Push it - crush it...

I’ve been reading a pretty absorbing piece of work called Happiness at Work by Srikumar Rao and it holds some impressive advisory content.

So much so I’ve managed to enact a vast proportion of the Chaucerian insight into my daily life.

One of the more sage pieces of path-building is twofold (confusing – but that’s just the way I write, rather than Srikumar’s bent). He says don’t ignore all together the bad stuff – it’s character-building, and ignorance is far from bliss. You simply make for agile mode and soak it up, take from it the positives (there’s a plus in every negative) and move on.

The second element of this advice is resolving to lift your head when others are bowed. If the challenge is beyond your expectations, commit to exceed it with determination and passion.

Hence the title of this post.

Extreme resilience is what we need at every juncture of our lives but especially in business. Take today – and yesterday. I’m still questing to find the single damn subject that makes me blush with excitement.

Introspection is a powerful tool when it comes to aligning yourself with your goals and objectives.

Here’s my ultimate ambition:

To earn enough money to keep myself and my family perfectly content so I can devote the vast majority of my time to inspiring other people to do amazing things.

That sounds simple enough. But it’s the getting there that’s the challenge. And that, I’m sure, is a poser for us all.

Unless you’re selling merch, it’s all too easy to fall into the trap of distraction. Wondering what to do when something falls down. The easy option is to diversify.

Persistence is key. Passion is key. Nail both, nail the competition.

Motivation and momentum help you achieve the extreme resilience you need to stay ahead in life and business. Focusing on what counts to you – and with the will to go beyond this – makes the different that night does to day.

What do you know about extreme resilience? Do you have what it takes to ace every shot?

Muscles and memories of the ‘Games courtesy of Singapore 2010.

Only now am I clear on my path to progress. Irrespective of whether I’ve spent 12 months largely in a state of flux, I completely acknowledge with any learning comes a positive outcome.

So here it is! My seven tips on becoming an amazing solopreneurship. Some hail from my pathological and enduring state of stupidity, others have been garnered from books and given me some of my greatest moments.

1. Value yourself. Also think about your target salary and work backwards.So you want $50k or £30k a year? How many hours do you want to work for that? What about pension contributions, tax, national insurance. Count it all out – and get some advice from some business support organisation like Business Link here in the UK.
2. Chunk things out. It might be irresistible to just go hell for leather and churn stuff out but it’ll be even more incredible if you spend some time every morning planning out your day with breaks. Plan to do less than you think you can. And build in time for learning. You need to learn something EVERY day. An hour with your nose in a book will make your work rock – and you’ll feel totally illuminated – like a big light bulb!
3. Set micro tasks. Don’t go for the big enchilada straight away. Plan out a route to get there with numerous stops and milestones to show your progress. Get a copy of OpenProj and map it out that way, showing the people and resources you need to make it to the finish line. Start small, and reward yourself fabulously for each micro task along the way that you complete.
4. Don’t do everything. You’re not a robot. You’re the incredible you. Focus on your strengths, and make them even stronger. That’s why people work best in a team.
5. Don’t take everything on. So you want to be rich? Riches aren’t about amassing more work than you can handle – they’re about happiness. My biggest flaw was taking every job I could get my hands on. It doesn’t work that way. Believe me, you’ll cause yourself and your clients misery, because you’ll be way too stretched and the work won’t reflect your true ability.
6. Know your passion. The most important thing as a solo-eurgh-preneur is to work on making your dreams a reality. Why did you leave your job if what you’re doing isn’t what you want? Every moment spent doing something you hate is a moment of your life wasted. And there are millions of better ways to spend your time than being miserable. Plus find your compelling destiny and you’ll be rewarded in every way. People will pay you for your passion – not just if you’re a hooker!
7. Find a team. Network til you find people you admire and want to work with. Show them an absorbing reason why they should spend time with you – and then work out a mutual advantage you can work on for collective success. Build an incredible network around you you can count on and rely on – and they, too, can count on and rely on you.

BONUS! Find ONE process that works for you. Refine it to hell and make it save you oodles of time. Great post on problogger recently about how to streamline your blogs. Get over to davethackeray.com and I’ll share with you the link.

I hope not to bore you but to illuminate you with ways to avoid the traps that have kept me under the proverbial ground in a bear trap for days on end. I want you to be amazing.

And I don’t want you to hate me because DaveThackeray.com is back. I always said I’d be here when I have something important to share with you.

I believe these tips are sufficiently important to exhume a previously dead site.

I also think if you’re a solopreneur you need to look for a team. Rid the solo, because the only thing you get being a one-person-show is frustration and dented confidence.

Seven blissful days when superlatives don’t do justice to the end result.

A week in Wales, amid some of the finest weather the UK has seen in years. Blissful mornings parked on the picnic bench lofted above our honeypot cottage looking into a world of valleys and lost internet connections.

A wood burning stove, instead of a telephone socket. Mezzanine bedroom, skylight, sunshine and stars the most blissful views from a bed-bearing pose.

Nothing but contemplation and introspection. Planning, and cavorting. The ultimate holiday, a feast for all the senses. Eating like champions, talking dreams  and ideas like the great Grecian thinkers. Food for mind, body and soul.

I fell in love seven times with life and my gorgeous girlfriend. Each day, a different perspective. Cliff walking, hunting for gourmet delights, making sand angels by the shore. Male voice choirs, harbourside draughts of ambrosia.

