Local TV news programs often follow a very simple directive:
“If it bleeds, it leads.”

That’s why crime stories and negative news regularly top the daily newscasts. “Bad news” almost always steals our attention.

The “good news” about the church that raised $100,000 for a blind orphan comes much later in the newscast – if it makes the news at all.

Frustrating, isn’t it? Why do the negatives often grab the spotlight from the positives? Why is our attention drawn to negative thoughts and events?

Blame it on the “attention hogs.”

Sept. 11, 2001. It got our attention. Evil terrorist attacks on the United States and the resulting, ongoing war on terrorism. It’s held our attention.

But while fear and bad news often grab the headlines,  our “good news” – perhaps your own marketing message – suffers as a consequence of dastardly “attention hogs.” By capturing and holding attention, these hogs leave little room for other more attention-worthy news.

Just who are these attention hogs?

The list is long and it grows longer by the day…

Paris Hilton, Lindsay Lohan, the late Anna Nicole Smith and Princess Diana. They join the ranks of Monica Lewinsky, Barry Bonds, Donald Trump, Oprah Winfrey, global warming, Hurricane Katrina, Harry Potter, and the Apple iPhone on our impromptu list.

They are all persons or entities that have won our attention, for better or worse, in the Attention Age.

Not all will hold a treasured place in our memories. In fact, many may be fading as we speak, but they still receive attention. At least for a moment – usually more – and just long enough for us to emotionally brand our brains.

Our attention is a scarce resource, and so is the attention of the marketplace. How we allocate our own attention really matters.

But there are those “attention hogs” among us who are trying to steal more bandwidth. They want real estate in our brains, and with the help of technology and mass media, many have left their mark forever.

Attention hogs not only suck your attention, but they make it more difficult for your own marketing to be successful. In essence, we are all competing with Paris Hilton and the terrorists for attention.

When people are paying attention to them, they’re not paying attention to you and your products.

Terrorism is clearly an instrument of attention-getting cowardice. Osama bin Laden is known worldwide as a terrorist mastermind. His name and face are synonymous with terrorism. Bin Laden’s acts of terror have made an emotional connection in our brain. He captures that much of our attention, as we hope to capture him.

Far from the only evil “hog” in this Attention Age, Bin Laden is joined by the Virginia Tech killer – no name is necessary – as having successfully seared his image and actions in our brain. The tragic events at Virginia Tech in 2007 and the 33 people killed will long be remembered, even if the name of the killer is soon forgotten.

Why do we know or care about Paris Hilton? How do we know about Lindsay Lohan’s progress in rehab? What about Anna Nicole Smith or the intimate details and tragic turns in Princess Diana’s life and death?

All are celebrity-driven drains on our attention, with two receiving more attention in death than the considerable attention they had already received in life.

Why? Because we allow them to take hold of our attention and keep a piece of it for themselves.

Barry Bonds sets a home run record, but we pay more attention to rumors of “performance-enhancement drugs.” Monica Lewinsky becomes infamous for an adulterous affair with President Bill Clinton. Her last name becomes a slang term for oral sex. Now, that’s attention.

Hurricane Katrina is a metaphor for natural disaster, hope and recovery. Global warming straddles the line between hoax and reality. Oprah is Oprah. Harry Potter is a book-selling, movie-making wizard. And the iPhone becomes the “next big thing.”

All claim attention, all are attention hogs. They hold themselves up as “winners” in the Attention Age.

The losers? Anyone who pays too much attention to any one or all of these winners. They are not all worthy of that much attention, but they get it just the same.

Remember: What we give them in attention, we can never reclaim as our own.

So let me ask you this: What are you receiving from all of the attention you freely give?

In other words… What is your “return on attention” – your personal ROA – from the attention you so willingly pay to the attention hogs?

Create a list of the “good” and “bad” attention hogs in your life.

Tell us what you demand in return from each attention hog and how you will make them earn your attention in the future.

Let’s discover new ways to channel our attention, fight off the hogs, and help our businesses grow.

Post here…

What captures your attention? A pretty face? A televised car chase? The smell of cookies wafting through the room?

What holds your attention? Satellite images of a hurricane bearing down on your town? A cancer diagnosis? Watching your children play on a lazy Sunday?

We soon realize that the things that capture our attention are often not enough to hold our attention.

Capturing attention is far easier than holding attention.

Getting attention the wrong way is even easier: Just yell “Fire!” and someone will look your way. But that won’t do you any good if you want to hold their attention in the future, especially if there is no fire nearby.

Attention-driven advertisements can make you look, but they won’t necessarily make you buy. Just ask the companies that gamble each year on Super Bowl TV ads. Often we remember the advertisement, but we can’t remember the product being pitched.

Yet the attention is addicting, and companies spend millions of dollars on the lure of Super Bowl ads – in part because of the “free media” attention those ads are sure to attract.

No purchases are guaranteed, but the attention the ads will receive is enough for many.

Attention is the catalyst that makes future purchases possible. Without it, there is no hope.

That’s why attention drives our economy.

In the Attention Age, “interesting” is not enough. Valuable information must be exciting, fun, immediate, compelling, useful, and relevant.

In order for your message to receive attention, it first must be interesting enough to warrant attention. And once you realize it is interesting, it had better be something more.

