Shiny Object Syndrome

Each specific program leads with:
1) how much someone has earned,
2) how short a time it was, and
3) how they used to be just like “you” – the potential buyer-assumed-loser – until now.

All of the programs I bought WERE very useful. However, there are
two things about shiny objects:

1. They’re much quicker to buy than to master.

Each program takes intense energy and total focus to learn to do well.
Working 10-15 hours a week, figure at least

– 90 days to go through the program modules to understand them,
– 90 days to put a few things into practice, and probably
– 6 months of implementing and practicing the strategies to get GOOD at doing them.

Mastery? Years. (Remember the college degree – takes four years full-time. And
how good are you after that, at doing whatever it is you learned? Most jobs require
on-the-job training even for college graduates, right?)

2. Each program creator asks, AFTER you buy, to focus on
what you just bought, and do nothing else.

And specifically, that you buy NO other programs. Sit still and
learn to do THIS program you just bought. Why?

One thing at a time is the only hope you have of mastery and excellence.
All the true gurus and trainers know that. But of course that’s not how they
sell their program. They know we’re suckers for the shiny object, so sizzle rules.

Worse, new program X sounds so stupid easy that we buy 5 or 6 – all different –
and don’t even OPEN them all, much less master any one of them. Sigh.
Guilty as charged.

Has MLM become another shiny object?

The latest top earner appears, describes how fast they rose from the ashes using
this or that approach, and how they were ‘just like you’ not long ago.

And people sign up in droves. Either into that company or for what’s being sold.

Then. They. Discover. How. Much. Work. It. Is.
And they realize they ‘don’t have time.’

I’m building again.

I know we need something shiny to hold out there.
It’s fun for me and fun for people considering what I’m doing. But the
shiny object I’m using is not quick income first. Because that’s what’s most
illusive in a business of one’s own.

I seek out folks who WANT to learn the activities we’re doing. There’s
no one on the team who’s in denial about the fact that this is a sales business.
They want to master that. Me too.

Yes, it will take time. It will take effort. There IS a risk. We don’t know the outcome
for sure. But we all love the doing of the thing and getting better at it. That’s the high.
Everyone contributes. Everyone screws up. Total focus and engagement.

When you long to engage in what you are doing, shiny object syndrome
will not have the power over you it once had. You’ll suddenly be too busy.
No time to take your eye off the ball you’ve chosen right now. You might even
unsubscribe from a few guru emails…so you’re not distracted
from your own purpose.

Focus feels divine. It’s the best antidote to shiny object syndrome I know.