I was jotting some notes down for a monthly video I make for our Veggie Vault Membership, and I thought I would expand a bit on the notes and post them here. This is such a HUGE issue that I think a lot of folks struggle with.
I start my Tim Talks out with a story and this story happened in “real-time.” I was getting ready to purchase a digital product online and I fell into the trap of trying to find a coupon code so I could get a discount.
Have you ever done this before? You start a simple search for a usable code so you can get a discount with the hopes of covering at least the cost of shipping or a few bucks of a digital product. Then the unexplained happens. You find yourself 72 links into your search and 45 minutes later you still don’t have the code. I seem to fall prey to this cycle more than I’d like to admit. This particular time has a bit of a different ending.
As I was searching and coming up with old codes or just plain spam it occurred to me that last month, I created a free account with this company, and I vaguely remember a confirmation email with a coupon code. I logged into my email and did a quick search and voila! There it was. A useable code to give me 20 percent of my subscription. I had wasted several minutes of valuable time when the solution to my problem was just two clicks f in my inbox… Crazy….. But that had me thinking…
How many times do we go searching for the newest information, cutting-edge discoveries, or the latest updated version of anything while we waste time not doing any actual work? Sometimes I wonder if we search for the magic glittery thing across the internet just to let us off the hook from doing the thing that we know will bring us success. The answer is often right in front of our face, but it seems too simple and it’s the furthest thing from a breakthrough.
Just like that code in my inbox, many times the answer that we are looking for is right in front of our face. The truth is we probably already know the answer to our problem, but we’d rather find a sexier way to get to our goal. After losing two hundred pounds over ten years ago I find myself in seasons where I start gaining weight. I spend countless hours on YouTube learning about intermittent fasting, carb cycling, the perfect time to exercise, and whatever else influencers are selling as the way to “unlock your full potential.” I fall for it every single time. In reality, I just need to stop mindless eating and change my environment back to the way it was when I had success. No glitz, no glamor, just do what works.
Here’s the encouraging part to this whole thing: You likely already know what to do and you are just avoiding putting in the work. In fact, I’d bet you have a whole list of things that you know you “should” be doing but you put them off while you search for the one thing that will get you the homerun. What if we make a deal with ourselves? We don’t look for new solutions until we have completed all the “little” things that we know we need to be doing. Does that sound fair?
For me, that means that I need to get back to hardcore meal prepping, getting my exercise clothes out the night before, making a shopping list, and getting to sleep on time. It may look different for everyone, but the main idea is to get the stuff done that you know you need to do. Those “little” things over time add up to huge solutions.
That’s all for now,
Warm regards,
Tim
