Take Permission

The Right Tools & Mindset For Success

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Three Hard Truths About Self Employment

The reality of life is more helpful than the perceptions we carry. The reality of self employment is far different than your perception of it. These three truths aren’t meant to discourage you. Expectations are important. Realistic expectations are vital.

The truth brings freedom, even when the truth hurts.

Here are three realities of self employment, and specifically of being a solopreneur.

1. You Create Your Own Momentum

There’s no one telling you when to start. There’s no one telling you that you have to finish.

It sounds like freedom if you’re tired of unrealistic expectations but the lack of designated start and finish lines creates inefficiency.

Deadlines help us move forward. Deadlines create urgency. They are imperative to finishing. When you’re self employed it’s up to you, the start and the finish.

2. You’re Lonely By Default

If you want community you’ll need to go find it. Chatty workplace aren’t always inefficient. Talking shop keeps us sharp. Community gives us a sense of belonging. That doesn’t happen in your home office or at the coffee shop while you wear your headphones.

Community is constructed and nothing is built well without intention, so build community.

3. It’s Difficult By Design

Self employment is difficult for the same reason marriage, weight lifting, childbirth, paying your taxes on time, and eating lots of veggies are difficult. Things that are worth it are difficult. There is no gain without work, not if what you’re working for is worth something.

A great marriage is work, it’s worth it. Paying your taxes on time takes discipline, is worth it. Self employment isn’t always difficult but when it’s not difficult it’s because you’ve already worked hard to get to where you are.

Romance + Reality

Romance is vital in relationships and if you’re courting the idea of self employment then you deserve to be realistic. Romance puts you close to an idea, hard work helps your idea reach its potential.

Self employment has tremendous benefits. Taking a job is virtually impossible for me to consider. The reality of self employment is still very different than the perception. Proceed, but proceed with realistic expectations.

This may not have been much fun to read but it’s the truth. The truth brings freedom, even when the truth hurts.

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The Unlikely Key To Resolving Conflict In The Workplace and At Home

You want clarity in your relationships at home. Resolving conflict in the workplace is equally important. You’re avoiding the very thing that will bring clarity and get rid of the lingering conflict once and for all.

Conflict brings clarity.(highlight to tweet)

broken-view.jpg

Conflict is neither good nor bad, it’s just part of getting clarity. When conflict is done well the outcome is clarity. When it isn’t done well it causes even more confusion, hurt and anger.

Three Aspects of Healthy Conflict

1. Honest – Don’t say “It’s not a big deal” when confronting someone. Tell them that you’re hurt, confused or angry and give specific examples.

2. Direct – Don’t talk to someone else about a conflict, talk to the person you have the conflict with. This is the step people get wrong the most.

3. Mature – Planning ahead will allow you to stay calm and discuss the issues instead of just the feelings from the issues. Mature people seek a solution. Immature people seek to get even. Seek a solution over your own feelings of vindication.

Watch the video below to learn how to gain clarity at home and learn the key to resolving conflict in the workplace. Click here if you can’t see the video below.

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It's Time To Take Permission; Why Learning Is A Crutch

You know enough. You’ve read enough books. You’ve read enough blog posts. You’ve watched enough TED talks. You’ve been to enough conferences.

You’re a learner, that’s great.

That’s not enough.

Why Learning Is Not Enough

Learning is not enough and our heroes are the proof. They’re our heroes because they take action.

Learning is a step in the process to achievement. Learn is not taking action. Taking action happens when we could fail. Taking action happens when what we do can change someone other than ourselves.

Learning is an investment in ourselves. Action is an investment in others.

[Tweet “Learning is an investment in ourselves. Action is an investment in others.”]

The Failure Test

You know enough but it doesn’t matter because what you need to do you’re not doing. Who you want to become can’t happen until you put yourself in positions where failure is an option and where fear is proven wrong.

My heroes (Seth Godin, Steven Pressfield, Jeff Goins, Michael Hyatt, Brenè Brown) are right. Facing fear is where life is found. If it’s not scary it’s not worth doing.

You know enough, now use it.

Sometimes you will fail but every time you will learn.

You’re afraid, so what? That means it’s worth doing.

You know enough but it doesn’t matter unless you take action.

Are You Going To Take Action?

If you’re inspired by these words but need help taking action then I can help.

This November I’m teaching my first Take Permission Group. 25 people just like you will learn how to Take Permission in their lives.

– You will identify your gifts
– You will stop bad habits
– You will gain clarity in all of your relationships
– You will take action
– You will learn to Take Permission

Click here if you’re interested in learning how to Take Permission in every area of your life and I’ll be in touch with more details.

You know enough. It’s time to take action.

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The Importance of Elevators: How To Find Success In Anything You Want To Achieve

The most important room in a building with more than two stories is the elevator.

A photo posted by @axelblnga on

Without the elevator every person that needs to go up would have to spend incomparable amounts of effort getting to their destination. My brother works in a building without enough elevators and he’s constantly complaining about it. I’m sure he’s not the only one that it bothers.

Some observations about elevators

  • If you’re going to have one, build it into your plans, early.
  • Elevators put us closer to our destination.
  • They save us energy so we can spend it on our work.
  • They give us time to think about what is coming.
  • They know the way.
  • They’re not difficult to use but they do require us to be all in.
  • If we trust them they’ll take us where we need to go.
  • They let us bring other people with us.
  • They’re generous, they’ll help anyone that trusts them.

The elevators in my life

Pierce, Dan, Cliff, Mike, Seth, Jeff, Jon, Hugh, Tom…

Read this post again. It’s short. This time think about your desire for success and think about who your elevators are.

If you don’t have elevators life is much more difficult than it should be.

Don’t try to succeed on your own.

Build good elevators into your life.

 

(This post was inspired by one woman’s description of Seth Godin at a release party for his book Linchpin. That’s the best description I’ve ever heard of him. You can access the previously unreleased video by going to this page and then reading the first few paragraphs to find the hidden password for the video embedded a bit lower down that same page.)

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Starting Something New; Why You Should Ship Scared

Over seven years ago I quit my last “job” and started Take Permission Media Network. It wasn’t called that yet but that’s what it became. Now I’m starting something new.

If you have 90 seconds to spare I’d appreciate you watching the video below to learn what I’m starting.

Starting Something New

I’m scared but I’m shipping anyway. If we wait until we’re not scared we’ll never ship.

[Tweet “If we wait until we’re not scared we’ll never ship.”]


Click here to watch Starting Something New

Here’s the new project


Here’s the new project