Jon Acuff's Blog, page 29

I have a love/hate relationship with social media.

There are parts of it I love, like the amount of creative opportunities it offers us that no other generation ever had access to. That I can work full time as an author is directly related to the chance social media gave me to build a business. (My current favorite platform is Instagram. You should follow me!) I will forever be grateful to social media for what it has done for my career.

There are parts of it I hate though, like the vortex of negativity it creates when anonymous people get together to amplify the very worst parts of themselves with new tools online.

That said, I have a simple technique that will help you enjoy social media 100% more. It’s a phrase you can write down, commit to memory or get tattooed in case you’re that kind of guy.

Ready? Here it is:

“It’s not about you.”

Those four words are the key to enjoying social media more.

I learned this one day when I posted my running time on Instagram.

I ran three miles and shared that my 9mph pace wasn’t as fast as I wanted but I was happy to be done with it.

A woman named Sue from Ohio told me that I insulted her because by saying my time was slow, I was criticizing her own pace which was even slower.

Here’s the thing though, prior to posting that and receiving her comment, I didn’t know Sue in Ohio existed. Before I posted, I didn’t sit down and think, “What can I write that will really insult Sue?”

The problem is that social media encourages you to see everything through a “You Lens.” Sue didn’t read my post and think, “Jon shared his running time!” She read it and thought, “What does this piece of content say about me?”

But it didn’t say anything about Sue, because again, I didn’t know she was a human on this planet. I couldn’t have possibly crafted that post with her in mind.

The danger of a You Lens is that it distorts everything you see. It opens you up to all these insecurities because the entire landscape of social media is about you.

But it’s not.

It’s not about you.

It’s not about me either. I have a hard time when I see other authors having wild success, but guess what, that’s not about me. It’s about them and the only way I will be able to celebrate their success is if I can admit that.

It’s not easy. There are days when I am better at it than others. Occasionally I even have to unfollow someone if I’m just having a hard time not comparing myself to them. That’s OK. I have the rest of my life to let go of my You Lens.

In the meantime, if you’re ready to enjoy social media 100% more, remember this:

It’s not about you.

P.S. If you want to learn more about what it takes to let go of a You Lens, read chapter 6 in my latest book, “Finish.”

The post How to enjoy social media 100% more. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

To be honest, the two sentences I am about to share are very slippery.

They are the types of sentences that you learn, carry around for a few weeks or even a few months, but then forget. They fall right out of your head and a year later you bump back into them and learn them all over again. But I am convinced they are true and I am more than a little embarrassed it’s taken me 43 years to learn them.

Ready? I think one of the best things you can do is:

1. Control the things you can.

2. Control your response to the things you can’t.

Learn that today and tomorrow will be a lot easier.

P.S. I posted this on Instagram but if you don’t follow me, you probably missed it. Here’s my account. Follow me today to see all my updates!

The post A simple lesson it has taken me 43 years to learn. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

A few years ago, I was walking to the stage to speak at an event.

I saw this on the ground and stopped dead in my tracks.

It might just look like tape at first, but this it’s actually a lot more than that.

This is the decision you have to make every day if you’re going to chase a dream.

Every day you face the same decision, take the stage or take the exit. Choose stage.
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Your stage might be different, but we all have one.

Maybe for you it’s sending an email to a literary agent.

Or filing an LLC for your business.

Or signing up for a night class.

Or applying for a new position at the company you currently work at.

Or simply ignoring the voices that ask you “who are you to chase a dream?”

Dreams, or stages as it were, come in a million shapes and sizes. And every day you have to make the decision, will you take the stage or take the exit? Some days, when fear is a roar, I feel like I have to choose the stage every single hour.

The exit is easier. It’s faster and more comfortable and a lot safer. Your feelings won’t get hurt as often if you take the exit. People won’t laugh at you if you take the exit. If anything they’ll welcome you with open arms. Average loves company.

Heading for the exit would be the easier thing to do, but I don’t think you should.

I think you should take the stage. Forget think, I more than think you should take the stage, I dare you to take the stage.

Today, I dare you to go right. To take out a piece of paper and draw two arrows like the one in the photo. Post the note on your laptop. Draw it on your bathroom mirror with a dry erase marker. Make it the wallpaper on your laptop or the lock screen on your phone. Hashtag it everywhere with #takethestage if you want other people to cheer you on. Do whatever you need to remind yourself you have a choice.

Because you do.

Every day, we get a decision.

Take the stage.

Question:

What’s one simple way you can take the stage today?

The post The decision you and I make every single day. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

One of the voices of doubt I hear whenever I sit down to work is this:

“You don’t have enough time.”

Sometimes, that morphs into, “It’s too late.” Or, “You’re too busy to get anything done.”

