You’re reading way too many blogs, following the advice of too many “experts.” This information gluttony is clouding your judgment. And if you don’t get a handle on it, yours will be one of the approximate 65% of businesses that fail within the first 10 years.
What is gluttony?
glut-ton-y:
excessive consumption; the act or practice of [eating] to excess
Are you an information glutton?
Let’s see if you can relate:
As a person who loves to read, I constantly find myself trying not to get caught up reading when I should be “working.” (Although that reading is often research, which is “working,” of course — to a degree). I love to learn…
But I also realize that there’s such a phenomenon as having too much of a good thing.
Sometimes, we literally have to stop ourselves from reading anymore so as not to become overwhelmed with all there is to change, to consider, to do, and to improve.
As a perfectionist always in “self-improvement mode,” one of the hardest things for me to do is to STOP learning and to stifle the pressing need… to read!
Is that you?
Sometimes, you just need to turn it off.
But building that never-ending list bogs us down and prevents us from moving forward.Why? Because with every new juicy informational tidbit, you’re mentally piling more onto your “list of things to do or to improve next.”
Case in point, I just stopped myself from reading an actually quite exceptional called “10 Reasons I Don’t Retweet You & Your Content.” I stopped short because I realized that although I did (for some reason) care why this random and beautifully authoritative-sounding stranger I’d just encountered on the Interwebs may not be retweeting “my” content… I should not care.
And why not?
Reason #1 (and the only one that’s important here):
I KNOW HOW TO WRITE, how to build a following, how to engage, how to “go viral,” how to get shares…
That’s part of the reason I was placed on this Earth — to write. I know that unequivocally, and while the advice in the article was sound (what I read of it, anyway), I didn’t need to read more about that and create a mental checklist of “awesome ideas to use to further improve.”
Let me get over myself and just do what I know that I know that I already know how to DO.
Is that you…?
The takeaway:
To Grow and to Thrive, We Must Learn to EVALUATE ACTIONS.
In simplest terms, would it have benefited my business more to continue reading that article and to get further lost in the interconnected Web of information?
Or to stop “reading,” stop “preparing“… and to simply write… this blog?
In blogging, I’m building trust.
I’m building a following.
I’m cultivating my audience.
With each post, I’m gaining respect… new followers… new subscribers.
Ironically, I’m now doing all the things the article would have been inferring and teaching me how to do.
So would reading about things I already knew would overwhelm my to-do list have helped further the cause… or have set me back a few notches?
Information overload — it’s very real.
As a small business owner with the weight of everything on your shoulders, the overload can literally mean the difference between your business’ success and its failure.
That’s deep.
So unplug.
Stay focused.
Have confidence in your own abilities: trust that you don’t need to learn more — not right now.
And stay on the job.
Know that you need to DO more…
If gluttony (as in the over-consumption of food and drink) is one of the seven deadly sins theologically… then information gluttony is surely one of multiple sins killing the livelihood of our businesses.
Give yourself permission not to be “awesome” at EVERYthing. Make the commitment to being exceptional at a FEW things… and stay focused. Gluttony of any sort is just not a good look.
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