HOW TO DEAL WITH A MONKEY MIND
For entrepreneurs, meditation can help but there’s more.
Like everybody else, I was working for somebody else, hoping to climb that corporate ladder. I thought I was working hard and loving my job but when the economy went south several years ago, I lost my job, like many in this country.
I was handed the pink slip, two years after the worst economic downturn. It was the job that I like, but I know was going to be let go. Several of my co-workers were let go, and I know I was next.
Even though I knew it was coming, I drove out of the parking lot thinking where I can get the money to pay the bills.
While I was looking for a real job, I stumbled upon the idea of starting an on-line business. An ad related to starting an on-line business popped out from an on-line ad.
I really wanted to own my time and own a business and not report to a boss or somebody else. It was my dream ever since I realized that I can start a business. I always wanted the idea of earning money through profits in a business and working in your pajama at home.
I tried selling on eBay, I tried selling on Amazon, then learned stocks, then came Forex. Forex was promising using volume analysis and candlestick analysis, a strategy I learned from a co-worker. But it didn’t work so well.
I also ventured on outsourcing physical products from China (Alibaba) and then sold it on Amazon through the Private Label business model. I lost money.
But the last on-line business I ventured was a success. And I attribute the success in controlling my monkey mind.
Our mind is like a monkey by nature — it jumps from one branch to another.
I remember researching a niche for my business. I bought a software to aid me in my research, and then later on, I was buying a software (Photoshop) to make my logo.
Weeks later, I was studying Facebook advertising.
There will come a time, if you are an entrepreneur, when you just look for a new thing to learn, instead of doing things to move your business forward.
I almost even bought a course to learn Facebook advertising to advertise my products. The worst thing is that I bought a software for setting up advertising, to really hyper focus on my target audience.
Looking back, I didn’t needed those garbage.
It was one of the many dumb decisions I made. My thought process was: Buy more courses and more software, and you will succeed. It was the very opposite.
I learned that what I was doing was a “shiny-object syndrome”. It was very common to people with a lot of ideas.
We are like a 2-year old toddler. We find a “shiny” toy and we are fixated on the thing, and then another toy that’s shiny is presented to the 2-year old and he will abandon the old toy and play with the new shiny toy.
I saw this with my very own eyes. My kid is already 10 years old and abandoned playing cars and other toys. He plays soccer and basketball in addition to Fortnite. One time we have a 3-year old visitor. When I presented the box full of toys, the toddler would play for just 1 minute on a particular toy and move on to the next.
I was like the 3-year old toddler before.
We are like that 3-year old toddler. Even if you are not an entrepreneur.
My wife was told to practice meditation, writing a gratitude journal, or practice Tai-chi or Qi-gong to reduce stress. The doctor said, just practice what’s convenient for you.
But what did she do? We practiced meditation, and then writing a gratitude journal, wrote for two weeks, almost abandon it and was looking for a Qi-gong instructor to practice Qi-gong.
How do you cure a monkey mind in business?
Be the conductor of the symphony, and not learn the flute or the trombone or the violin.
We can simply outsource jobs that don’t need your full attention.
With my new business, I usually go to Fiverr.com, upwork.com, freelancer.com.
With my new business, outsourcing was the key. I am now in the process of scaling up my business and serving people with my products.
You should outsource too, to stop that monkey mind or the Shiny-Object Syndrome.