Occasionally it even transforms into, “By now you should have been further than you are.”

These are classic time doubts and something I’ve wrestled with for years.

How do I deal with them?

One way is with my calendar.

Whenever doubt tells me I’m out of time, I turn to my massive wall calendar and say, “That’s not true. Look how much week or month or even year I have left. There’s a ton of white space that I get to fill up. I’m not out of time.”

Doubt is a liar and hates when we know the truth. It’s why I don’t just use Google Calendar. I need a huge reminder on my wall of how much time I really have to work on the things I care about the most.

I love the calendar for a lot of other reasons. It’s dry erase, it’s beautifully designed, the weeks are organized Monday – Sunday instead of Sunday – Saturday and it’s a great catch all for all the things I’m working on.

But the real reason I’ve used it for 8 years is that it reminds me of the truth.

I have more time than doubt wants me to believe.

And so do you.

P.S. Click here if you want to get a calendar.

The post One thing I do to beat back the voices of doubt. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

I recently had dinner with a friend who owns a business.

He told me that in his space, there’s a temptation for young business owners to pretend they have big businesses.

He said, “You can see it happen on Instagram. They scale up their staff beyond what they need. They take showy projects that don’t have great margin. They overpay for office space that looks amazing online but is really unnecessary. They do expensive advertising that’s flashy but largely ineffective. Do you know why?”

I didn’t.

“They’ve chosen to get paid in self importance, instead of revenue.”

That hit me like a sack of wrenches.

I’ve avoided some of those issues. My staff is lean and awesome. I don’t have office space. I don’t over spend on ads, but if I’m honest, I tend to say yes to the wrong things. I can easily count a dozen things I did last year for my own self-importance, not revenue. They made me feel important but didn’t do a single thing for my business.

Sometimes, I made those decisions because I didn’t want to tell someone “no.” It’s easier to say yes if you want someone to like you than it is to say no. That’s an ego decision right there and it costs you so much in the long run.

Whether you’re an entrepreneur or not doesn’t really matter when it comes to this principle. In every aspect of life, there’s the temptation to choose what’s best for your ego instead of what’s best for your life.

So, in 2019 I’m going to ask myself a question that keeps haunting me,

“Is this a good decision or just an ego decision?”

And if I’m unclear on it, I’ll ask my wife. And guess what? She will 100% be able to quickly tell me.

I dare you to ask that question in 2019, too.

Jon

P.S. Adding this simple tool to your life is always a good decision.

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If you and I sat down for coffee and you asked me for 3-5 of the biggest lessons I’ve learned about finishing things over the years, here’s what I’d probably talk to you about:

1. How to pick the right goal to finish. (The wrong goal is really distracting.)

2. The 1% difference and the power of small wins.

3. 8 ways to refine your goal.

4. 3 ways to find out what you REALLY want.

5. How to get a baseline for your goal that propels you forward.

And if the coffee was amazing and we had extra time, I might tell you about the next 5 ideas as well:

6. How to hire the “How Kid” and let him work his magic.

7. Practical ways to keep comparison from tripping you up.

8. 3 ways to bomb on purpose (And why you need to).

9. Breaking down our actions into “Increase” and “Decrease” lists.

10. How to interview your past to increase your chances of success.

And if coffee turned into lunch and this coffee place miraculously had great chips and queso as well, I might keep going with:

11. The important difference between announcing a goal and asking for accountability.

12. Why you need a wig.

13. The power of sprint weeks.

14. The tips and tricks I use to fight off perfectionism.

15. Dealing with anger (and why it’s sometimes a good thing.)

And if the chips were unlimited and the queso was endless, I’d probably hit these next five without even realizing it:

16. Why motivation is a terrible fuel (and what to do instead).

17. How to identify obstacles ahead of time.

18. Dealing with the haters.

19. How micro-challenges can get you through a slump.

20. Finishing without stress.

Do you know what’s so special about those ideas?

Those 20 ideas are all video lessons in The Finish Course. There are 10 more in addition to these 20, as well. And for today and tomorrow only, you can get The Finish Course for only $299, $200 off the regular price of $499.

What is exactly the Finish Course?

It’s 30 videos that guide you through step-by-step goal-setting and goal-achieving exercises. It’s a beautifully designed digital workbook to walk you through what it really takes to finish something you care about. It’s a checklist to help you chart your progress through the material.

What kind of goals will The Finish Course help you finish?

+ Losing weight and getting into the kind of shape you’ve always wanted.

+ Finishing your first (or latest) book (with less stress than you thought possible)

+ Running your first 5K.

+ Building better relationships with your spouse and kids (no matter how busy work gets)

+ Decluttering a garage that has haunted you for years

The clock is ticking because at midnight tomorrow night, registration closes.

