I had an epiphany this week.
No, not some religious or spiritual awakening that has changed my life forever, but a realization after finishing the recording of another episode of the SG Podcast.
I was chatting with a guest about how he was able to grow his Instagram account so organically over the years and when we ended our call, it just hit me.
After interviewing dozens of successful solopreneurs, reading dozens of books and running my own business successfully for a few years now, there are 3 absolute requirements if you want to succeed in something.
In anything, really.
In business, on Instagram, with your diet, in a relationship, etc.
And they are action, quality and consistency.
What do I mean by this?
Let’s use Instagram as an example:
1) You need to do some research and find out what to do and how to do it – not like a zen master of IG, but good enough to yield some results. For example, who is your target market, what type of content do they like, and when are good times to post?
In other words, take action.
2) Next, you want to make sure your actions are good enough in quality. Again, they don’t have to be perfect, but make sure what you’re posting is good enough and is adding value to your followers. If you’re not adding real value/quality, you’ll be in trouble or won’t see as many results.
3) Do it consistently. You will not see massive results in a week, or a month. But you might in 6 months, or a year, or 3, or 5. The 1 thing that stands out to me among successful solopreneurs is they take consistent action for months and years on end for as long as they need to.
How does this translate to other areas like dieting?
Research what a healthy diet could look like – you don’t have to eat a dairy/meat free vegan diet, but cut out sugar, etc. Make sure what you are eating is of decent quality (ie. it’s providing you with the right balance of nutrients). And stick to it for months or years if needed.
Do you seriously think you wouldn’t lose weight if you picked out a relatively healthy diet and didn’t break it for a year?
As you can tell, this realization came to me by simply observing patterns. Once you see or hear enough results, these patterns emerge.
So think for a minute or two:
“What is my end goal right now? What am I working toward?”
And then map out your plan for taking action, making sure it’s quality and do it consistently. If you want to hear me chat about it on video, I go into even more detail on my vlog here:
With all of that in mind, don’t forget this: there is no such thing as perfection in solopreneurship.
You can’t pitch a “perfect game” like you can in baseball, ie. making perfect decisions all day, every day and living a peaceful life.
Even for successful solopreneurs, it just isn’t possible… and if perfection is something you’re chasing, you might be in the wrong occupation 😛
That begs the question – what can we do about it?
Well, a few things:
accept it
embrace it
not worry about it
improve our confidence so we can “handle it” better
And luckily for you, I have two resources to help you improve your confidence.
The first is another vlog I did below on why you don’t have to be perfect to be a successful solopreneur, and what to do about it:
I also recommend checking out episode 22 of the SG Podcast with Daeyna Jackson, where we chat about her journey to becoming a confidence coach with practical tips and tricks you can use to improve your confidence.
It was a great chat and I think confidence is so important for solopreneurs, which is why I wanted to have her on. Listen here, in the embedded player below or find the SG Podcast on your favourite podcast platform here.
