I call these items a “moving to-do list,” and I’m always on the lookout for them. They’re those things that follow me around for weeks or months on end, until I finally own up to it and say, “I’m never going to get to that. I might as well quit moving it forward.”

I’m not talking about those pesky to-dos that eventually really do have to get done. I have a couple of them on my list right now, things like fixing a mirror on my vanity or the trip lever on my bathtub. Eventually, if I keep ignoring those to-dos and moving them forward on my list instead of just doing them, the mirror on my antique vanity will break, and my bathtub won’t drain (not good). Hopefully, I’ll get to those things before that happens, but the point is, eventually, as annoying as they might be, we get to these kinds of things, because if we don’t, there are consequences.

What I’m talking about are those things that might not have obvious consequences if we fail to do them, or that have consequences we’re subconsciously willing to pay. These are things like:

• Writing that book we’ve been meaning to write, or
• Launching that new product or service. or
• Making changes to our service offerings or websites so that we stop taking on certain types of clients.

These are those tasks that we’re avoiding for some reason, and we need to figure out why. A few of the possible reasons?

1. Obligation. We keep saying to the people around us (business and accountability partners, customers and clients, family and friends) that we’re going to write that book. We say that it’s something we really want to do, or we say that it will bring in additional revenue for our businesses, but it turns out that we’re not really all that motivated to do it, yet we keep moving the task forward, because we’ve promised that that’s what we’re going to do.
2. Guilt. We think it’s something we should do, maybe because everyone else manages to get it done or because it’s our “responsibility” to do it, but internally, we’re doing it for all the wrong reasons and don’t really want to do it, and we feel guilty because of that, so we just keep moving forward and saying that we’re going to get it done.
3. Motivation (or lack of it). A lot of the tasks we take on are driven by financial motivations. Maybe we want to (or think we should) make more money, but in reality, we’re quite comfortable where we are, so even though we might think or say that we want to achieve greater financial success, the financial motivation alone is never going to be enough to make us do the task, but we keep moving it forward, because we think we should want more money.

At the end of the day, it comes down to acceptance. Acceptance of what we really want, of our own definition of success, and of who we really are (and who we’re not).

Once you accept all those things and are OK, saying, “You know what, I just don’t even really want that. It’s not who I am, it’s not what I want, and it’s not important for me to be happy,” give it up. Take it off the list and file it away as a “someday/maybe,” if you think it will ever come back on the radar or if you need that little bit of security, just in case you change your mind.

The bottom line is that a moving to-do list adds unnecessary stress and frustration and a feeling of failure, when really you’re just attempting to achieve something that you don’t even want or that’s some arbitrary achievement that won’t even matter to you if you do accomplish it. Let it go, and be OK with it. Free up that mind space for something that you actually do want and that you stand a chance of accomplishing, because you won’t get in your own way.

What needs to be taken off your moving to-do list?

Photo by Flickr user bark, licensed under CC 2.0

Related content from GigaOM Pro (sub. req.):

• Enabling the Web Work Revolution
• Report: The Real-Time Enterprise
• Social Media in the Enterprise

Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up. — Thomas Edison

There comes a point when being a business owner gets really hard (and I mean really hard). You’ve come up with your big idea, you’ve done all the initial legwork to set it up, and now comes the hard part: Getting the word out about your business and, more importantly, hanging in there while you get the word out about your business. The hard part now becomes not giving up too soon.

The Real Work

When you start a business, when you start a new product or service, when you launch anything really, that’s when you feel like you’re working really hard. That’s when you’re willing to stay up late and get up early to get all the groundwork completed so that you can start making money. As hard as it can seem during this time, you generally know what to do, or you can at least figure out what to do, and you just plow through getting the work done. Then you finish the work. (Cue sound of crickets.) Now what?

