Don't Pull That Trigger!

So, if you check my last blog post you will notice a rather big chunk of time has elapsed...yet again. Well, I got caught up on my Hustle, then I got caught up on what to write and what pictures to post, and then one day turned into a week, and a week into a month, and by then I had lost my bloggin' mojo.

Well, I did take notes on my Hustle, (yes, I'm one of those), so I thought I'd share the rest of the days, just in case you may want to work on your own Hustle, or you are curious about my story. I would highly recommend you go to Jon Acuff's facebook page and keep an eye out near the end of the month for your opportunity to sign up for the 30 Days of Hustle newsletter and find the facebook group of the same name. By now, there are quite a few sub-groups devoted to specific Hustles.

Days 10 and 11 deal with your triggers, or to put it in other words, those detractors that keep you from working on your goal.  I'll be honest. This was not a favorite exercise of mine. Does anyone really like taking a long hard look at themselves and identify those traits that we would just as soon keep hidden? See, you can't make excuses when it's you. You already know the answer(s) if you just let go and get real with yourself.

Day 10's assignment was to identify my triggers. I could have come up with a shopping list full of triggers, but I chose just four, which I think are my biggest detractors:
~ADD behaviors (too many ideas fighting for my attention, unable to focus on one project long enough to finish before another one jumps into the spotlight. I am easily distracted. You could say I suffer from Ooh Shiny Syndrome.)
~Fear of Failure (I'm actually quite good at it, but I still get that sense of foreboding that this is just another thing I'm not going to succeed at, and that is really scary. What if I'm right?)
~ Self-Doubt (What if no one likes my stuff? What if they say my items are not made well or cost too much or are not special enough, or, or, or...?)
~Insecurity (I might as well lump this one with fear of failure and self-doubt. They are all interconnected.)

Day 11...Turn your triggers into an if/then statement. (As if Day 10 wasn't hard enough?)
OK, here goes:
~If I get distracted I will check my To Do list. (This actually works quite well for me.)
~If I am immobilized by too many ideas I will chose one that is ready to go (one that does not require me to go out and buy anything.)
~If I hear my nagging inner voice reminding me that I have failed at everything I have ever tried to do, I will think of all the great quotes on failure. (Robert Kiyosaki, Dave Ramsey, Albert Einstein are my favorites.)
~If self-doubt and insecurity start to take over I will remember the video clip of Stuart Smalley and his famous mantra...

So, if I asked you to identify your triggers, could you? Would you even want to?

Go ahead. Go have a look. What's the worse that could happen...you find something about yourself you don't like? Good, then that's where you start.