The secret to holding attention is to make the message appealing to your target audience. Make the “story” personal.  It’s the personal story that carries the greatest impact.

A hurricane could hurt YOUR family, YOUR neighbors, and YOUR friends. A cancer diagnosis affects YOU and YOUR loved ones. YOU have an emotional investment in YOUR children. Anything that affects them matters to YOU.

The message that draws our attention must have a direct emotional connection to our lives, or our attention just won’t last.

I know what you’re thinking. “Paris Hilton gets a lot of attention, and she has nothing to do with me?” She doesn’t? Then why are you watching? Why do you care? How did she get into your head, and more importantly, who is allowing her to stay there?

There’s something going on here. You just may not want to admit it.

Successful communication hits its mark when it involves the target. Communication must be about the audience, not about you, your company or your product. People pay attention to what affects their lives, not your own.

If you can convey your message in a way that tailors information to the emotional needs of your audience, you will get their attention and succeed in the Attention Age.

Consider Starbucks. They didn’t invent coffee; they just made coffee culture “cool.”

Starbucks founder Howard Shultz doesn’t want people to enjoy his coffee. He wants them to experience coffee culture – the sights, the smells, the sounds, the ambiance and the emotions that come with the Starbucks coffee experience.

Shultz envisioned Starbucks as a “people place,” not as a coffee shop. It’s a place where we can go for coffee where “tall” means “small,” where “grande” means “medium” and “venti” means “large.” There is a coolness to the lexicon that lets us feel like we are members of a club, with club locations seemingly on every city street corner.

It’s a marketing paradox: An “exclusive” club where everyone is welcome.

Starbucks captures our attention and holds it whether we drink coffee or not. Customers may learn to like – even love – the beverage, but they come back to Starbucks for the culture. It’s an Attention Age success story.

Apple is another successful attention-getter with a passionate following. Apple has what I like to call the “T-shirt factor.” People are so enthusiastic about the company and its products that they want to put the Apple logo on their T-shirts, their computers, their cars … you name it. It’s a brand that invokes loyalty and action because Apple makes their consumers feel like part of a winning team.

Think about it: Have you ever been around an Apple enthusiast for five minutes without hearing them mention that they are, indeed, an Apple enthusiast?

There’s a consistent message coming through that iPod: It’s passion, and it gets our attention.

The most successful companies, like Starbucks and Apple, develop an innovative culture that serves as a basis for a real connection with consumers. The company, its products and people become an attention conduit for clients and consumers. Attention is served over and over again to great success.

Online entrepreneurs can do it, too.

How can you develop your own Starbucks experience with your online business? How can you replicate the passion of Apple’s fan base?

If 100,000 potential customers were brought to the “doorstep” of your Web site – right now – how would you capture and hold their attention?

Let me know. Pour yourself a venti, fire up the Mac.

Show me how it’s done.

Share your thoughts with my blog readers. You have their attention.

Consider this your challenge to keep it.

Post your comment here (one attention grabbing web link allowed)

So, the second part of the Attention Age doctrine is coming out very soon. 

I hope you’re as excited to discover my secret solutions, as I am to give them to you.

I promise these secrets will change the way you live, work and think – so you can breathe… relax… smile… and make more money, while also enjoying the great gift of life.

But in order for you to really grasp, absorb, and – more importantly – apply the solutions that I’m going to give you, you need to truly understand "The Attention Age” and why we are in it.

I explained the Attention Age (AA) in the first part of the doctrine, but in hindsight I really would’ve liked to have said more.  The purpose of this post, and a few more to come, is to explore and dissect the AA itself. To give you a tour of the “ADD-World” we now live in.

Three concepts discussed in part one of the doctrine:  Information Overload, Interruption Overload, and the Paradox of Choice.

These are the three main characteristics of the Attention Age—we are so connected, we are disconnected. We are so frequently interrupted, we are becoming less intelligent. And we have too many choices and options that we tend to make poor decisions.

The world we live in today provides endless content sources of information, and it is more than likely that you will be interrupted during anytime of the day – whether you’re in the office, having dinner, at your first born’s christening, or even while you’re using the bathroom.

Not only are we bombarded with information, but we are also competing for everyone’s undivided attention.

Think about this:  

We are depleting attention at one end, and demanding it at the other – from cell phones, text messages, e-mail, you name it.

So our attention is our most scarce and valuable resource. It’s more important than intelligence in many cases, and is considered to be one of the (if not the) prime factors in determining how successful you are in your career.

Optimizing your attention, and focusing on the correct people and objects in life, can truly make or break you. It really defines who you are and indicates what you will accomplish in life.

As Herbert Simon once wrote,

“In an information-rich world, the wealth of information means a death of something else:  a scarcity of whatever it is that information consumes. What information consumes is rather obvious:  it consumes the attention of its recipients. Hence a wealth of information creates a poverty of attention and a need to allocate that attention efficiently among the overabundance of information sources that might consume it.”

I would simply add information overload, interruptions, too many choices, clutter, maxed-out bandwidth, psychic ram, and fear of missing out on new opportunities—all consumes our attention.

Now you can see why I deem this period of our life… The ATTENTION AGE.

With this said, what if we didn’t experience these negative effects of Information Overload, Interruption Overload and the Paradox of Choice? What if we were never distracted? What would we get done? What could we really accomplish?

