As I was hand-washing my newly painted car, running the towel over the metallic black surface, watching suds spill over onto the pavement… I thought about how simple it is to actually carry out a task.
Doesn’t matter what the “task” is, it’s always simple.
For example, hand-washing my car is a task I enjoy, despite the “work” involved. I couldn’t run it through the automatic washer for at least 6 weeks, because of the new paint job.
Once I actually filled up a bucket with warm water and soap, got the supplies, walked outside, and got started… it was easy.
It was actually enjoyable.
As the car transformed from dirty to sparkling clean, courtesy of my hands willing to do the work, I thought, “This is how life is meant to be lived. When something needs to get done, you just do it. Simple.”
Gaining a new subscriber, and turning them into a paying client or customer, can be just as simple as hand-washing a car. Yes, there’s work involved. But it’s simple work.
Often it becomes “difficult” because we’re introducing ideas into our work process that make things difficult.
The technical term for this is “over-complicating shit.”
Maybe we over-complicate things, because we’re addicted to the struggle. Or we want people to give us some form of attention. Or we cling to the notion that “life is hard,” because that’s what we were taught growing up and we don’t want to discredit our parents’ legacy.
These kinds of beliefs turn a simple task into an overwhelming, daunting task… and therefore, it never gets done. Or at best, we procrastinate it for weeks, months, years, or longer.
All of this is a low-key form of “selling out.”
It’s a form of avoiding the richness and fullness of your own life, in order to adhere to some belief or idea that isn’t truly serving you.
I invite you to give yourself permission to view your tasks as simple. Do what you need to do, minus the over-complications.
Talk soon,
www.AntiMarketingManifesto.com
Michelle Lopez Boggs is a copywriter, copywriting mentor, and author of "The Anti-Marketing Manifesto: How to Sell Without Being a Sellout." She's helped her clients sell millions of dollars' worth of products and services online by using the MEI(S) principle — motivate, educate, and inspire, and sell. 