Tag: long-term

5 reasons why ‘5 reason to…’ lists don’t work

Posted on by philipdodson

1. It’s been done, we’ve all been there.

2. It’s been done to death.

3. It is not imaginative.

4. It is unlikely we’ll say anything that will stand out, that is really insightful, just more list filler.

5. It’s difficult to think of 5 things or 9, or 12 or whatever number we chose for our list. So we fill up lists to make them look bigger and more useful.

Lists are often accompanied by a ‘buy my stuff’ style ‘hook’. We’ve all spat them out now and do not get hooked.

What we could choose to do instead is share our story, our passion, and build trust by generously sharing our knowledge in a deeper more informative way, that will connect us with the people who like what we have to say and what we stand for.

Our story is uniquely different and needs to be told to our tribe/audience who will care about what we do if it adds real value in exchange for their time to consume our content.

Skip the lists and hooks for more genuine content that is about connecting, sharing, building value and trust.

Avoid the quick wins and opt for the longer term.

The self-discipline trap

Posted on by philipdodson

We can shortcut self-discipline by blocking sites, putting a lock on the fridge, not having chocolate cakes in the house, not buying cigarettes to stop smoking and removing from our lives things we can not seem to stop taking, having, doing and so on.

But it is just that. It’s a trap. We believe that we have overcome a habit or dealt with a demon. We haven’t really overcome something, we have simply ‘handcuffed’ ourselves, blocked it out, but deep down the behaviour is still there.

The hard part is to stop eating cake when the cake is sat right in front of us.

To do that we have to understand why we keep doing something and then to change our habits.

Blocks, locks, and denial are a short-term fix, building a habit without the block based on a desire to want to change, is the only long-term solution.

We will only apply the real self-discipline needed to build the habit that creates lasting change once we are inspired to do so.

Seek the demon, explore why we behave that way, build strategies and then apply new habits to change that behaviour.

It’s easier said than done, but if we want lasting change, there is has to be a trade between easy fixes and commitment.