Think about it for a few minutes.

In fact, try this little exercise: 

Take a sheet of paper. Divide it into two columns; have one column be your common attention-drains during your day, and next to it, how much time those attention-drainers cost you. Add up all the time-costs.  Then, in the second column list all the things you would do if you were sitting in an invisible-isolated bubble. Make it a bright, colored, invisible bubble if you would like. Once you’ve filled out both sheets of paper, look at your “color-bubble” list. Ah, what a dream it would be to get all those things done in one work day….

Here’s a secret:

If you’ve ever wondered or been in awe of how much successful entrepreneurs get done – it’s that they spend most of their time in that “colored bubble.”

Now, take a look at your attention-drainers and time (they cost you) list – don’t you just want to scream! What if all those annoying drainers didn’t have to take place? What if you could make that entire left column disappear, so you could act on everything you listed in your right column?

How nice it would be to return to your happy bubble…

And that, my friend, is what the second part of the doctrine is all about.

Secrets to reclaim your own attention, so you can be the productive person you’ve always wanted to be (and are when you’re in your bubble!) And how to capture and hold on to your market’s attention and skyrocket your business (hint: It’s the steps I used to take Strategic Profits from a standstill to 7.5 million in 12 months.)

So, tell me and the other readers: 

What are your biggest attention drains? And what are they preventing you from accomplishing?

Post your comments here… 

I’ll review (as I always do) your comments and do my best to customize my solutions to your situation(s).

"Interruptions are in the eye of the interrupted."

This was a key point in The Attention Age Doctrine, and one that really struck a nerve with many of my readers.

Information that you think is important to your business, may simply be an interruption to your business goals.

Trouble is, you won’t realize whether or not the information is important until you’ve given it your attention.

Since the release of The Attention Age Doctrine, I’ve received countless e-mails and blog comments about the distinction between an "interruption" and a "distraction" as it relates to business efficiency. While there are "dictionary differences" between the two, I’ll just give you my quick analysis.

An interruption is external. It’s a break in continuity, something unexpected that "pops up" and causes you to divert your attention. Examples: Someone calling your name, an e-mail alert on your computer, a ringing phone, a raindrop falling on your head, a bowling bowl dropped in your lap. Interruptions grab our attention by diverting our focus.

A distraction is internal. It’s an emotional disturbance that requires our own compliance. It’s your mind thinking about lunch options while you are in an important business meeting. It’s a gaze out the window to watch the birds fly by or the feeling that you left your iron on in the laundry room. There’s an underlying cause for distractions that divides our attention in a subtle way. Distractions may seem like harmless "white noise," but they can be quite, well, distracting.

Workplace interruptions and distractions serve one disturbing purpose: They take us off course. Every time we "follow the bouncing ball," our business goals get pushed aside.

By taking your focus off the "big task" of what your business needs (more on this in a sec…), your vision becomes clouded, your message muddled, your decisions diluted and delayed.

What’s even worse is that it becomes a habit. You end up conditioning your brain to respond in a similar fashion in the future. In essence, you are re-wiring your brain to work against you [I'll share the research that supports this notion, and how you can re-condition your attention, in Part 2 of the Attention Age Doctrine, coming out next month.]

Look, there’s a real reason why many racehorses run with blinders on. It’s so they’ll stay focused on the task at hand – winning.

So why is it so difficult for entrepreneurs to do the same? Why don’t we work with blinders on, avoiding interruptions so we can focus on growing our business and achieving our goals?

Maybe it’s because you love being in the race more than you love achieving the results. You enjoy the "busyness" of your business, but are unwilling to get serious about doing what it takes to succeed. You’re allowing distractions and interruptions to pull you away from your business goals.

My coaching clients often ask: How can I avoid the interruptions that are distracting me from my work?

An easy answer is to work in solitary confinement, but that has its own downside. A better answer comes from asking a better question: Why am I allowing myself to be so easily distracted?

No one makes us answer e-mails. There is no law, under penalty of death, to respond immediately to instant messages or a ringing telephone.

We can avoid interruptions and distractions if we want to do so. So why do we allow this to happen?

It’s always easier to blame an outside source for our troubles – a computer, a colleague, a PDA – rather than take that terrifying look inside ourselves to see what is lurking among the cobwebs.

Are we are our own worst enemy when it comes to distraction? Are we the cause of our own interruptions that take us off the path to success and down a spiraling path toward procrastination and diminished productivity?

Think about it for a moment. Each time you sit down in front of the computer you should do so with an ultimate goal: task completion. But getting from Point A to Point B in your business is rarely a direct line of progression – at least, that’s what you’ve been telling yourself.

The demands on our attention are infinite, but our attention is finite. So we have to keep focused on the goal of winning.

Every time we turn our attention away from our purpose – task completion – and toward something else (i.e., reading e-mail, mindlessly surfing the Web, chasing butterflies, chatting on the phone), we imperil our business goals and do our customers a great disservice.

We can choose to blame technology, our neighbors, family and friends, but really the blame is our own. It is our own refusal – note, I did not say "inability" – to eliminate the interruptions and distractions that cause frustration and prevent us from achieving ultimate success.

By allowing interruptions to sidetrack us – by giving in to the pull of distraction – we simply delay our primary gratification: the knowledge and pride in a job well done and the financial reward that comes with it.

