Comparison is the thief of your ideas
I spoke with a friend and fellow founder who is in the wellbeing space on Thursday. I wanted to ask her some questions that would help me sharpen my messaging.
She talked about how she has lots of ideas for things to say about what she does but doesn’t always get as far as putting them out there (I think many of us share this same problem).
The thing that stops her is not wanting to add to the noise online, particularly on social media.
And I can relate.
Our social feeds tend to be filled with the noise of other people offering similar services to us, which can be so distracting. Especially if they are further along in their journey to us.
We worry someone else has said the same thing, maybe differently, maybe even better.
So we hesitate and don’t say anything at all.
What I believe is that as long as you are speaking from your own truth and perspective who’s to say your point of view on your work is any less important or valid than the next person?
In the grand scheme life we’re all making it up as we go along anyway!
I also believe that as much as marketing does call for an understanding of what other businesses are doing, so you can find a way to position yourself differently, once you’ve done that work it’s important to switch off the external influence of and comparison to others, so you can focus inward on your own ideas, thoughts and opinions.
This starts with muting or unfollowing anyone on your social feed who, when you see their content, makes you feel negatively about your own work. You could do the same with your email subscriptions.
The next step is to tune into your own perspective.
One simple way to do this is to write morning pages.
I am not suggesting anything new or revolutionary here. But I think that is the point sometimes - the best ideas are often the simplest.
Everything you write, no matter how good or bad, flexes your writing muscle.
And marketing requires a lot of writing, so if you haven’t already got a regular writing practice, this is a great way to start one.
If you are new to morning pages, it is simply free-writing done in the morning. Some call it automatic writing or stream of consciousness writing.
Here's how to do it:
Put pen to paper and just write whatever comes to mind.
If all you can think of is to write what you had for breakfast, write that, then write the next thing that comes to mind and then the next. You will eventually find your flow. It takes practice, but you will do it.
Don’t worry about erratically changing subject, you could be writing about how someone or something has annoyed you one minute then talking about how much you love your dog the next.
It doesn’t matter.
This is about getting your mind out of perfection and craft and into a more subconscious, meditative style of writing.
How much to write
If you’ve ever done morning pages you will probably have seen the recommendation to write three sides of A4 a day.
As a relatively new mum this was / is a challenge for me. And I can be a bit of an all or nothing person so lowering my expectations has been key to actually doing it.
You know your situation best so I would say aim for one to three sides of A4 a day and if some days you only do a side of A5 then so be it.
Don’t beat yourself up, just start again the next day.
When to write
Arguably the best time is in the morning when you have just woken up, before the day has a chance to bring you too far out of your subconscious. Treat this as the ideal.
If you have the option to wake earlier than the rest of your house do so.
But if on some, most or all days you don’t have that choice, just work out when you can write and do it then.
For me, this blog post was the bi product of one of those days I was able to wake up earlier than my toddler and write my morning pages.
Maybe it’s not my most profound piece of work, maybe someone else has said it better, but I’m on a mission to not give a f*ck! So posted it anyway.
I challenge you to channel a bit of that f*ck it energy and do the same.
Let me know how you get on.
Vicky X