There isn’t a day that goes by, especially on the internet, where I don’t hear someone listing out a litany of reasons why they aren’t reaching their potential, or why they haven’t pursued their dream career, or written the book, or started the blog. I’ve been there. We all have.

So, here’s the ones that have reared their heads in my world over the years, that I hear echoed in so many other people’s remarks, and that I work every day to kill dead. Today, you’ll read at least one that you’ve said to yourself.

And today, I’m calling for you to quit it. Now.

1. It has to be complex to be good.

Simple is still valid.

With nearly every project or idea I undertake, I’m convinced that it’s too easy. Too basic. That the concept I’m talking about or writing about or presenting just isn’t intellectual enough to reach an audience that cares.

But you know what? The audience for academic and intellectual is limited. There’s a lot of value in being part of those discussions, but simple ideas form the foundation of complex ones, and everyone will tell you that the truly difficult puzzle is to take big ideas or intricate ones and find a way to explain them simply. Quit trying to make it more complicated just because it seems fancier that way. It isn’t. Hone your ability to simplify.

2. Surely, everyone has thought of that already.

This is also known as Imposter Syndrome. You sit in the meeting with an idea for how to solve the problem on the table, but it’s so obvious to you that you’re certain that it’s already been thought of and dismissed as stupid or not viable.

Except it likely hasn’t.

Personally, I’ve kept my mouth shut a thousand and one times because I was absolutely sure that my contribution, idea, or perspective simply wasn’t good enough because it was so obvious to me. I must be missing something or not understanding the problem well enough, and I’m going to make myself look like an idiot.

I suppose I’ve had my share of clunkers, but for the most part, you need to get comfortable with the idea that your perspective is unique because it comes from a completely distinct vantage point (yours), shaped by your experiences, understanding, and the way you process information. It’s not going to be the same as anyone else’s. And hell, what’s the worst that happens if everyone did think of it already, or that your thought is indeed completely unoriginal? (Come on, this post is hardly a groundbreaking concept, it was just on my mind).

You have more information and experience to draw from for next time that will help cultivate the next idea that is different. Never a bad thing. Knowing that you experience imposter syndrome isn’t a license to let it continue to best you.

3. It’s someone else’s fault that I can’t do this.

The worst form of self-sabotage is believing that you didn’t have a hand in creating your own fate.

I’m not sure what happened to personal accountability in the last little while, but it’s taken a full-on roundhouse to the face and is now whining in a corner somewhere about how unfair life is. I have to be honest that I don’t have a whole lot of tolerance for excuses. We all get dealt a crappy hand now and again, or have a stack of circumstances that seem insurmountable. Our choice is to cope, or to blame.

There’s no question that I’ve failed at this. Those closest to me also know that I’ve lost my mind once or twice buried under the overwhelm of lots of scary things. But they’ll also tell you that I always come out swinging on the other side. And on the outside? People consistently tell me that I seem fearless. I’m not, but I’m determined as all getout.

Being accountable for your world is also incredibly empowering. You can’t control all the factors,but you can control your reactions and responses to them. Once you realize that, suddenly even the biggest things don’t seem so daunting anymore. It isn’t someone else’s fault. It isn’t the system’s fault, or the fault of your circumstances. You’re in control of a lot more than you think.

So today, at the start of a new week, promise yourself you’re going to quit these. At least for 24 hours. Then another 24. Then another.

I’m hungry to see a whole stream of conversations across the interwebs of people triumphantly knocking down doubt rather than tearing down each other and themselves. We can do so much better than that. We’re a population that spawns human after human who changes the world for the better, whether incrementally or in big, sweeping gestures. As cynical as we are, we find room in our spirits for believing in something each and every day, and we’re the most resilient critters on the face of the planet.

So really. What’s your excuse?

A post from Brass Tack Thinking
Three Self-Sabotage Mantras That You Need To Quit. Now.

But you have to want to learn. Not just hear. Not just receive information. But learn.

Every day, I hear another story of someone telling me that they need more tools. They need more this or that to do their jobs. They don’t have enough information or training or case studies or data or collateral or something.

There’s no question that there are legitimate holes sometimes in our information systems. And as businesses, we have a responsibility to do our best to equip the people that work with us with the information and tools they need to do their jobs. Accepted.

But what we need are more people with the initiative and the moxie to seek out that information, to improve the information that’s out there, to make the effort to learn it rather than just regurgitate it, to rethink it, even, and to actively pursue and assist with the creation of what’s missing.

Waiting for someone to hand you the instruction manual isn’t interesting. It isn’t ambitious. Hell, it’s pretty close to completely lazy. And it isn’t doing you any favors when it comes to broadening your own skills and expertise and creating value for your customers, your company, or your own career.

Quit looking for a PDF to hand to your boss or a stock slide deck to email to your customer. Quit waiting for someone else to answer all the questions for you so you can just pass the information along. Quit bitching about the blog post that no one has written or the case study that hasn’t been shared. Those are excuses, not legitimate roadblocks.

Roll up your sleeves. Ask smart questions, and listen to the answers. Try something. Create something. Answer the question, or don’t stop until you can at least try. Be accountable for seeking your own knowledge, and give yourself the gift of having a more rich, interesting, diverse and powerful information arsenal right inside your own head.

We need more learners. You can’t change the world waiting for someone else to tell you how.

