“Ignorance or Apathy? I don’t know and I don’t care.” ~ Jimmy Buffett
What’s the more difficult position – not knowing or not caring? When starting a business I’ve often found myself in the position of not knowing something. No matter how smart I might think I am, I have found that I can’t know everything so I often have to go searching for information to fill the gap. But what happens when we know what we need to do but we just can’t muster the motivation to do it? Apathy, procrastination, doldrums, rut, unmotivated – no matter what you call it, it can be a problem that is difficult to overcome. We’re going to look at some ways to overcome both.
Being called ignorant is perceived as a real put down and is often used to describe people who are bound by their prejudices rather than simply without facts. Ignorance is defined as lacking knowledge or information as to a particular subject or fact. We can’t know everything so we’re bound to be ignorant of something at some time. There is more access to more information today than there has ever been in history. Not only do we know more, but the access is incredible.
In the not so distant past, only the very wealthy and primarily men, had access to books and the abundance of knowledge that was available at that time. The internet has made it possible to gain more information than you ever thought possible in a matter of moments. We can find out just about anything we want 24/7 with the click of a button – ignorance overcome.
But what do we do when we know what we should be doing but just don’t do it? Sheesh! That’s a whole lot of doing!
This weekend I was working at a client event and early Saturday morning I was playing taxi to the airport so that our Continuing Education speaker could catch his flight. During the hour long trip we started talking about his business. He’s a good speaker with a very relevant message but he’s struggling to get his bookings at the level that he’d like to have them. On the flip side, there are other speakers who aren’t as good at the on-stage delivery but they are consistently getting booked. Not only booked, but booked at rates that are almost double.
What’s the difference? Or, as I put it in one of my favorite questions to others when facing a problem – Why do you think that is? His response was: I know what I need to do, I just don’t do it.
Do you ever feel that way? I know I do.
Apathy is more difficult to overcome than ignorance because we can’t just click a button to feel motivated to do whatever task is preventing us from moving forward. I don’t think it’s that we don’t care, we just don’t care enough. In other words, the consequences of our inaction aren’t painful enough to spark us to action or the promise of the payoff for completion isn’t relevant enough to lure us forward.
So, how do we overcome the problem?
There’s not a quick fix and certainly not a one size fits all solution, but these are a few methods that have been of help to me.
Break it down. Sometimes when I have a particularly daunting task, I look at the whole and just really don’t feel like tackling it. It helps me to break it down into smaller tasks. I’m not a big to-do list person on a daily basis except when it comes to planning large events for clients; then I live by my lists. If I look at the event as a whole, it can be overwhelming. But when I start breaking the event down into all the little things that need to be done, I’m faced with bite sized pieces which are much easier to, umm, digest. I know it can be just as overwhelming to look at a 5 page list of to-do’s but when you wade into the smaller bits, you can spend 30 minutes working on the project and mark off 10 items. Before you know it, you’ve whittled down a daunting list into a sea of checkmarks. I love that sense of accomplishment.
Relieve the stress. I find it easier to seek diversions when I’m feeling particularly stressed. I often feel stressed when I’ve had my head to into a project for too long. Sometimes I just need to walk away and change focus. It may help to go for a walk or spend 30 minutes playing with the dog. I’ll go throw a load of clothes in the washer, anything to reorient my brain for a few minutes.
Change up your routine. Occasionally I’m just lonely. Going from working in an office with dozens and dozens of other people to working at home alone can make it easy to be diverted by the TV or playing around on the web. When I sense that creeping in, I make a point to set up some lunch dates with friends. That brief interchange with others helps me come back feeling refreshed and ready to tackle things anew.
Schedule play time. Take a break. Schedule some slacker time into your schedule. You’re more likely to keep plowing through when you can look at the clock and see that it’s only 30 more minutes until you have your “legal” half hour of play time to surf the web, play a game or watch TV.
Create accountability. Even when you’re the boss, you may need to be accountable to someone. Now wait a minute, I’m not saying you need to go out and find a j-o-b again; there are other ways to be accountable. Find a group of like-minded folks to hang out with. In Think and Grow Rich Napoleon Hill talks about the concept of a Master Mind Alliance or I’ve more often seen them called a Master Mind Group. Each group is unique in that it is made of up unique individuals and the agenda belongs to the group but the general focus is on brainstorming, feedback, being a sounding board, accountability and working together to attain new heights.
Outsource/Delegate. In the case of the underbooked speaker, when we got down to it, he was having a problem following through when it came to keeping in front of existing and potential clients so that he was in the forefront of the event planner’s minds when they were deciding on speakers for their events. He was honest and said that just wasn’t something he enjoyed. We all have things that we really don’t enjoy doing but some things are harder to handle than others. If you have something specific that is holding you back, and it happens repeatedly, perhaps you need to hire someone else to do that for you. If you can’t afford to add to your staff, you may be best served by outsourcing that part of your business. Often other service professionals are willing to barter services in lieu of money.
I’ve saved for last; the two things that I feel are the greatest antidotes to apathy.
Get a vision/Renew your vision. Do you know where you’re going? If not, spend some time thinking about where you’re headed and find a way to keep that vision in front of you. I have my “dream board” in pictures and my personal mission statement plastered all over one wall in my office so that I see it every single day. If you know where you’re heading, remind yourself. Put up some pictures or quotes or statements that you will see every day to help motivate you to keep moving toward that dream.
Set goals/Refresh your goals. Do you have goals? I think that goals are one of the most important tools for anyone, business person or worker bee. Goals will help drive you forward. Goals should be set in increments instead of having one end goal in mind. The great thing about goals is that you can set those increments where ever they work best for you. I work with 3 month, 6 month, 1 year, 5 year and 10 year goals and revisit my goals every quarter to see if they need tweaking or realigning based on where I’m headed. Goals aren’t ever to be set in stone, just as we evolve, our goals should evolve with us.
Whether you find yourself faced with ignorance or apathy, don’t despair, both can be overcome. Information cures ignorance and information is readily available with the click of a mouse button, just be smart about it and double check the facts so that you make sure what you’ve found is really the information you need. However, apathy may be more difficult to overcome. It’s certainly not insurmountable, but there are several methods you can use to help keep you motivated. Try a few on for size and see which works best for you.
Happy entrepreneuring!
Katherine
© Yanwe