Fooling Yourself

April Fools Day is legendary for its practical jokes, witty and amusing (and often fabricated) articles and stories, and jocularity. It’s also my wife’s birthday (I can’t leave THAT out).

The really foolish thing however, is to continually fool yourself in your business and career. The reality is that many of us simply lie to ourselves about a lot of different things until we actually believe our foolishness to be true.

Here is my Top 10 Tomfoolery List of things you say to yourself or activities and behaviors you do or don’t do (in no particular order):

1. You say, “I’m not good enough to (fill in the blanks)…”
2. You don’t take charge of your own professional growth and development. Example – you won’t attend or join something because your company won’t foot the bill. Pay for it yourself. The investment is in you!
3. You continually listen to unsolicited advice and make decisions based on them.
4. You tell yourself, “I don’t have time to market my business.” Of course you have time…you just haven’t made it a priority.
5. You convince yourself that you don’t have time to take care of your health and fitness. See above in the “invest in yourself” and “priority” bullet points.
6. You avoid being bold because of fear of failure, rejection, or being “found out.”
7. You tell yourself, “That problem will just go away if I don’t do anything…”
8. You start your day groaning instead of grinning. This is an intentional act on your part.
9. You fool yourself into thinking work isn’t supposed to be fun.
10. You say to yourself, “I’m too busy to try anything new or make changes. I will wait until the right time…” There is no right time.

Stop fooling yourself and hand yourself out some tough love. Foolish thinking like what I described above doesn’t lad you to your hopes and dreams. It keeps you from unleashing your talent and skills. And, it affects every relationship – both personal and professional – that you have. Don’t allow the joke to be on you.

And that’s no fooling….

© 2015 Dan Weedin. All Rights Reserved