Buy now and get instant access. You can start the course immediately or wait until you’re ready, but if you don’t grab this deal now you’ll miss it.

Starting is fun, but the future belongs to finishers.

Ready to be one? Sign up today!

The post 20 things I’d tell you over coffee. (Or more likely, queso.) appeared first on Jon Acuff.

For 10 years, I told anyone who would listen that I was going to do comedy someday.

I didn’t know how.

I didn’t know when.

I didn’t know where.

All I knew was why.

I love to make people laugh.

But, I was terrified of it.

That happens sometimes when you run from something you care about a lot. The longer you run, the bigger the fear gets. Your desire to do the thing grows larger but the fear always outpaces it, mutating at a rate that’s even faster than your hope.

The more I talked about doing it, the scarier it seemed. The more I avoided actually doing it, the more difficult it seemed. The more I dreamed about doing it, the more complicated it seemed.

Finally, I decided to try. Ten years felt like long enough to wait.

It was not easy. I spent months and months working on the material. I did dry runs with live audiences and stood there awkwardly as jokes that worked in my head bombed on stage.

Finally, the night of the show arrived and I waited in the green room.

I speak at 50 different events every year and always feel a little bit of nervous excitement, but that night was different. Ten minutes before I went on, a fresh wave of panic washed over me and I honestly thought to myself, “I could get out this back door and run away before anyone noticed.” I had a vision of myself sprinting down 8th avenue in Nashville, running from the thing I’d run from so many times.

Instead, when they called my name, I walked through that door and up onto the smallest stage I’ve ever been on.

The set wasn’t perfect. There are things I’d change if I had the opportunity to do it again. Some parts were messier than I would have liked, but I didn’t care.

I did it.

I checked that item off a ten-year someday list.

And I learned something.

I wish I had done it sooner.

That feeling is not uniquely mine. Almost everyone I’ve ever helped with goals had that same feeling. When you finally do something you are afraid of you always wish you had done it sooner.

Today is a good day to discover that for yourself.

It’s January 1st.

It’s a great season to try something you’ve been running from.

Maybe you want to write a book.

Maybe you want to run a half marathon.

Maybe you want to finally declutter your life.

Maybe you want to lose ten pounds.

I don’t know what you’re running from, it could be one of a million things, but I do know something.

It’s been long enough.

If you’re ready, and I think you are, I dare you to give the Finish Course a try. Sometimes when we don’t know where to begin, the thing we need the most is a plan.

I created one based on my #1 Wall Street Journal Bestseller “Finish” that has helped tens of thousands of people just like you. The course is 30 super helpful, encouraging and most importantly, practical videos that will teach you how to finish the things you care about so much. It includes a custom checklist and a huge workbook with a ton of activities to help you make real progress on your goal. (And this week it’s for sale at the lowest price we’ll do all year.)

Telling people I was going to do comedy someday was fun, it honestly was. They’d pat me on the back and cheer me on, not knowing that I hadn’t actually done anything.

I said, “Someday” so often that I forgot something simple, I have the power to turn someday into today. You do, too.

Fear might be getting real loud right now, so let me repeat that.

You have the power to turn someday into today.

It’s true, even if you don’t believe it just yet.

YOU HAVE THE POWER TO TURN SOMEDAY INTO TODAY
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Talking about my dream was fun, actually finishing it though? That was a whole lot better.

Quit running. Start doing. Let me show you how. Sign up for the Finish Course today.

Jon

The post Doing a comedy set was terrifying. Here’s why I did it. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

I’m not a naturally organized or data-focused person.

Excel scares me to death and math is my mortal enemy, but researching my latest book, “Finish” taught me something important:

Data kills denial which prevents disaster.

Data kills denial which prevents disaster.
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Our emotions lie to us all the time, especially in the midst of a big project.

For me as a writer, my emotions will tell me things like, “The last thing you wrote was easier. This shouldn’t be taking this long. If you were a better writer, this would be easier.”

But you don’t have to be a writer to experience that. The same thing happens in other areas of our lives.

“You’re terrible at finishing exercise programs, you should just quit.”

“Your business is barely growing, you’re a terrible entrepreneur.”

If our emotions can’t be trusted, what can?

The answer is data.

Data tells you the truth.

Data steps in and says, “No, the last writing project was just as difficult. Look at these numbers, look how long it took.”

Data doesn’t lie. (Read chapter 7 of “Finish” for a full breakdown on how to use data in your goal.)

The problem is, finding the right data to use is sometimes difficult.

As a writer for the last twenty years, the data I’ve tracked for my goals was always the same, word count. I’d tell myself, “Today I am going to write this amount” or “This week I want to write 5,000 words.” And it worked, for a while.