Instead of doing what your business needs you to do, you end up doing what you want to do.

Let’s put that in perspective. You may not want to change diapers, but your children need you to do it. You may not want to pay taxes, but it’s probably a good idea to complete them on time each year. In both cases, you just have to hold your nose and get it done.

Successful entrepreneurs (in the right business) love their businesses. They shouldn’t "have to" do the job; they should "want to" do what is best for business development and ultimate reward.

This creates another immediate concern:

Do you know what your business really needs of you?

If not, all of the time you waste through "distraction" may really be the fault of your own "indecision." You must decide what your business needs from you (in a step-by-step list of tasks) and eliminate the interruptions and distractions so you can get it done.

Two days ago I attended a networking event in Texas that will most likely go down in history as one of the biggest gatherings of influential men and women in business and marketing.  It was hosted by my good friend Stephen Pierce. Some of the powerful people in attendance were T Harv Eker, Jay Abraham, John Reese, and Jeff Walker; Tim Ferris, Armand Morin, Russell Brunson, and John Carlton; Mike Filsaime, Tom Beal, Jerry Clark, and Shawn Casey; Eben Pegan, Mike Litman, and Dave Lakhani; Janet Switzer, Yanik Silver, and Lori Morgan Ferraro.

At the event I had a great conversation with Internet Marketing legend John Reese. Besides getting some great marketing advice from him regarding our upcoming seminar in February, we also compared our approaches to getting our work done. And we both had a similar approach.

We both think about the goal we are trying to accomplish and list all the steps we need to do in order to accomplish it. Then, we get to work. John said (and I agreed) that often people get sidetracked or procrastinate because they haven’t taken the time to layout all the steps they need to take to accomplish their goals.

The list of steps helps grab and focus their attention.

Early radio and television programs used to be interrupted by breathless announcers with a familiar refrain: "We interrupt this message to bring you a special announcement…" The message grabbed your attention and wouldn’t let go until you absorbed it, at which time you were "returned to your regularly scheduled programming."

It’s time to get clear about what you need to do, focus your attention and "get with the program" of working on what matters.

So, why are you not achieving your business goals faster?

Do you have an interruption problem, a distraction problem, or an indecision problem? (Share your thoughts on this here)

Sometimes introspection can be a painful journey of discovery, but one we all must take.

So do it right now, right here… Then get back to work!

Post a comment about this article 

I was startled out of sleep the other morning by my 5-year-old daughter Ava. It was 6 a.m. and still dark as she ran into our bedroom screaming the ‘F’ word.

The word flew out of her mouth as if it was launched by NASA.

"FRIDAY! Today Is Friday!!!!"

What a great word… Friday.

Do you remember back when you were in school, how happy you were to finally get to Friday?

Unfortunately, for far too many entrepreneurs, the word has lost all its power. Even worse, that special "Friday-feeling" has also disappeared from our busy lives.

Yet, for self-described cubicle slaves and school kids alike, no matter how heavy the burden or workload, there is always Friday. For them it’s more than just a day; it’s an attitude.

• Friday is freedom from worry.
• Friday is fun, which should be part of every day.
• Friday moves us forward.
• Friday feels fantastic.

Any day can be Friday. It’s a landmark event that signifies triumph: It’s time to race to the FINISH (another favorite ‘F’ word) and begin the process of recovery from a batch of productive work.

I’m sure you’ve used the ‘F’ word on more than one occasion as your grow your business. Sometimes just one word like that can determine your attitude for the entire day.

In my coaching practice I’ve noticed that most entrepreneurs have completely lost the special feeling that comes from the anticipation of downtime after completing a task or project. It’s as if running their business has become a never-ending marathon with no finish line whatsoever.

If you don’t have a finish line, how will you know when the race is won?

So, what about you? How many ‘Friday’ moments have you experienced as an online entrepreneur?

What other words trigger action and emotion as you sprint to complete your projects and achieve your business goals?

I’m no wordsmith, but I’m beginning to pay more attention to language. I give my kids credit for this gift as they teach their dad a thing or two about ‘nice words’ and "bad words."

Watching my daughters learn new vocabulary words, and form their speech patterns, I marvel at the way their minds work. There’s a lot going on inside the brain of a 2-year-old when she tries to say “hippopotamus” for the first time. But the result of her accomplishment, however tortured the pronunciation, is a joy to behold.

I’ve also learned the power of words – their meaning and the images they project.

Some words hurt, others bring smiles. At times, simple words, and the rhythms they create in our minds when spoken, can be quite soothing.

Here are some examples:

Relax…

Replenish…

Recharge…

Feels kind of nice, doesn’t it? Now, think about the meaning of those words and the images they place in our minds.

Relax… slow down, lie down, kick up your feet. Feel the ocean breeze and the warmth of the sun on your skin.

Replenish… cool water on a hot summer day, a refreshing dip in the pool after a long day at work. The feeling of nourishment we get after downing a fruit smoothie.

Recharge… the kick of an espresso to start your morning, the turn of an ignition key and the roar of a supercharged engine. You’re built for speed, baby, and ready for action.

Make it a point to incorporate these kinds of words into your business day today.

I know I’ve been talking a lot about information overload recently, but it’s important for you to realize how it will feel when you declare victory over it.

