Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

  • Mastermind Show
  • Courses
  • Get Help
    • Refund Policy
  • Posts
    • The Story I Tell Myself
  • Subscribe

February 19, 2012 By Andy Traub

Live off-line too

20120218-223138.jpg
Remember to always have people in your life that you focus on more than your blog readers or customers.

I appreciate those who read this site, post comments and hire me to help get their message out through audio but no one is more important in my life than my family. That little boy just turned four. Today is his birthday party. He’s more important than any comment, tweet or mention. I’m not trying to look like a great dad, I’m just reminding you that your blog is not your life. Keep perspective. Live off-line too.

Filed Under: Social Media, Uncategorized Tagged With: analytics, blogging, family, perspective

February 11, 2012 By Andy Traub

All of your excuses are dead

Excuses are dead

The good news is that you don’t have any excuses left. You need to do great work.
The bad news is that you don’t have any excuses left. You need to do great work.

The picture above is my computer. I had 20 minutes open yesterday so I opened up Scrivener, grabbed a cup of coffee and started writing. What I came up with won’t win me any awards but I know it’ll help someone. It took 20 minutes to create something that has never been created. It was a birth. It was beautiful. The internet allows ideas to spread from the streets of oppressed countries to our living rooms. That same tool allows you to find kindred spirits, fans, friends and customers. It’s just a tool though. You have to use it. You are the missing link.

You don’t need to have fancy tools to create great things

You don’t have to own a Mac (but it helps).
You don’t have to own Scrivener (but it helps).
You don’t have to have a lot of free time, I don’t.
You have to stop making excuses for not doing the work.

Tools for inspiration and instruction to create great stuff

If you don’t feel inspired then read this book by Julien Smith (it’s free).
Then read this book by Steven Pressfield (it’s $6.29).
Then write something. Start something. Perfect it later. Create it now.

You don’t have excuses anymore. Sorry, and you’re welcome.

 

 

 

 

Filed Under: Social Media, Uncategorized

February 10, 2012 By Andy Traub

A start to "Take Permission"

Below you will find an unedited excerpt from a book that I’m writing about permission.

 

This book is going to be 38 pages long. Studies have show that the number 38 is…ok, that’s a lie and it’s not even a complete sentence. I chose the number 38. I want to finish this book so I wanted to make the number small enough that I could finish it. Most of us start many more things than we finish. Most people start reading more articles than we finish. Our intentions and attempts outnumber our actual effort by a country mile (for those of you not in the midwest “a country mile” is bigger than a normal mile).

The best way to never finish anything is to never start anything. Never starting anything does protect you from those feelings of failure and discouragement from unfinished tasks but it is no power against a worse feeling, regret. To write something of significance one must start with a word, then a sentence, a paragraph and then a chapter. The simple letters, asdf and jkl; on which my hands rest, their neighbors qwert and yuiop make up these words. Below my resting hands are zxcvb and nm,./. Thanks to Mr. Dilley (freshman typing teacher)I can put these characters in a semblance of order and they become words, paragraphs…you get it. I’m writing. No one told me I could write and no one ever will. If you wait for permission to do anything then you’ll only pee when the class goes on “bathroom breaks”. Remember those? Apparently it was easier to train kids to all pee at the same time in my Catholic school than to have the chaos of children going to the bathroom alone. We’d all march to the bathroom and we’d experience three minutes of freedom as our female teachers, unable to enter our sanctuary, were forced to wait outside. It was like we had a “no girls allowed” sign but this one actually worked. The only alternative to the class trips to the bathrooms were the brave souls who would raise their hands and request permission to pee. Of course you never asked permission by stating, “Sister Bernadine, can I go pee?”  You asked, “May I use the restroom?” If she was in a good mood then she’d say yes. If she wasn’t you were at risk of peeing your pants, which I’m quite sure I did several times in my years on the first floor (1st-4th grade) of Christ The King Grade School.   It’s not unreasonable to force kids to ask permission to use the bathroom. It is unreasonable for adults to continue to ask permission though.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: Social Media, Uncategorized

February 1, 2012 By Andy Traub

You'll never do real work

Stop!!! by http://www.sxc.hu/profile/ColinBroug

The truth is, you (and I) really don’t want to get work done. I’m talking about a specific type of work. We don’t want to do the kind of work that makes us feel vulnerable, the kind of work that could seem pushy or authoritative. We allow distractions so we have an excuse for doing work that doesn’t really move us or anyone else to a different place. “Status quo” is not a goal, it is an act of surrender. These things are keeping you (and me) from doing great work. There are many more but these are the ones that involve technology.
[Read more…]

Filed Under: blogging, Productivity, Social Media, Uncategorized Tagged With: distractions, do the work, freedom, Productivity, seth godin, steven pressfield

January 23, 2012 By Andy Traub

Marriage Book Excerpt – "I like long forks"

This is 2,500 words so the button below will send it to your Kindle if you want to read it there.

(This has not been edited in any way so please just read and enjoy. Editing always comes after production and reflection.)

I wanted to write a profound marriage book. The kind of book that becomes a staple when you hear a friend has recently gotten engaged so you bring up the title as sort of a manual on marriage. Then I decided that was too much responsibility so I wrote what you’re reading now instead. Mrs. Ellis, Mrs. Mullin, Mrs. O’Brien, these were the women who tried to shape my writing. I’m afraid they may have failed. The only person who I really understand most days is me so I’m going to use the work “I” a lot in this book. I used it three times in that last sentence alone. Maybe I’m egotistical so I like to write about myself. Maybe I’m too prideful to go to a councilor so instead I’m writing this book. Maybe I genuinely want others to know that marriage is a lot of work. Maybe I don’t remember anyone fully explaining the real image of marriage when I was telling them I got engaged (which I’ve done twice). If you forget everything I write please remember THIS – Marriage is work, but it’s good work if you can get it.

I like long forks. As the youngest of four children by the time I could remember rifling around in the silverware drawer our forks were all the same size. [Read more…]

Filed Under: Marriage Book, Social Media, Uncategorized

  • « Previous Page
  • 1
  • 2
  • 3
  • 4
  • …
  • 21
  • Next Page »

The Start Your Mastermind Show

subscribe-on-itunes-leave-a-review

Copyright © 2023 · Take Permission

Take Permission