Busting the Myth That More Followers Means Success
It’s a lie. Don’t believe what they tell you. If you’re engaging with media frequently it’s easy to equate your success with your amount of followers. What an awful ceiling to hit. Here’s five ways to dig down into your purpose and feed your creative soul.
Tighten Your Belt
Dial in your social media time to fit in with your multi-faceted schedule. Don’t forget why you’re there. Stay on mission. It’s too easy to get caught up in a capsule of internet death. Have clear intentions when approaching the world wide web; it’s sticky in there and sometimes you don’t get out of it without bleeding a little bit. I have difficult days where I can’t seem to peel myself away from the screen jumping into every rabbit hole, veering wildly off task. All that does is dilute my purpose and intention. Suddenly I begin questioning if perhaps I should switch things up at the last minute, or worse, I freeze. Total catatonic entrepreneur death. It’s real. You know it. That’s why you’re reading this. Love browsing? Set it up as a date you get to take with yourself. Set aside one hour, grab some grapes, a bubbly water and get cruising.
Content is Queen
If you don’t have content, go home. That’s the climate of entrepreneurship right now. So reaching for those followers isn’t helping you any, especially if you’re spending most of your time in the pursuit of more. What one thing are you doing every day that you want 2,000 people showing up to watch you do? Do that instead and forget about the people watching. The thing about being a creative entrepreneur is being creative! And let’s be real, no great creative entrepreneur ever got that way by not creating. Put your metaphorical combat boots on and get comfortable in the trenches using your skills and talents to show the world your chops. It can feel daunting being all alone in there day after day but look at this way, no one is going to be able to get to know you if you never show up to the table with your goods.
Read More Books
Who doesn’t love Tim Ferriss? Here’s his read list from his highly recommended book, “Tools of Titans”. Sign up for an account at your local library, if you do indeed live near one of these masterpieces of society, and browse the library catalog for each of these titles and order them to your closest branch. I’ve rented maybe 25 of these on the list and although my brain hurts, I will never again be the same. Carve out intentional time just for cramming your brain. There won’t be a button big enough to prove how much you like yourself after that investment. That my friend, is worth gold.
Give Yourself Time to Develop
This can be the hardest part of the journey. If you’re anything like me you have ideas about the future, great big flashing pictures that entice you towards your goals but you also have your past that wants to keep you grounded in old habits, acquaintances, limiting self-beliefs. Getting a grip on where you are on that continuum is monumental. Knowing you’re a newbie or that you’ve done the work and are about to break through is helpful during times when you’re feeling like you aren’t getting anywhere. There’s some sort of existential beauty that arises from knowing where you are. Like a child who dreams of being 25, you know that the middle journey there is essential for that kid to be of sound mind and emotion. There’s no skipping the line here. If you’ve got talents and skills and are working to bring them to the world, no matter where you are, be there. It’s this pocket of time that will bring great meaning to your goal when you do reach it.
Define What Success Means To You
To define success you have to have a little bit of it to know what you’re chasing after. It can mean any number of things and there isn’t a checkbox for everyone. To me, success means waking up every day utterly stoked to get to work. It’s high-fiving when someone genuinely pulls you aside and says they read something you wrote or went to one of your talks and it literally changed their life. That’s huge. More of that. Sign me up. like Amanda Palmer so eloquently says in her book, The Art of Asking, or How I Learned to Stop Worrying and Let People Help, “There’s no “correct path” to becoming a real artist. You might think you’ll gain legitimacy by going to art school, getting published, getting signed to a record label. But it’s all bullshit, and it’s all in your head. You’re an artist when you say you are. And you’re a good artist when you make somebody else experience or feel something deep or unexpected.”