Then I started to notice a huge flaw in that approach – editing.

How do I measure word count if I spent the day editing or tweaking? Was it only new words that counted? If I wrote 1,000 words on Monday and edited them on Tuesday, did I fail on Tuesday?

The system started to get complicated and overwhelming, which is the opposite of what a goal is meant to do.

A goal is supposed to add clarity, not confusion.

So, I started doing something different. Now I measure hours, not words.

Now, instead of getting obsessed with the word count, I focus on keeping track of the amount of hours I’ve written.

Writing counts. Editing counts.Tweaking counts. Staring out the window because I’m not sure if “Troll” or “Goblin” is a better word counts. (It’s goblin by the way.)

The same principle applies to you, no matter what it is you’re working on in your life.

For example, if you’re trying to get healthier, maybe instead of tracking your weight you should measure “time spent working out” instead?

Fight your emotions with data, but make sure it’s the right data. Make sure it brings clarity, and not confusion, to the goal you’re trying to finish.

Jon

P.S. This idea first appeared on my Writer’s List. If you’d like a new idea on writing emailed to you each week, sign up here.

The post How the right kind of data can prevent disaster. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

What’s the worst gift you ever gave someone?

I’ve given some terrible ones over the years. I would love to say it’s because my personality style doesn’t value gifts or maybe it’s not my love language, but that’s not the truth.

The truth is that sometimes I just wait until the last minute and wing it.

The worst gift I ever gave my wife Jenny is a pair of snowshoes when we lived in Boston.

Here’s why that particular gift was so dumb:

1. She’s from Florida and hates the winter.

2. I only bought one pair. I guess I just imagined her going off to snowshoe in the frozen tundra by herself?

3. They were expensive and we didn’t have any money. When I buy bad gifts, I like to overspend, too.

4. She hadn’t expressed the slightest indication that she would ever want snowshoes.

5. I gave them to her the year we were trying to move back to Georgia, a state not exactly known for its thick, powdery snow.

We still have the snowshoes in our attic somewhere. We haven’t used them once in 16 years and I think we keep them more as a monument to foolishness than as a means of transportation.

That was a dumb gift, but over the years I’ve learned that there’s something amazing you can give just about everyone on your list – belief.

There’s something powerful that happens when you give someone a gift that says, “I believe in you.”

When I started writing books about goal setting, I started to see this happen. A wife would come up to me at an event and say, “I’m giving my husband your book. I see something in him that he doesn’t see in himself. I want to help him see it, too.”

The something was always different. Sometimes it was a writing goal or a career goal or a small business goal.

That’s to be expected I suppose, spouses should believe in each other. That’s how a good marriage works. What caught me off guard was when kids would buy one of my books for their parents. They’d always say the same thing, “My dad wants to write a book.” Or “My mom wants to start a business.” The words were different because the goals are different but at the heart of them was the same message – “I believe in somebody.”

Christmas is the perfect time to give someone a bit of belief because January is right around the corner.

In January, even people who doubt they are capable believe in themselves a little bit. It’s an amazing time to encourage someone because they’ve got a brand new, fresh year ahead of themselves.

I have two things that I think make great gifts for people you believe in.

1. The Finish Paperback.

2. The Finish Calendar.

At $11, the Finish Paperback is a fun, easy way to give someone a kickstart to their year. Plus, if you order it before December 31st, you get a free 12-part video series and a workbook.

The Finish Calendar is a roadmap to adventure. At 25” x 36” it gives you a massive look at the year ahead and comes in paper or dry erase since plans always seem to change. For the first time ever, it also includes 12 bonus pieces of content from me to encourage you along the way in 2019.

Maybe when you read this, someone came to mind. Maybe when you read this, YOU came to mind. Some of the best gifts we’ll get this season are the tiny ones we give ourselves. Like an $11 book or a dry erase calendar that says, “I believe. I believe 2019 is going to be the year I finally do that thing.”

Believe in your family.

Believe in your friends.

Believe in the simple question of “What if?”

A little belief will take you a lot further than snowshoes.

Buy the Finish book here.

Buy the Finish Calendar here.

The post Here’s the worst gift I ever gave my wife. appeared first on Jon Acuff.

I need to warn you about something.

In this video, I have on an amazing sweater. It’s covered with playful foxes and you will be very tempted to get distracted during this short clip. I implore you to enjoy the foxes briefly but then focus on the content.

Today I want to tell you 7 ways I use my favorite piece of paper. Click below to watch the quick video. (Again, get ready for the foxes emotionally.)

Click here to watch this video now.

Want to plot and plan your own adventures with an amazing calendar in 2019?

Order a 2019 Finish Calendar today!

The post 7 ways I use this piece of paper to have an awesome year. appeared first on Jon Acuff.