What Leads to Success - Richard St. John on TED

Whilst getting stuck on Task 1 of Challenge 1 and pretty much giving in, throwing my towel without much trying, because I just can't see anything that way, I remembered the slide I have saved to my documents after watching this TED talk:




The slide is this:

1. Passion - I have lots of it, but it seems that it's not for making money. Getting myself to sell stuff on ebay is like sliding on a barb wire to a pool of acid. When I do things I'm interested in and passionate about, time disappears, I'm in state of flow and things can move forward. I believe there are things among my passions that could bring money as well, but the fear of losing my job (and the resulting pressure on making money) is a show stopper. The other solution would be to allow myself time for a week of mornings as a test, and mitigating fear of losing my job by doing the fear setting exercise. 

2. Work - I'm fine with that when I'm interested in what I'm doing and believe in it.

3. Good - this is my Achilles Heel. It's not that I don't believe that I couldn't become good at anything, but rather not allowing myself time for it.

4. Focus - same as above, but treating time as a currency gives me a chance of focusing my energy on one thing. Then there's just being honest about using that time and slaying my distraction enemies.

5. Push - Don't know how to approach it, I'm not a big fan of push.

6. Serve - Millionaires serve things of value. This I'm comfortable with and believe I can do it, but only if I stop pressuring myself to make money first. Building this blog up and creating tools for me and other people is one idea I can create value (hence going through Challenge 1 seems pointless, when I already have something of value - now it's a case of finding my niche)

7. Ideas - tons of that; only need to allow TIME and energy to test them

8. Persistence - I can do it - I have done it. This comes down to doing it one thing at a time and deciding on short time periods to keep the doubts away

I don't know if me not trying to complete this task comes from the fact that this task is NEW, DIFFICULT to me or just plainly realizing the pointlessness and over-complicating of things (when I already have ideas, and ones I'm quite interested in - what lacks is the decision to test these, calculate potential profit and energy input). 

A friend on Tim's forum has pointed two the second potential reason and I can't help but I agree.

The problem that remains is that I still pressure myself and the reason seems to be fear of losing my day job (based on my job history - I never stayed in a job for long enough to make a career).

Perhaps the fear setting exercise is something I ought to consider but only after dedicating time to some idea testing.