A post from Brass Tack Thinking
On Accountability and The Initiative to Learn

In particular, managing information overload in a social and new media era is a topic that never ceases to draw the masses. There isn’t a day that passes that I don’t see at least a post from someone lamenting how they simply can’t keep up anymore, or keep track of what they have to do, or how they’re getting buried in information but not finding anything valuable out there. It happens to the best of us.

There’s a secret to all of this though. Well, a few, but they’re all kind of wrapped up into a single concept:

Exercise your filters.

You have the tools available to you and you don’t even need fancy software to achieve it. It’s totally fine if you have a few favorite programs to keep you on your game (I’m an Evernote devotee, for example). But at the most fundamental level, you need to constantly be focused on filtering information and accepting a few truths. Here’s what I mean.

1. The Delete Button and Its Cousins

Your email inbox isn’t nearly as critical as you think it is in every waking minute. And you shouldn’t be afraid of the delete button (unless you’re in one of those industries that commands that you archive everything, but even then they ought to do that for you enough to get it out of sight).

Every email productivity system in the world – if it’s any good, like Inbox Zero – requires that you get rid of the stuff you don’t need to reference anymore. If you aren’t going to get to it, read it, or reference it later, delete it. If you’re going to do it, either do it now or add it to The List (see below) and archive it. If you need to reference it later archivingis fine, but be realistic about what you really need. Saving or trying to consume everything “just in case” is simply folly.

2. The Unfollow/Unfriend/Uncircle/Unsomething Gesture

This social networking stuff? It’s all opt-in. All of it.

I understand that there are causes important enough to you that you want to spend time advocating for (or against) them, or engaging in discussions or even arguments around those things for some greater good. If that’s the case and that’s what you’re doing, you’re probably not complaining about the noise.

And listen, we all kvetch about what’s in our streams. I’ve done it myself. Guilty.

But by far, the most powerful thing I’ve done to get a handle on it all? Taken the network into my own hands to change what I am willing to consume or tolerate. Too much negativity? Cull the members of the crabby camp. Too much discussion about the social network on the social network? Filter them out and start your own discussion. Unhappy about the attention someone gets because you don’t like their approach? Remove them from your field of view and focus elsewhere (and ideally doing it better). See the pattern here? In large part, you’re responsible for managing what makes it to your eyeballs, and how you counteract what it is you don’t care for. If I contribute to your malaise? Please unfollow me, too.

There’s a lot of stuff out there that won’t suit your tastes. That’s okay. But you’ve only got so much energy and attention to burn. Do you want to waste it railing against the things that don’t work, or building and working on the ones that do?

Customize your experience and home in on the stuff that matters to you. Leave the rest aside. I promise the world won’t collapse under your feet if you don’t follow the famous tech blogger or the big shot marketing author. Afraid you’ll miss something? If it’s really worthwhile, chances are it’ll make its way back to you through other channels.

3. The List

All that stuff you have to do? Some of it is simply more important than the rest. You either have hard deadlines, or work that will more substantively move your projects or your business or your personal stuff forward. I guarantee you possess the ability to look at your list and find the five most important things (or six, if you like, or three or four even. But no more than six.)

What it’ll take is one big session to sit down and get a handle on it all. A couple of hours, combing through your email inbox or your notebook or whatever to make one big, massive list. How you organize that is up to you. I use a plain ol’ Moleskine notebook and a pen. Use something computer or cloud based if that suits you. But the important factors are to have a list of everything so you know it’s captured, and then be able to pull out the five most important things to create laser focus.

What’s most important to you isn’t the same as the next guy. Your criteria should be different, because your business and work are different. And I don’t buy that you don’t know what’s important (after all, what we want to be important and what really *is* important are often different things, but we usually know what they are). Even if you get a few of them mixed up, you’ll already be ahead of the game by focusing on any of the more important things.

Review the list daily. Add new stuff to the big list. Strike the stuff that’s done. And find the five or six things every day that absolutely need doing.

The Truth

You may not believe me, but I don’t suffer from information overload.

Sometimes I feel like I have too much to do, but the reality is usually that I just don’t have a handle on what needs doing. Once I’m organized, I’m not overwhelmed anymore, no matter how long the list is. My enemy is lack of awareness more than anything else.

I never manage to read all the blogs in my reader, and I haven’t yet suffered a great loss from missing a compelling post. I consume what I can, and leave the rest to Mark All As Read. I focus on the social networks where I’m interested, engaged with interesting people, and where I personally find value and worth. I spend time on Twitter, on Google+, on Facebook (not as much on LinkedIn, just not my personal favorite). I enjoy them all, and have what I consider to be valuable conversations on every single one.

And even though there’s tons of information streaming in all the time, I don’t let it own me. Ever. I spend as much time as I’ve got, but don’t stress if I don’t have more. Maybe that’s why I don’t get fatigued or burned out or pay much mind to the “gah, another thing to pay attention to” talk. I just adapt to what works, and jettison what doesn’t.

I have a simple to-do list. I do the stuff on it. I put deadlines first, and mission-critical work next (and my definition of that will vary from yours, so it doesn’t matter what that means to me). The rest either goes away, or gets taken care of when it can. No one dies if I screw up. I clean up the mess and move on.

You control more than you think. The trick is that it takes a spine to look at something and say “No.” To delete the email. To postpone the meeting. To turn down the interview. To click that wicked “unfollow” button.

You’ve got this. I promise. Be ruthless about where you place your attention. You’ll thank me for it.

A post from Brass Tack Thinking
My Single Most Powerful Productivity Trick