Those different perspectives, then. This was a holiday for every reason. To discharge what remaining negative energy was left in the reservoirs of my cerebral channels from the hangover of corporate life – 18 months ago. Until now, no chance to purge. Today, a different person emerges from the skin of a guy who tried oh so hard, but never stood a chance of following his dreams: to help people, and to help himself.

Today, a new person lives in the corpse of Dave Thackeray. I feel bountiful of joy and gratitude for the chance to spend a spectacular series of experiences and dates with someone who so cherishes my time, my thoughts, my love and my passion for everything around us. You, this, the remarkable moments to come.

Enough spirituality. What did I achieve?

Number one: I realised the only thing, person holding me back was me.

My daily churn of posts on this site, as an example of what was preventing me from following through. Churn. To write a post of note every day for a year was my quest. Looking back, so very few of those posts graced the same score as ‘of note’. It was lunacy to think it could be done, with so random a subject brief.

So DaveThackeray.com becomes a repository for my ideas and ideals, moving on. No more than daily rant or riposte. When things are ripe and ready to be unleashed, they will be here. But no more promises on frequency, in favour of the quality I pursued in my 2010 manifesto. Half the dream remains unbitten.

The circuiting of confusion also stops here. Focus, discipline, passion are the inherited gains of a week spent in a near-meditative state. That troika is guaranteed.

And finally, aside from the love of life and people so close is the priority #1 of all this retreat and reboot: absolute dedication and devotion to a business with promise and so much potential, I would be even closer to lunacy to be without.

I was delighted to discover I’d won tickets from blog legend Chris Garrett to the Social Media Success Summit for posting my biggest social media challenge for 2010. I was delighted it was received so well and in many cases, matched exactly the obstacles fomenting in people’s minds.

You can view that post here.

I love and worship you all for having frequented this blog and being with me in my churlish, challenging and sometimes coveted adventures ranging long and looming dear across the first third of 2010. There will be many more to come and the Me Manifesto still applies.

Now, my attention switches to helping small businesses grow customers. There’s a project in the wings I’m bursting to tell you about, but all in good time.

For now, the Ctrl+Alt+Del combo is complete. I feel reborn.

Thanks for life.

Here’s a short-term challenge that’ll give you big benefits come the start of summer.

Effective today, do something new. Do it every day, for 15 minutes.

Report back on May 1 and tell me how you’ve come on. Leaps and bounds, I’m pledging.

Anthony Robbins rates this technique as a way of getting ‘in state’. And when you get in state, you can achieve anything – off the back of whatever you’ve committed to for this short number of weeks.

I’m going to be working on my project management. 15 minutes a day.

My ultimate goal is to have everything under control. My mind is like a jungle comprising mostly weeds, right now.

By May 1 I’ll have my Me Manifesto totally focused on the months ahead, through my new-found project management skills.

That’s all. To master my indiscipline through tight, laser-focused project management.

Dull, but definitely impactful. And doable.

Don’t set yourself a goal that’s unachievable; we’re talking small numbers here, so it’s vital that whatever you do, you can see it transpiring.

Focus on the end result, start the work today, and you’ll be there sooner than you think.

Tell us what you’re doing, and we’ll be willing you on, every step of the way…

Some boffin once said specialisation is the work of an insect, not a human. I disagree. The pride and respect garnered from focusing long and hard on one subject is beyond measure.

I once played guitar, solidly, for two years. In those two years I found new and rewarding friendships, was invited to riff on stage with some amazing musicians, travelled far and wide learning the craft and generally discovered new heights of creative technique. These benefits were galvanised by a new-found ability to write songs. Writing songs helped me to refine my general writing abilities.

The knock-on effects were endless. I place incredible measure on those friendships. Music has an intense ability to link people – it’s no surprise that harmony, coined so often in relation to voices or instruments in sync, is also often referred to as a component of solving world conflict.

Rather than encourage you to get your hands on a big organ, I’m suggesting that you spend some time this weekend thinking of things you really, really enjoy. Ski jumping. Sewing decolletage. Eating pickled onions straight from the tub. Swimming with dolphins.

How do they make you feel? What have you learned from these hobbies and passions, both directly (better necklines for your own handmade dresses, longer airtime, the ability to handle that skank bitterness in your mouth) and indirectly (membership of the Dressmakers Circle, avoiding being drowned through advanced mammal handling techniques)? Where will your desires in this direction, take you next? What do others think about your fondness for these skills and crafts? What do you enjoy most about them?

I loathe to use commercial terms but I strongly recommend, right now, you work on an audit of your passions. Write down everything that springs to mind when you think of them – the emotional, the spiritual, the financial, the physical.

Armed with this information, huge swathes of storylines for blog posts will inevitably crop up. Then it’s time to make a start and jot down a few draft ideas that could be fleshed out in the future to make those posts complete.

Once you have a half dozen or more ideas, create a Google Calendar and add these posts in. Perhaps schedule posts twice a week on your passions, if you can – once a day is perhaps a touch lunatic unless you have time on your hands.

Stick to the calendar, write from the heart, and always – always - respond to people who are kind enough to comment.

Tell me what stirred your passion to such an extent that you couldn’t but tell others about it. Did it end up on a blog, or in a real-world chat?

Who REALLY killed Archie in Eastenders? Did you know this storyline’s scriptwriter came from my home town?