Just ONE Thing
Improvement Feels Bad, That’s How You Know It’s Working
Episode 240
with Rick White, 180BIZ
Hey everybody. My name is Rick White from 180BIZ, and this is my Just ONE Thing.
What we're gonna talk about today is IMPROVING, and I'm gonna ask if this video hits you right, if the content hits you today, would you please share this video?
When we start talking IMPROVING and setting goals and all that stuff, it sounds really positive until you actually start doing it. And here's the thing, most shop owners, they want better results without experiencing the feelings that improvement requires.
So today, I'm not gonna talk to you about strategy. What I'm gonna talk to you about is what improvement feels like. I'm gonna ask you three questions, and I want you to grade yourself on these.
Are you ready?
Number one, do you start quickly? Do you make a decision and get rocking and rolling? Do not leave the site of the decision without taking action. Do you start quickly?
Number two, do you learn from mistakes quickly? Do you learn quickly or do you keep repeating it until you do learn?
Third, question number three: do you stay in the game and keep going no matter what?
What I want you to do is think those through real quick and just in the comments, tell me which one you need help with starting quickly.
Learning from mistakes quickly or staying in the game. I want you to do that. I want you to feel where that's tight for you, right? Where that's an issue. So what I wanna do first is the first question. Do you start quickly? Because what I wanna discuss today is the emotion behind it. When you don't start quickly, you're procrastinating.
And you're procrastinating because you're fearful of discomfort, fear of failure. Imperfection not being enough looking foolish. I need you to understand that starting quickly isn't about motivation or getting motivated, or I need to be more comfortable with it.
I need you to understand that starting quickly is about reducing the time you negotiate with yourself. I wanna say that again. It's about reducing the time you negotiate with yourself, because the longer you wait, the more you think it through, the heavier it gets because you're putting more and more emotional weight.
Improvement begins the moment you move before you feel ready. The key word there being before you're gonna start improving before it feels like you're ready to, because everything.
You're going to achieve is not in what you know. It's what you do. And that's the difference. So I want you to get this one point. How fast you start is way more valuable than how good the quality of the start is. Okay. So now let's go to number two. Do you learn from the mistakes quickly?
And what happens is when you're wallowing, you're feeling shame, you're feeling embarrassed. You want to protect yourself and wallowing, feels productive. Like, I'm thinking this through. But what it is, is really avoidance in disguise.
Fast learners don't avoid mistakes. They extract the lesson. Then they move on. Staying stuck in emotion, delays your improvement and your improvement momentum more than the actual mistake itself. So. What I really want you to think about here is reflection is one of the most useful tools you're ever gonna have.
Reliving the mistake over and over again, kicking your own butt, that does not help you, okay? It's not useful. Number three, do you stay in the game and keep trying? Keep going, and here's the thing. Sometimes you don't. Why? Because doubt starts to creep in. I don't know enough. I'm not good enough.
I was stupid to think this. And here's what I want you to understand. Most shop owners don't fail because they're incapable of what they're seeking. They fail because they quit while they're still working on the outcome, while they're still forming the outcome. See, progress often, looks like nothing is happening.
Until it does, and staying in the game is an act of what's called frustration tolerance. You gotta understand that when ~you are here and ~you set a goal here, it is not a straight line. It's messy, it's ugly. There's mistakes because you're learning new things. The gift in goal setting is not the achievement.
It's being able to overcome all of this to become a better version of yourself. You understand It's not about confidence, it's about being able to tolerate frustration. So what I need you to understand here is consistency beats. Belief, that's the important thing.
It's more important to keep going and getting better than whether you believe you can or you can't because often the confidence that you're looking for to start, you can't find until after you've accomplished it. So what I wanted you to do is recognize that the enemy here isn't failure, it's avoidance.
See, failure is feedback. Quitting is a decision. You gotta understand the outcomes that you're going after. Those are lagging indicators, tasks, what you're doing right now, that's what you control. Am I showing up with the best intention? Am I taking the best effort? Am I going through with the best actions and mindset?
You gotta make sure you're doing all of this so that when you're doing the work. You focus on the work, not the outcome, that's what's so cool about this. I need you to understand that improving isn't talent. It isn't passion, it isn't clarity. Improvement is how fast you start, how fast you learn, and how willing you are to stay uncomfortable. That's what it's all about. I gotta tell you something, this isn't glamorous, but it works. I hope this makes sense to you all. Please if it does, share the video.
Remember, our Shop Owners Round Table is February 12th. 7:00 PM Eastern. Would love to have you there.
And if you would like some more nuggets like this, we have our webinar series, which is Pocket Business Genius. There's over 90 management webinars in there, and it's like having me in your back pocket.
So what I want you to remember through all of this is it's not about how good your plan is, it's how quickly you get going, how quickly you learn, and how long are you willing to stay, uncomfortable, frustrated to get what you really want. Everybody. Thank you so much. God bless. Have a great week and go make some money.
I'll see you all next week live. Take care everybody. Bye-bye.
