Don’t negotiate with yourself…
With the prospect of losing my work, my routine was broken.
Let me explain.
In six weeks, the laboratory where I worked will be closing. I am a forensic chemist. The government pays me, but suddenly, I will be out of work.
For the past six years, I been doing on-line marketing. That was my side hustle. Last year was my best year. My revenue was $120,000.
But with all the Facebook ads expenses, Sofware and paying virtual assistants from the Philippines, my net was not great.
$120,000 worth of experience
Instead of looking at my experience as a disaster last year, I was told by my business mentor to look at the experience as $120 k experience. I mean who has sold $120 k of goods here?
Me.
And that’s an experience that I have learned along the way, the skills of setting up a business, setting up a Facebook ad, learning copywriting and writing copy.
These are strategies that I learned along the way.
But here’s the thing, though strategies are perfect and fine, these are what we call ‘hard skills’
Copywriting…
Editing copy…
Launching Facebook Ad…
Hard skills vs. Soft Skills (I’ll take soft skills any day of the week)
But you know what’s more important that all the hard skills I learned? It’s the softs skills that will propel you.
The year that my revenue was $120,000, I learned the soft skill of not to negotiate with myself.
What does that mean?
That means, given the choice of ‘Folding the Laundry and Watching Netflix’, you know the clear winner: Watching Netflix.
But here’s where I don’t negotiate with my self: Do the hard work…
Fold the laundry.
Folding the laundry could mean writing your copy for your business, instead of watching Netflix.
As I developed my muscle of not negotiating with myself, I always hear myself before of ‘can I just check my Facebook post for a bit?’
And I would say NO…
Before, I would negotiate and say, one minute. Hours later, I’m still watching Facebook reels.
Give yourself an inch, you will surely extend it to a mile.
