✨ the SPARK 166 ~ Inspiration or Comparison?

Welcome to the 166th issue of the SPARK. A weekly newsletter where inspiration meets real online strategies, behind-the-scenes stories, and a boatload of valuable resources.

Hi, Reader,

Well… we’re mid-January, and the “newness” of the year has worn off.

How are you feeling?

Still motivated? Still excited?

I feel like I’m still working through what to eliminate so I can have the type of year I want.

And by the way, there’s no right or wrong as to whether or not you’re still feeling the excitement of the New Year (if you felt it at all).

If you’re not feeling it… I’d highly recommend looking at what you can remove from your to-do list or plans so that you can put the energy you do have into focused, inspired action.

In addition to what tasks/plans you can remove (as I shared recently, not everything can be a priority), think about the things that pull your attention in a different direction and create doubt.

Here’s what I mean:

In a recent conversation with a friend, he was telling me that he realized that he needed to unsubscribe from some “gurus” lists because it was causing him to doubt himself or feel like he should be doing more/different.

It wasn’t that the content wasn’t valuable, but it wasn’t helping him stay focused on his own goals.

Not from a “Look, a squirrel!” place (we all do this at times), but from a “Should I be doing what they’re doing?” place.

Decide if the things you allow into your inbox/feeds/minds inspire you or derail you, even if the derailment is subtle.

Inspiration vs. Comparison.

You don’t need a psychology degree to know that inspiration feels good and comparison feels crummy. 😉

With the amount of content online now, it could be a full-time job just looking at what your competitors are doing, how they’re doing it, and whether or not you should be doing something different.

How do you want to feel?

image created by yours truly, with DALL-E

Most of the time, we don’t even realize we’re comparing ourselves to other people.

But your body can’t lie to you.

If consuming someone else’s content leaves you feeling like you’re not doing enough, you’re going to feel it.

Even if the content itself is uplifting.

On a deeper level, our ego starts “poking the bear,” if you will, with ‘not enoughness’…

This is why I LOVE my rule of three!

Hat tip (again) to Dr. Benjamin Hardy & Dan Sullivan for their book, “10X is Easier than 2X” (which is NOT about doing 10X more).

The point of this book is to focus on the 20% that gets you the best results and turn that into 80% of what you do.

This means letting the 80% of what brought you to where you currently are… go.

Doing the same things you’ve always done won’t get you to where you want to be.

My “rule of 3” is simple. I pick three tasks for each day. That’s it.

Of course I always do more, but the three tasks I choose are my priorities.

Every night, I have three things I journal about and then write down the next day’s three priorities.

I don’t need to spend hours in a planning tool each day (and ideally, once you’ve set up whatever tool you use, you don’t have to either).

Because I want more ease in my life, I keep this as simple as I possibly can.

And it works.

Lastly, a great question to ask yourself when you find yourself fighting or justifying why you don’t need to change your behavior:

“Are my existing behaviors working for me?”

Your answer should be a simple yes or no. If it’s no, why not try something different?

What have you got to lose?

SPARK Spotlight 🔥

You guys know how much I love KadenceWP… well, HOLY MOLY, this thing just got SO much better! Introducing Kadence AI!​

This isn’t just a plugin for producing content with AI in your site, this will help you create your site with AI. Watch the 2 min. video below to see what I mean (click the image or watch here).

A Little Brainpower 🧠

Well, this looks interesting & worth testing! “How I Skyrocketed My Blog Traffic: 0 To 70K Per Month With Google Discover.”​

I couldn’t agree more. “Humor Succeeds When It’s Relevant To Your Target Audience.”​

For all you Notion users. “Notion Is About to Change Everything. A Dive into AI-Enhanced Content Creation.”​

Tool Time 🛠

• Proposals: If you’re a creative agency, you can propose, bill, and get paid with one link. Try Tango free here.​
• YouTube: Create SEO-optimized articles from any YouTube video. Use YouTube Summarizer free here.​
• Notion: In case you missed it, Notion now has its own calendar. And it’s free. Use Notion Calendar free here.​
• Spreadsheets: For all you sheets fans…a next-generation AI spreadsheet tool. Try Equals free here.​

You’ve probably all seen this already, but in case you haven’t, be sure to check out the new GPT Store from Open AI. I’ve played with a bunch already. 😉

HAHA… not quite the point, but pretty funny. 🤣

So, did you see all the hype around ‘Skool’ last week?

If you’re not familiar with it, it’s a community and online learning platform developed by Sam Ovens. I’ve seen it before, but last week, the hype meter went through the roof because Alex Hormozi invested in it. 🙄

This is what I imagined happened to the Skool sign up page when Alex’s fans heard about this:

I’ve logged into Skool to check it out (free account) and wasn’t terribly impressed. That doesn’t mean it’s not a great solution for some people.

This isn’t about hating on Skool or Alex Hormozi… but at the end of the day, it’s still just a tool. 😉

Have a fantastic day my friends,
Kim