Where once there was information anxiety, now there is recovery.

Recovery is a very important word for all of us. And I am not talking about the type of recovery you get from a 12-step program either (Sorry, Lindsay Lohan fans).

Instead, I am talking about a time where you actually recharge well enough so you can come back with even more energy than before.

When you stop and think about it – and I strongly encourage you to do so – stress followed by recovery stimulates growth. Without recovery, continual stress leads to burnout or breakdown.

If you’ve ever been interested in weight lifting, you know what I mean. When you work out at the gym, you take your muscles past the point of failure. Then you must give your muscles enough time to recover so that they can rebuild and be better prepared for similar stress.

When training your body, if you don’t fully recover you’ll end up overtraining it. The net result is you get weaker instead of stronger: The exact opposite of your original goal.

This happens emotionally, too. Think about the traumatic events that were once devastating, but that you now recognize as empowering: Family crisis, the death of a loved one, the break-up of a relationship, the failing of a business venture, the loss of a job, etc.

The reason for this renewed strength is that you have fully recovered from the trauma and are now better prepared to handle similar stressful situations. But this time, you’ll handle them much better.

If you don’t allow for recovery, and you get hit with another crisis, it can be demoralizing for you, your family, friends and business.

If you’ve read the biographies of as many successful entrepreneurs as I have, then you’ve definitely seen this pattern of trauma, recovery, and victory in their lives. So many successful people go through some horrible reversal, but they recover, and later they’re stronger because of it.

Often, many battles are lost before winning the war.

That’s why the concept of recovery is vital to our growth. And you should strive to incorporate it in all that you do.

So how does this translate into your own life?

It means for every 14-hour workday filled with adrenaline and the promise of financial success, there must be rest and recovery if you want to be at your best.

It also means if you are struggling with information anxiety you’ll never get to experience recovery (and its resulting growth) because there’s no finish line – no end in sight. The race or pace just never lets up.

That’s why a “Just in Time” approach to information is superior to “Just in Case” methodology. By acting upon information as we need it, rather than hoarding information just in case we may need it, we train ourselves to be more efficient and successful. Because there is a finish line, there is a tangible goal by which to measure our growth.

Remember those soothing words: relax, replenish and recharge.

I’ll add another: RESPOND to this blog post and share your entrepreneurial challenges.

Let me know how your “recovery” stories have helped sharpen your business focus.

Some of the toughest times in our lives become the most inspirational. Some of our “lowest lows” provide our greatest life lessons.

Remember, Friday is a metaphor for recovery. With information overload, there is no real recovery, but there can be relief. And with no recovery comes burnout or breakdown. Relief brings its own reward.

As you experience “Friday” every day, let me know how your Friday moments are fueling your business growth.

Your attitude may be your greatest asset as you move forward.

post a comment

Most online entrepreneurs just like you either suffer from too little or way too much information: There simply is no in-between.

Where do you stand? How do you figure out which amount of information is “just right?”

Today, we’ll continue the conversation on information overload that we started in an earlier blog post. And, boy, is there a lot of material to cover …

Let’s begin with one of the biggest issues.

I’m often asked by nervous entrepreneurs:

When is “enough” information really enough?

I can’t tell you how many times I’ve heard this question from clients – “newbie” business owners and veteran business leaders alike.

So many smart people are convincing themselves that they are just not smart enough. Stop doing this to yourself and your business.

As we mentioned in an Aug. 15 posting on this blog about information overload, you can’t possibly know everything, so don’t even try. You just need to recognize what you don’t know and fill in the gaps along the way.

One of our blog readers, Dan Scott, put this urgency in perspective: “Often we keep acquiring more information so we can put off pulling the trigger … at some point, you’ve got sufficient information and should just act.”

Excellent point, Dan.

Think about it:

It’s great to have an impressive vocabulary, but you don’t need to memorize an entire dictionary in order to enjoy a good book. If you don’t understand a new word, simply look it up. It’s that easy to do.

You just have to trust yourself – and your brain. After all, even Albert Einstein couldn’t remember his own telephone number. He reasoned, quite accurately, that he didn’t need to memorize his phone number because he knew where to find it in the phone book.

Einstein didn’t question his knowledge of the unknown, even for little things like remembering a phone number. You shouldn’t either.

Sometimes knowing how to access information is more important than the information itself. Remember that – I’m sure it will become more and more important to you as your business grows.

There’s another puzzling question I hear a lot, and this one is funny when you say it out loud:

How do I know that I’ll know what I need to know when I need to know it?

Questions like these reveal a disturbing unease about strategic business process – and a lack of confidence among business owners. The questions don’t lead to business solutions; they just heighten our anxieties and pick at the scab of uncertainty that irritates us all.

“What if I can’t keep up with my competitors?” …

“What if I don’t buy every business book, read every e-mail, and scan every RSS feed?” …

“What if I miss the one bit of information that could truly set my business on fire?”

“What if …”

This kind of paranoia freezes growth opportunity.

It discourages risk-taking and leads to indecision, inefficiency, and ultimately, paralysis.

This is no way to run a successful business.

Information anxiety plagues many good business people. But the great ones are able to sort through the clutter of information and inaction and get to the part that really matters – the information that leads you to take action.

Again, knowing how to access and interpret information is sometimes more important than the information itself.

