Find Your Carrot: How to Locate the Thing that Drives You Forward
The secret to doing something on the next level is loving that you’re doing it. It’s not about an addiction or an obsession, but instead about finding the thing that truly brings you fulfilment, so that you can design a life around doing the thing you want to do most—and doing the best at it.
Finding your carrot is not that easy. It’s not always one thing. Sometimes it’s a way of doing things, and other times it’s that you’re never doing the same thing. Your carrot may be hidden behind a lot of other wants and goals.
Here’s how I found that thing and created the motivation that drives me toward it every day:
How I Found My Carrot
I Tried Everything
I make a habit of never saying no to an opportunity, even if that means I have to learn how to do it right then and there. Even it if takes me away from more pressing matters. Within means, say yes to everything as long as you don’t end up hurting yourself or someone else. You just don’t know what’s under that rock until you flip it over.
One thing I don’t mind crediting myself with is going IN on ideas. I don’t half-ass my commitment, resources, or money allocated. I, for better or for worse, go for it. With experience, the number of times I win on those investments is going up with every crazy project I take on.
It’s like a venture, you have to cut a lot of checks. The only difference: I am not just cutting a check, I am throwing myself and all my resources into it as well. Only then will I know if it will or won’t pan out.
I Engaged With People Who Love What They Do
Like any entrepreneur, I go through highs and lows. I get highs when I don’t have what I want, and lows when I do. One thing that helps me refocus, and perhaps find a new carrot, is learning about what others are doing and chasing. I think half the equation is probably the energy of their high, their chasing of their carrot.
What I find happens more times than not, synergy. They are doing something that complements something I am, or I want to do. That missing piece of a puzzle I may have been putting together some time before.
Perfect example: I flew to SF to meet a client of mine for lunch. He and I got to talking about how I wanted to start a law firm or legal lead gen site. Well, it just so happens he wants to do the same and has the connections to make it a reality. Bingo, there’s my carrot again.
I restructured my life so that I could handle increased responsibilities
With a bunch of carrots (see what I did there) a normal 9-5 day isn’t going to cut it. I model my schedule after what I understand Elon Musk’s to look like. He breaks his day up between companies. I do the same. 3 hours on the agency, 3 hours on our outsourcing company, 3 hours on a new product, and so on. You must be strict, or else your projects get neglected and your carrot shrivels up.
This means I don’t live a normal life, but you know what you signed up for right? If I am not sleeping (I schedule 5 hours per night), eating or spending time with family, I am working. Speaking of family, 16 hours, 5 days a week doesn’t work if you don’t communicate with your loved ones. Expectations must be clear. When you are working, you work. When you’re with them, the phone isn’t. Watching sports? Hahaha.
I Built a Team to Disperse the Tasks That Are Less Interesting to Me, so I Could Focus on the Carrot
It’s hard to chase your carrot if you if you don’t have all the resources and competencies to make it happen. The carrot can become real distant, sometimes too distant to reach. Having a team of professionals at your disposal, an infrastructure if you will, goes a long way. When I want to build something, I can have a prototype in less than a week, and test PMF in less than two. Speed to execute makes every idea easier to tackle.
What I did was build an infrastructure that was paid by recurring client work. That way they are always there working with me anyways. All I need to do is to have them occasionally shift their focus from time to time. Which I am sure they appreciate given the sometimes mundane, repetitive client work they do.