All right, now you figure out that you need a marketing plan. Great, that gives you something else to do! You finish the marketing plan and begin implementing it. (You believe in this plan. You’ve given it a lot of thought. You feel really confident about it. It’s going to generate the business you need.) You run through your plan for several days, maybe even several weeks, and then … nothing. Nothing happens, and in our instant-gratification-seeking world, this is where things start getting testy:

• When you’re over the rush of your big idea,
• When you’ve completed the work of creating it,
• When you need to pay the bills, and
• When it feels like you’re sitting on your laurels.

When you’re doing all that initial setup (building your website, creating the product, etc.), it feels like real work. Marketing doesn’t feel like real work, and it gets harder to justify and explain to those around us, particularly those who don’t have businesses. Marketing? What’s marketing? Building a website people get; that sounds like real work. Marketing? Marketing on Facebook and Twitter? All right, now you’re just playing around. Those are the conversations you have, both with yourself and with others, for justifying what you’re doing.

Writing posts for your blog, replying and posting on social networks, doing interviews, commenting on other sites and forums, searching for opportunities to guest post — all these things don’t feel like work, but they’re very necessary for building a successful business, and sticking with these activities for the bulk of your time each day for the six months or year it’s going to take you to gain some traction seems impossible.

Not Giving Up

So, how do you do it? How do you avoid giving up too soon?

1. You make a commitment. Do you want to do this? Are you willing to bet the next 6-12 months of your life on it? You have to be willing to say, “This is my commitment. These are the milestones I intend to reach. This is my intention.”
2. You maintain discipline. Each and every day, you have to say, “This is what I’m committed to doing. These are my top priorities.” You have to focus on what you believe to be the “highest and best use” tasks that will get the word out about your business and start generating income for you. You stay focused, not only on what you’re going to do, but also on what you’re not going to do (compulsively checking email, surfing the Internet, taking a dozen breaks each day, etc.).
3. You trust your plan. You’ve given a lot of thought to the best way for promoting your business, and now you just have to believe in it. Don’t keep switching plans and changing things up. It’s going to take time to see results. Give yourself at least a 90-day test with your current plan before doing any tweaking.
4. Be willing to stay up late and get up early. Although it’s not easy to think about, success isn’t just going to be handed to you. You’re going to have to roll up your sleeves and do the hard work to get things going. No one’s going to do it for you. As you start to get more successful, you still have to continue getting the word out, and juggling priorities can be a challenge. Know that handling incoming work and generating opportunities for future work are equally important.
5. Find support. Get an accountability partner to help you stay the course. It’s a lot easier to waiver when you don’t have someone else holding you responsible and accountable for your original plans and intentions.

Finding a way to hang in there and not give up on your vision can be the hardest thing you ever do to see your business to success, but you have to figure out how you’re going to stick with it for the time it will take to gain some momentum and start seeing results.

In the past, how did you find ways to hang in there until your idea took hold?

Photo by Flickr user ground.zero, licensed under CC 2.0

Related GigaOM Pro content (sub. req.): Enabling the Web Work Revolution

I wouldn’t want to learn from a teacher who never experiences and only theorizes, nor would I want to learn from one who never reflects on his experiences and, therefore, never gains wisdom.

When you’re trying to run your own business, I think you need time to experiment and try new methods and approaches to your systems and your work. But you also need time to reflect on what’s working and what’s not so that you can modify your direction as you go.

I’ve talked with several business owners in the past few months who have recently become known as experts in their respective niches, and they all have said that even though they know that they’ve been at it for, in some cases, 10 years or more, it’s still hard to feel like an “expert” at what they do (or maybe it’s just strange hearing themselves called that). The truth is, though, they have been doing their work, learning their trade, figuring out how to be successful for years and have earned that title, even if it is strange to hear it themselves.

No, they still don’t get it right all of the time. They still flounder and figure things out as they go, just like the rest of us, but I still personally value their insight very much. By learning from their wisdom, even as they continue to practice, I save myself some steps here and there, and sometimes I even save myself a lot of headache and heartache from side-stepping mistakes they’ve made and that they’ve been so kind as to help me avoid.