Think about this example. What turns the lights on in your house? Simple answer: A light switch.

You don’t need to know about volts, ohms and amperes in order to turn on the lights. You just need the lights to work so you can see what is in front of you.

The ability to see what is in front of you: This is what so many of us seem to have lost.

Instead, we block our own view, and distort our business vision, with needless stacks of irrelevant information. The “stacks” don’t have to be physical. Even a virtual impediment is a blockade to creativity and productive thought.

Oh yeah, one more thing …

Don’t be afraid to make mistakes. You’ll still make them, no matter how much information you have in your memory and at your fingertips.

Let me share a secret with you.

If you’ve done anything at all – not just business – then you have valuable experiences locked inside you that are just waiting to be rediscovered

You know what has worked and what hasn’t in certain situations. This will ALWAYS provide the best information you need to succeed. It is personal to you and it is timely: Two strong reasons why it’s more valuable to you than most information you’ll come across.

Most likely, no other business guru has ever shared this secret with you ­– because, if they did, it would be bad for business.

But I’m willing to do this for you because I believe you really must understand this. I’ve had some of the best mentors in the world – Jay Abraham, Michael Masterson, etc. – but even with that star-quality guidance, I needed something more.

The most important, impactful and relevant information I ever received that has helped me be successful has come directly from my own experiences – good and bad.

You are the best source of information for your business.

You know what works best and what doesn’t. You’ve thrown yourself into the fire and perhaps you’ve been burned by a few failed business decisions.

So what? That’s nothing to be ashamed of. On the contrary, it may be just what you need to assure success in the future.

Your experiences, your passions, your successes and failures, all come into play as you move forward in any business venture. Each bit of experience you have gained along the way becomes a pebble on the path toward future growth.

Don’t turn that pebble into a boulder by blocking your ability to move forward with confidence.

Often, clients tell me that watching me make a mistake, rebound and leverage it for future growth has inspired them to really change their way of thinking. They are no longer timid with fear of failure. Instead, they are ready to pounce on opportunity, even if it is born of error.

While you may be tempted to ingest all sorts of information from outside sources, and many of these sources may prove remarkably helpful, the ultimate business decisions are made by you.

It is essential that you take control of that decision-making function.

And no matter what, do not discount what you know already or make your own knowledge any less important than anyone else’s. It is your wisdom that has value because you are living with it.

Last year, in a Sept. 8 blog posting, I offered tips on how to attack information overload and the resulting anxiety it causes.

In it, I asked my readers to overcome “the single biggest obstacle to achieving lasting success online and offline.” That obstacle, for many, is their own personal craving for more and more information.

You may be an information junkie, but don’t let information anxiety turn your business into junk.

What’s causing you to delay action in favor of more research? What impulses are preventing you from “pulling the trigger” on action-oriented solutions?

Your responses on information overload have been illuminating, and I’m learning from all that I receive and read.

Share your secrets to “getting going” on new tasks. Do you have a certain ritual you follow? A certain method you use to kick-start your productivity? How do you know when enough is enough?

Let me know how you do it … There are a lot of people hungry for your ideas.

To Higher Profits,

Rich Schefren

If you’ve ever experienced even a twinge of information overload, here’s a unique solution that will get to the root cause of the problem once and for all.

From what I can see, most recommended solutions are Band-Aids at best. That’s because they only deal with the symptoms you’re feeling and not the root cause. So they never really eliminate the problem once and for all.

Since the cause of information overload isn’t obvious, let me ask you a question.

Back when you were in school, did you ever get nervous before a test?

Almost everyone I’ve asked has always said “yes.” Primarily because there’s always some worry about the information you’ll need to understand and hold in your memory once you sit down to take the test.

If you’ve ever asked a teacher "Is this going to be on the test?" – like when you had to memorize the times and dates of obscure Civil War battles – you know that feeling of anxiety.

Of course, the answer you were silently praying to hear was always "NO."

The reason is clear: You know what you know, but at that moment you were also keenly aware of what you didn’t currently know.

For most of us it’s what we know we don’t know that is so scary. And that fear never goes away no matter how many tests you’ve aced in the past.

The subtext of the question "Is this going to be on the test?" is another question: "I don’t want to waste my brains on information that isn’t relevant to my immediate future, so do I really need to know this?" The feeling is so prevalent in school because we often find ourselves studying and being tested on information in which we have very little interest.

Somehow, when we become entrepreneurs, we forget this survival mechanism from our past. Rather than getting very clear about what we already know and what we still need to know to do well (like we did when we were students), we chase scattered information from everywhere – considering all sources we think might have something useful to share. The net effect is we waste our time, our resources, and our intellectual capital in pursuit of new discoveries. And within the blink of an eye, we become victims of information overload.

There is an underlying cause for our haphazard information gathering and it’s resulting information overload. Believe it or not, it comes down to self-esteem.

You see, instead of trusting what we already know, we’re afraid of everything that we don’t know. It’s this fear that becomes the road that takes us off course. We’re trying to prepare for the non-existent test that has EVERYTHING on it and it leads us down a rabbit hole of procrastination that kills productivity.

You may even be on that “bunny trail” right now.

Serious online entrepreneurs are arguably still students themselves. They are searching for solutions and strategies that give them an edge. But it’s self-directed learning, so those of us who succeed develop the profitable ability to focus on what information matters most to our core business goals.

