Lets pretend we need to solve a problem and we are looking for input….the problem is beyond our current level of understanding and/or experience. So we ask three friends. We describe the problem, and we ask for input.

1 friend has tons of confidence, tells you exactly what YOU should do, how soon to do it. Urgency is often a character trait of this type of solution provider. They will smile confidently as they give you their opinion. Yet, when you actually follow their advice, implement their solution, – it doesn’t work. It doesn’t “fit”. In fact, often this solution ends up taking more time and more work and ends up being a distraction.

Then you look around and realize this person’s own personal life in a bit of a shambles. They are not “tapping in” to any great knowledge or experience. They are simply very good at confidently expressing an opinion, and have also mastered the powers of persuasion and are thus very good at getting people to follow their advice without they themselves having any “skin in the game” … or investment in the outcome. The world is full of people like this, and part of the human experience is to learn to be discerning enough to recognize at the time of presentation that the solution as far as you are concerned is sub-par. This is step one. Discernment. The second step is to gain enough confidence and personal strength to (gracefully) say NO to this “solution” at the outset, and not get caught in the trap of following this advice simply because it might hurt someone’s feelings if you don’t. (This scenario is way more common than you think.)

In the world of the internet, you will encounter this scenario often. When googling for a solution, you may initially be drawn to many “solution providers” with their glitzy marketing campaigns and their claims to be “experts” in their field. You may have even bought some of their products. Only to find their solutions were sub-par, or didn’t address the particular issue you were trying to solve. Once again, when scanning the internet, or even asking friends for input, take more time to gather more input, gather more perspectives. Look beyond the first solution provided. Often the less glitzy marketer out there has far more substance to their end product. Because they spend more time on actual productivity and less time being showy and pandering to what gives them clicks.

Which leads us to friend number two. This is the type of person you can talk to about anything, have great long discussions. They have all sorts of knowledge and ideas. These people are great to have discussions with when you are first exploring a problem because they can help expand your mind and way of thinking to more possibilities. The downside of friend number 2 is they are never quite able to take all that vast knowledge and experience and focus their energies on any one thing. They never quite get around to implementing these great ideas. They simply stay stranded in the “dream” mode.

In the world of the internet, we could equate this experience as watching videos and reading books on areas you are interested in – such as gardening perhaps – where it is very enjoyable and you can resonate with the experience they are having, but in your own life you can’t seem to get around to even planting a seed. Watching the videos can be a good thing, and can leads to tons of inspiration, but there is a missing element. You need to take that knowledge and inspiration and put it to practical use. What you will quickly learn is that to actually implement any project you have seen online, you will have to rewind and watch the same video 100 times because it is not as easy as it seems. There are steps involved you often overlook, or dismiss. Until you master that skillset. Then it will become easy.