3439: 6 Steps to Successfully Launching a Dream by Andy Traub with Goins Writer on Overcoming Perfectionism

This is Optimal Living Daily, six steps to successfully launching a dream by Andy Trobb with goingswriter.com and your narrator, Justin Molick, reading you articles every single day of the year, including holidays so that you and I can both take a step in the right direction and have just a bit more positivity in our day. Really does add up. So with that, let's get right to it as we optimize your life.

Six Steps to Successfully Launching a Dream by Andy Trobb with goingswriter.com

There's a profound impatience for those of us who are building our own platforms. We want what we want, and we want it now. But we sometimes fail to see what it takes to see a dream through to the end. We see Seth Godin fund his Kickstarter project in hours. We watch Michael Hyatt launch a book, WordPress theme, conference, and community all in the same year.

We see a quiet guy named Jeff get hundreds of people to sign up for his online course and sell tens of thousands of books without leaving the comfort of his home. So how do you do that? How do you and I get what those people, those successful influencers and authors have? How do we successfully launch our dreams?

We can read the books and buy the courses, and I suggest you do, but at some point, we must take responsibility for creating our own art. Because it's not enough to dream, we must do the work. Do what they do, not just what they say. Dave Ramsey says, if you want to be rich, then you should do rich people's stuff.

I want to grow my platform, so I'm doing what people with larger platforms have done. I'm following the advice my teachers taught me, not just taking the tests, but doing the homework. In other words, I didn't just study, I applied the concepts.

And it worked. Here is my dream for this year. Self-publish a book in every format imaginable for my readers and do it four more times in the same year. I've already done it once and I'm excited to do it again. Here's what it took. Number one, decide to do it. No one picked me. No one said, you're a writer.

I had to choose myself. I didn't ask permission to make my work matter, I had to take it. And after years of reading books, I finally decided to act. Convinced I could create my own art, I decided I wanted to write a book, and I did. Number two, fall in love with 5 AM. My friend John built a powerful personal brand in a short amount of time. How did he do it? By being selfish at 5 AM.

There are no excuses before sunrise, nothing holding us back from writing a book or working on that business plan. Nothing other than our own laziness, of course. I get up early because I have three young kids. For me, this is the best time to get my work done and still be a good dad and husband. It's a matter of focusing on the right priorities at the right time.

Look, I know you're busy and I'm sure you've got responsibilities like me and you need to honor those, but you also need to honor your dream. The secret to not flaking out on your friends and family while still pursuing a dream is going to work before your world wakes up. That's what I found anyway. 3. Follow a process. Success is not an accident.

not for those who build powerful platforms. It's a result of consistency in following the habits of those who have come before. A little course called Tri-Brighters helped me identify in my world view, build habits to become more consistent in my craft, and determine the best route for publishing a book. I wouldn't have written this book otherwise. Without an intentional process, we can't succeed, it just won't happen.

Number four, be transparent. Admit it, in an age when everyone has a voice, we're drawn to people who don't have it all figured out. It pays to be transparent, and that's part of the beauty of building your own platform. You don't have to pretend to know everything. In fact, it's more interesting when you don't. The best part about being transparent is you don't have to fake who you are. People want heroes, but they also need sojourners, not just idols, but fellow travelers.

If you're honest and humble about your process, you can be both. 5. Be Generous When Michael Hyatt launched his book, Platform, he gave away a ridiculous amount of content to his readers, just for buying a $25 hardcover.

I know I did. Most of us love to consume abundance, but we're afraid to give it. It's human nature. In less than a month, over 600 people signed up for free copies of my new book. It took me three years to build an email list to that many subscribers, and in three weeks,

I doubled it. What's more, the most common feedback I get from those who've downloaded my book is they love it so much they're planning to buy another copy. The lesson? Generosity wins. And number six, ship your work.

If you're hesitating to ship something, and shipping means it's in the world, not on your hard drive, then post a public deadline. I never written a book before, but I put out a deadline of mid-January for my book, and I stayed on schedule. Not because I tried to be perfect, but because I shipped. Perfection is a myth, and more often an excuse to not ship. Thankfully, I'm not a perfectionist, but unfortunately,

I'm not a great finisher. Publicly declaring a deadline has been exactly what I needed to ship, and it caused me to finish. Maybe following these six steps will allow you to do the same.

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They could Anthony, a guest writer on Jeff Goine's site. This one really hits home for me personally since it talks about building something from scratch, which is exactly what happened with this podcast. When I first started, I definitely wanted it to grow quickly. I remember constantly checking the stats, hoping more people would find the show. But like you mentioned, it takes time and consistent work and actually doing the things that successful people do, not just learning about them.

I had to decide to actually start this podcast. No one picked me either. I just knew I wanted to read great articles to people and hopefully make a positive impact. Then he mentioned getting up early. That's something that's changed for me over time. I used to be a complete night owl in college. And even when first starting this podcast, it wasn't unusual for me to be going to bed as the sun was coming up. But now I found myself naturally waking up earlier and actually enjoying the quiet time in the morning.

He also talked about shipping your work might seem obvious, but that's probably one of the biggest lessons I've learned doing this podcast in the beginning. I wanted everything to be perfect. I spend way too long editing tiny little sounds. I probably no one would even notice. But at some point you just have to put it out there because done is better than perfect. So I couldn't agree more. And hopefully this one sparked something in you today. Maybe there's something you've been wanting to create or share with someone else, if not the entire world.

And with that, have a great rest of your day and start your weekend, and I'll see you tomorrow as usual, where you are optimal life. I'll wait.