Certainly, you want to figure out how to get it right so that (sooner rather than later) you can do the things that will help you succeed in your business, but you also have to save room for experimentation and for failure. It’s how we learn, it’s how we grow, and ultimately, it’s how we succeed.

What have been the greatest experiments of your business, whether they ultimately failed or succeeded?

Photo by Flickr user mikebaird, licensed under CC BY 2.0.

The only problem was, by taking on the new projects, I was effectively doubling my workload, and I was barely keeping up with what was already on my plate. Something had to give.

For several hours, I tried to force a square peg into a round hole. I tried changing my perspective, thinking of it in different ways, rearranging my schedule over and over — all to no avail. It just wasn’t going to fit. I finally had to accept a few simple truths.

I Must Accept My Limitations
I had to be honest about my resources and availability over the coming months, as well as my commitment level to each current and prospective project. The truth was, I wasn’t completely committed to some of my current projects, and although I could be very motivated about some of the prospective ones, I knew that my resources and time constraints wouldn’t accommodate them. Plus, some of the projects would be best pursued after some of the others were well on their way to completion, if not 100 percent complete. That was the reality. Even though there were many things I wanted to do, I needed to accept what I could do, at least for the time being.

Seneca probably said it best: “Loads that are too heavy for the bearer are bound to overwhelm him.” I can continue to add to my schedule, to-do list, and obligations, but eventually, I will hit a wall. I’ll run out of time, energy and motivation, and resources, and on top of all that, the quality of my work and attention will decrease. I have to be very selective with my attention, if I hope for any of my efforts to count for something.

I Must Prioritize, and Realize When I’m Not Seeing the Forest for the Trees

There are many times when I’m pulled in too many directions, and the only way to keep it all in perspective and get my bearings is to stop and remember why I do it. When I can reconnect with that, all the other influences fall away — money, prestige, sparkly things that eventually lose their appeal, and whatever else clouds my vision. I’m able to find clarity and see the forest again, and decisions become a lot easier to make.

I Must Stay the Course

There will be many times when boredom, restlessness, failure and distractions challenge my ability to keep a grip on one thing that really matters to my success — “sticktoitiveness.” “Many of life’s failures are people who did not realize how close they were to success when they gave up.” That’s a quote from Thomas Edison who said that he himself failed 10,000 times before succeeding. It’s hard to stay committed for the time it takes to see a business to success. Just ask Chris Brogan, Seth Godin or Darren Rowse. Standing by a vision takes a lot of patience; seeing it through takes even more persistence.

The bottom line is, things will never be perfect, and I can’t do everything at once, but I can start somewhere. I can pick the top few projects that are realistically achievable at this stage in the game, those few projects that help me with my “big why.” Once I select those few, I have to stick with them, in spite of all the things that will pull for my attention. If I do, other doors will open up down the line, and I can take on some of the projects I put on the back burner in times past. Until then, I have to remember a wise quote by Twyla Tharp: “Better an imperfect dome in Florence than cathedrals in the clouds.”

How do you stay on the course toward success, especially considering how challenging it can be to fit all the priorities into a day and fight back the seemingly endless supply of distractions?

Image from Flickr by nestor galina

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• Why iPad 2 Will Lead Consumers Into the Post-PC Era
• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• Content Farms: The Players, The Benefits, The Risks

In light of the Values of n acquisition, GigaOM wonders Will Twitter Become Your Personal Assistant

blah, blah! technology declares Pownce is Dead

Friendly Bit says Follow the 10 ground rules, or fail on the web

CRM Provider Entellium files chapter 11

Managing Leadership advises on Exploiting Success (via Execupundit)

Related research and analysis from GigaOM Pro:
Subscriber content. Sign up for a free trial.

• The Near-Term Evolution of Social Commerce
• A 2011 Connected Consumer Forecast
• A 2011 NewNet Forecast