In baseball terms, entrepreneurs can “drive the fastball” when it comes our way, no matter the velocity. We know it is coming and we are ready when it arrives. But as soon as someone throws us a curveball by introducing something new, it challenges our comfort zone. We’re left flailing and unsure of ourselves.

Believe me, I know the feeling.

And that, my friend, is all it takes to get the anxiety wheels rolling. Doubt creeps in, self-confidence plummets, and market opportunity is lost. Spooky, isn’t it? And it can happen in an instant.

We’re left thinking and worrying about the curve ball as the fastball whizzes by. In shock, we ask ourselves, “How could this happen to me?”

This scenario occurs each day with business leaders who experience information overload.

Entrepreneurs are bombarded by information. Not all of it is beneficial to their business goals. Yet, if you try to absorb it all – if you feel a need to gain and retain all information – you’ll lose sight of what is most important. You end up frazzled and overwhelmed – the proverbial “deer in the headlights” paralyzed by fear and unable to avoid certain disaster.

The net effect of the info-overload is that we diminish our ability to discern the great from the good and, in the process, make ourselves mediocre by measure.

Through our abundance and ambivalence, we lose our business edge – and profitability suffers.

Don’t become a paralyzed entrepreneur mesmerized by the flashy headlights of all the information coming at you. You have to push yourself away from the bountiful harvest of information and only select what you truly need to fuel your business growth.

Another great way to look at it is similar to the way we are told to look at food. I’m sure you’ve heard the fitness mantra, “food is fuel.” The same can be said for the role information plays in your life. Anything more than you need will just leave you bloated, inefficient and insecure.

It’s time to start trusting your instincts more. You have to be confident enough to work intelligently toward your goals – whether it is passing an exam or developing a profitable Web site. What you absolutely must not allow to happen is to become paralyzed by the fear of not knowing "everything" and the fear of failure in the absence of knowing exactly what you must know and what you don’t know.

In fact, the ability to make decisions in the face of ambiguity (like this) is a key trait of successful entrepreneurs. Your expertise in this area comes from experience.

There’s an old adage: “No one is an expert in his own backyard.” It’s relevant for entrepreneurs who struggle with information anxiety.

Like Boy Scouts we should “always be prepared,” but we can’t assume that we’ll be perfect. We can’t possibly “know it all” and we can’t expect everyone to believe that we do, despite what Stuart Smalley tells us to repeat to ourselves in the mirror: “I’m good enough, I’m smart enough, and gosh darn it . . . people like me.”

So, value what you know already. It’s a lot more than you probably give yourself credit for. Real growth, the type that translates into wealth, is more often accumulated through your direct experience. You can search for more knowledge – Hey, I spend time daily searching for the latest and greatest ­ but I don’t discount the value of the wisdom I already possess, and you shouldn’t either.

Odds are, unlike me, you’ve never read a sales letter written to sell the knowledge you already have trapped inside your brain. But take it from someone who knows: If you had my close friend, world-class copywriter John Carlton, pitching your ideas, you would immediately place a lot more value on what you already know (You’d also get a lot more buyers).

Remember: You cannot conquer uncertainty by burying it with more information.

Wisdom comes not from devouring information, but by filtering it through personal experience and taking action on it. It’s the action or reaction, not the information itself, that makes us wise.

I have much more to share with you about this, but first I’d like to hear your thoughts.

Do you see this as a pattern in your own lives? Are you constantly devaluing your own knowledge – minimizing your own experience – in your quest for greater wisdom? Let me know by commenting on our blog.

What are some of your secrets for remaining confident and making decisions in the face of ambiguity?

How do you overcome the feeling of inadequacy when faced with overwhelming amounts of information that seem important, but you’re just not sure?

My readers are a sharp bunch. I know you’ll have some great tips and suggestions to share.

We’ll follow-up in another blog post with a continuation of this conversation. I’m looking forward to your ideas.

To Higher Profits,
Rich Schefren

P.S. The Attention Age Doctrine continues to move forward. Me and the entire Strategic Profits team are busily preparing the next installment. For a “retro” trip back to our previous media reports, get your keys to the Profit Vault here:

Today I’m going to share with you one of the secrets to boosting your productivity and how to inject a lot more fun into your life.

It’s an important and transformational concept that’s simple to execute and you’ll get the benefits immediately. Actually, I’ve been eager to share it with you for quite some time, so I am really excited to get you started right now.

I’ve been so busy these past few weeks. Crazy schedules with the Acceleration2 seminar in Delray Beach, Fla., and a whirlwind of other business events have really tapped my resources of late, but the old energy is starting to come back. I’m feeling invigorated again, and not a moment too soon …

The past two months have been an amazing growth period in my professional life, and I hope in yours as well. In fact, this one technique I am going to share with you is one of the reasons for my company’s phenomenal growth. I’m really excited about the prospects of our future conversations about business, life, and how they meet at the intersection of success and opportunity.

I want to follow-up on my promise to you in a May 16 blog post. In that post I invited you and my other readers to share 20 fun things you like to do. I then promised you I would show you how to use this list to dramatically boost your productivity and be a lot more successful, a lot sooner.

I was amazed at the number of readers that responded. To date, 206 readers shared with the rest of us the fun activities they enjoy in their lives.

