Freelancefolder

Why Keeping An “I Hate” List Can Make You Money

Posted September 17, 2007 in Productivity 4 Comments »

No business is perfect – especially when it’s a small business or one-person show.

There are always things you know you need to do that will make it easier to get your work done, find new clients and make your time more valuable.

But the barriers of time, resources, and motivation often stand in the way of a more profitable you. But it doesn’t have to be that way. In fact, you have the potential to rapidly boost your earnings simply by leveraging a powerful tool:

The “I Hate” List.

Read on to discover how.

The Power Of Hate (Used Wisely)

Now, I’m not one to advocate negativity in many areas of your life (for example, hating people isn’t very productive), but there’s one place you can use it to your advantage: In how you view your circumstances. The reason for this is because people don’t often make changes in their life until they’ve reached something called “threshold.”

Threshold is simply the invisible line in the sand where you’re so fed up with your situation that you finally do something about it, no matter how much work/pain is involved to do it. You’re so frustrated at where you are that you push yourself into taking the kind of action that moves you to the next level.

Most people don’t leverage this because they’re hanging out in a state we’ll just call dissatisfaction. It’s not thrilling, but it’s not strong enough to make you want to do the work to make a change.

Dissatisfaction Costs You Big Bucks

If you’re just dissatisfied, you won’t work hard to change. For example, maybe you dislike the hassle of dealing with the same old questions with each client, but you haven’t gotten around to making a “frequently answered questions” web page/document (because you don’t have the time). Or maybe you haven’t gotten around to building that nice upsell you know will increase your profit-per-client (because it’s a lot of work).

You could spin your wheels forever with dissatisfaction:

• (Sigh) “Answering the same questions over and over sucks.”
• (Sigh) “I wish I had an upsell so I could make more money.”

… but you know that won’t change things. So, you decide to make an “I Hate” list that keeps you focused on all the reasons why staying where you are is unacceptable:

• (Arrgh!) I hate losing money by answering these questions over and over again … I’m wasting time that I could be using to bring in new business or getting projects done faster.
• ($@&^!) I hate working so many more hours to make more money … if I had a high-profit upsell I could give myself a raise without a whole lot of extra work.

These are just quick examples, but I hope you see the point – to get yourself so fed up with your situation that you’ll change it, even if you have to work a few more hours or stay a little more focused.

How To Make The “I Hate” List Really Work

As in many other things, it’s easier said than done … so here are a few tips on boosting your chances of making this concept really deliver results for you:

• Look at your list every day, so that your sense of frustration at staying in your current circumstances grows.
• Update your list frequently with all the things you are missing out on, so that you have more reasons to take action.
• Follow up the “hate” with a compelling description of the reward (see the examples above).

Again, “hate” isn’t the most politically correct word these days, but I’m sure you see that it’s a good thing in this context.

Now It’s Your Turn: What’s On Your List?

What are you frustrated at in your business … and how are you going to frame it so that you take action? Let us know in the comments below.

Dave

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About the author: Dave Navarro is a business productivity coach who loves showing freelancers how to make more money and have more time for themselves. Get more of the good stuff at Rock Your Day or follow Dave on Twitter.