.

But first a little story.

   

As I got further and further down “the rabbit hole” on my journey, I began to understand that I never really needed anything. By anything, I mean the vast quantity of books and audio programs and DVD courses that I consumed in my business and filmmaking success quest.

I realized that all the books and programs in the world meant nothing if I didn’t have the right mindset. If my mind wasn’t together, I could have insane amounts of knowledge, but my return on investment would be minimal.

And here’s the thing – reading and watching and consuming doesn’t create that mindset. You must forge it by doing.

Further Down Te Rabbit Hole

I quickly began to see a negative relationship between the amount of time engrossed in books and the level of success I was having. More getting out there and doing…more action resulting in more success.

Most importantly, getting out there and taking action really blew my mind about business and what was possible.

As well as delivering me great success, it also helped me develop my philosophy about success and how people respond most favorably to people who have a strong mindset and move towards their goals openly and confidently.

People want to work with other people like that. Put another way – successful people have this mindset, so they recognize other people who have that mindset when they meet them. They love working with action takers.

Want more work and a bigger network of potential clients and referrers? Start taking action. Getting out there and do stuff, and all of a sudden things start to move into place. And success follows.

The people who think about themselves in the most positive ways, are ultimately the people having the most success.

We’ve seen this throughout history and it’s especially notable when you look at early success literature like James Allen ’s As A Man Thinketh. This mindset is also seen in another pioneering self-help volume, Napoleon Hill ’s Think and Grow Rich.

I know, I know, I just told you not to spend your time reading “just one more book,” but those two are absolute gems and real foundations for business success. So I’d highly advise reading those at some point when you have time.

Now, if you’re clearly material dependent, and by that I mean someone who constantly craves more and more reading before you’ll actually go out and put things into practice, then obviously that’s something to work on. Try adopting the fabled 80/20 rule in order to blast past procrastination and find yourself doing more.

I’ll introduce the 80/20 Rule briefly and then give you the exercise I hinted at right at the start of this post.

The 80/20 Rule, or Pareto Principle, is a way of looking at your results – it states that, for many events, roughly 80% of the results come from 20% of the actions. The Principle is named after Vilfredo Pareto, an Italian economist, and it’s used in many schools of thought in business and economics.

It makes a lot of sense to me.

So how can you use the 80/20 Rule to benefit you?

Here’s An Exercise – The Golden Rule

The Golden Rule is very similar to the 80/20 Rule, but is something of an addendum to it.

For every 1 hour you spend reading books/blog posts/watching DVDs/listening to audio courses, etc etc on getting good with business or filmmaking, ensure you spend 2 hours out in the real world taking massive Action.

Yes, that means a ratio of 2:1. Two hours in the field of taking action for every hour spent in the theoretical world.

You’ll find that your learnings will be put into practice more thoroughly, and the amazing thing is you’ll have even more reference experiences based on the immense amount of time you’re taking action.

More reference experiences = more success and more failure. And we know how well we learn from both of these things. In fact, many experts believe we learn more from failure than success. But that’s another story for another blog post.

As well as that, the increase in Action time means that the things you read make more sense due to the increase in reference experiences.

Getting Stuck In

Getting out there and getting stuck in shattered my reality of what was possible.

It led to me achieving what I didn’t think was possible before I got into this stuff.

Whilst I’m suggesting that you limit your reading time in exchange for increasing your Action time, anyone claiming that you can get to a point where you stop learning, is just plain wrong. Really successful people realize that you never stop learning. When you start thinking thoughts like “I’ve got to a point where I don’t need to improve anymore,” it’s just ego attachment.

   

“The wisest mind has something yet to learn.
” – George Santayana

Here are some Action Steps to help to take…action:

Action #1
: Stop putting things off

  • Write down three things that you’ve been putting off in your life. Some examples: go to the bank for an appointment, clean house head to foot, email that resume, work on that business plan, etc.
  • Do them now!

Action #2: Know that your time is now

  • Email five people who you know will have a positive effect on your career.
  • It doesn’t matter if you think you’ll even get a reply from these people, just email them.
  • Remember failure=feedback just do it! Time is short and we gotta be hustling!

Wrapping This Up

So does this all make sense to you? Do you recognize the need to take life by the reigns and start taking massive action towards your goals and what you want out of life?

Not only must you be bull-minded and stubbornly focused towards any goal you commit to, but also see yourself as a hustler, forever getting out there and doing your thing. You want success with your business? You better be out there in the trenches doing what needs to be done!

Remember, The Golden Rule states that for every hour you spend reading or writing about success with filmmaking or business, you should put in two hours of “taking action time.” “Taking action time” is whatever that means to you – it depends on your goals.

In his book Self-Discipline in 10 Days, Theodore Bryant described people’s motivation strategies towards taking action as a kind of Jekyll and Hyde idea. He describes Jekyll as the taking action side of our natures and Hyde as the excuse maker.

If you hear yourself coming up with excuses as to why you can’t do something in order to accomplish a goal you’ve set for yourself, remind yourself that it’s just Hyde’s tactics, his way of preventing you from doing what you have to do.

In order to counteract Hyde’s negative talk, use action-oriented self-talk. Saying something like, “I’m now writing this business plan,” even before you’ve actually moved across the room to your laptop is very powerful. Try.

We already know that failure is, in fact, feedback. As Bryant says, failure is not a tombstone, but a stepping stone to success.

Whilst I’m suggesting that you limit your reading time in exchange for increasing your Action time, anyone claiming that you can get to a point where you stop learning, is just plain wrong.

Really successful people realize that you never stop learning. When you start thinking thoughts like “I’ve got to a point where I don’t need to improve anymore,” it’s just ego attachment.

I hope you got some takeaway lessons from this lengthy post. If you have any thoughts or feedback, as always, put them in the comments below.

Thanks for reading!