I had my staff turn all these wonderful responses into a pdf that you can download right here:

Now I’ll tell you the concept , why it’s so powerful, the exact steps you need to take and the results you can expect from this amazing productivity tip.

A core problem for a majority of entrepreneurs is that we fail to schedule fun into our day. We do this because we think we will get more done, but in reality this has the opposite effect. We end up becoming less effective, procrastinate more, become less focused, more burnt-out, irritable and stressed.

Most entrepreneurs valiantly squeeze all of the fun out of their day in order to schedule more time at work, as if hours in front of a computer somehow magically translate into additional income. But too much work and too little play has that all too common side effect of “work” time being wasted because we are simply not productive or can’t get started on the big projects.

I touched on this in the Internet Business Manifesto, and it’s worth a reminder here. If you are productive just four hours out of every day, as many entrepreneurs are, why insist on working 10 hours a day in spite of yourself? There are certainly better ways to improve our production, but adding more and more hours of procrastination, frustration, confusion and overwork just doesn’t seem the wise way to go.

You see, when you are staring at some big project that must get done, a part of you is thinking about how long it will take, and all the fun things you aren’t going to be able to do. When you start thinking this way it’s only natural to either procrastinate and postpone, or give a half-hearted effort.

So here’s the prescription:

I want you to go through the pdf we compiled for you – and pick out 21 activities that you would have fun doing and that you are capable of doing without too much additional effort. Then I want you to schedule one activity per day right on your calendar in the middle of your day. The only condition is, it must be something you really look forward to doing.

Once again, you can download that comprehensive list right here.

I can hear you screaming, "But when am I going to get all my work done?"

Here’s the counter-intuitive reality you’ll experience:

You’ll be much more inclined to work before you experience your fun activity (like gleefully completing all of your nagging tasks before leaving on vacation) and you’ll be much more productive and efficient while doing the work.

Why? Because you now have your fun activity breathing down your back forcing you to get as much done before you HAVE TO go enjoy yourself.

It’s time for you to commit to adding fun activities each day into your life, for the betterment of yourself, your business, your family and your community. Stated more simply, have fun each day and you’ll be more successful.

If you aren’t already enjoying each and every day, you are missing out on something tremendous. If you’re ready to make more and enjoy your life to the fullest, here’s all you have to do:

Step 1 – Review the pdf and highlight, underline or check the activities that you believe you would enjoy, that you can do without too much coordination with others, and can be completed from start to finish in less than two hours (you must come up with at least 21 of them).

Step 2 – Keep that list handy and break out your calendar, your to-do list, or whatever you use to schedule your day. Be proactive, start scheduling fun activities right now. Go ahead, really reward yourself. Do it for the next 21 days, I promise it will be worth it.

Step 3 – Whatever you do, don’t break the pattern. Make sure you do this each and every day. You’ll find yourself looking forward to new and fun events as you come up with more and more of them. By making them a central part of your day, and by including others, you’ll get the real benefit of refocusing your attention on what matters, and away from what manages to drive you nuts and suck the life out of your business.

Remember: Fun is an infinitely refreshing resource and the more we dip into it, the better we’ll all be.

It is imperative to “schedule” some spontaneous play into your day. Be a child again. Make play a part of every day and learn to smile again. An added benefit will be the great ideas that come to you when you are out there having fun. (Haven’t you ever noticed that your best ideas come when you are away from your computer, work or office?)

Apply this seemingly simple principle – adding fun to every day – and you’ll find, in short order, that you will be more productive. You’ll feel more refreshed, less frustrated and increasingly eager to get your work done so you can race to the next fun item on your calendar. It’s a built-in reward system – the “workday candy” that we offer ourselves – that keeps us focused and going strong.

Get the list here…

Don’t you want to have more fun?

Just to be clear, the key to the “21 things you enjoy” exercise is not to shirk work or otherwise diminish your self-worth and work responsibilities. Quite the contrary. Scheduling more guilt-free play in your life can attack the underlying causes of procrastination, lack of focus and marginalized results. It’ll make you a much more productive, lively and enjoyable person. I promise!

It’s time to change the way we speak to ourselves about our work. It’s time for a total attitude change when it comes to looking through our own prism of productivity.

The importance of play must be emphasized in business, particularly in an age that sucks us in through incessant information overload. You’ve heard me rail about this many times before.

There has to be a separation in life that provides a necessary “breather” in our busy schedules. Looking forward to fun activities allows us the oxygen to move forward with confidence and our full focus.

Should we throw away our career responsibilities, ignore pressing deadlines and avoid the hard work that needs to get done? Of course not. However, recognizing that we are more likely to work productively when we can anticipate pleasure and success can prove to be a tremendous advantage for our personal health and the health of our respective businesses as well.

Let me know what you think and what exciting ideas and inspirations have come from your newly scheduled fun time. Keep me and the rest of my readers updated on your success with this unconventional, yet highly rewarding strategy.

Now, go have some fun!

To Higher Profits,
Rich Schefren

P.S. I’ll have a lot more in store for you over the next few weeks, including the final installment of my Attention Age Doctrine.

If you are new to this blog or if you would just like to join in the fun – literally – check out the list of enjoyable things to do and add your own recommendations. Make sure fun is an important part of your day. Then post a comment to let me know how you made out.