28 Apr Do what you are avoiding to enjoy instant benefits!

What tasks are you avoiding?

Do them NOW to create your own good luck. Today’s post is how this has recently worked for me, some of the benefits that I’ve enjoyed, and why my image has now had about a half million views online.

Last week after doing some tasks that I had been avoiding, I was rewarded with multiple pieces of good news. The first one was mostly just entertaining, the second one quite profitable.

A friend contacted me online to tell me that I had been featured in a prominent business article. I wish that I could boast that the 300,000+ views that it had generated had to do with my witty discourse but that was not the case. Initially I was excited. “What was this about?”, I thought. Had I done something newsworthy?

But I got a little nervous when I read the title of the link to the article. “Top Rookie Manager Mistakes (That Make You Look Like a Jerk).  There was no interview but there was a photo. My photo! The final image of me below was used at the top of this very well read article.

I found this amusing as my friend and photographer Anthony DeLorenzo had mentioned to me a couple of years ago that this particular image had been around the internet with tens of thousands of views already. But this was the first time that it had ever reached me online. And even though it’s a ridiculous photo of me about to eat dirt, I must admit I got a kick out of knowing that it had been seen hundreds of thousands of times online. It was just a bonus that he happened to be trying out the burst feature on his new camera at the time.

Here are the images that led up to that accident. I can happily report that I was not seriously injured in the fall.

One lesson that I took from these photos and from my first real day of mountain biking was that if you don’t fully commit to something, there’s a good chance it won’t work out for you. I can remember going into that jump apprehensively, not really committing to the jump and splat! I wiped out.

Commit fully to what you believe, to get the results you want to achieve.

In the same morning I received great news from a colleague who had a potential facilitation gig for me using my Ping-Pong workshop. I know that this good piece of professional news could not logically be linked to the fact that I’d just knocked off a number of challenging tasks off my to-do list, but the timing of his offer was telling. Might there have been a connection to me clearing some things out of my mind to allow space for some more business and income? I think this could very well be so. Unfortunately for now, I can’t prove this. All I can do is tell the story…

I believe that somehow mysteriously amazing things happen once you clear the clutter in your mind or in your day-to-day business.

Do what you are avoiding doing to enjoy instant benefits!

The surfacing of this photo made me think of how my image also got used last year on CTV and was seen on international TV.

Late summer last year I was contacted by friends again through social media as they reported having seen my face on TV. This has happened a few times as I’ve done a little acting, but now something was different. I watched this episode of, “The Listener” that they had indicated and indeed saw my face in a couple of scenes.

This was amusing as I had not auditioned for this job or even submitted my photo! Somehow the production company had obtained my image and used it without my permission. Interesting. Here’s that video clip.

When I spoke to my agent in Toronto to see about getting paid he thanked me for pointing it out. He was also unaware that my image was used! After multiple emails were exchanged between my agent, ACTRA and the production company, I was finally paid for the use of my photo. At under $300 it was not much but to date it remains the best paid gig that I never showed up or even auditioned for. Good times!

In other good news on that day I also was asked to deliver a demo presentation for a potential marquee client and I had a great walk / visit with my father.

I learned of the concept to do the things that you are avoiding doing from Robin Sharma’s book, “The Monk

Who Sold His Ferrari”. This is a book I strongly recommend. His work is for anyone who likes well written stories with practical advice on how to live a more meaningful and fulfilling life. Also check out, “Letters From The Monk Who Sold His Ferrari”.

People say that things happen in 3s so I wonder when and where my next high profile image will show up.

Read Me

While I’m entertained to see my smiling face ending up in interesting parts of our media-driven world, I look forward to seeing it when there’s a little more depth behind the story. Perhaps it will be from some of the work I’m currently doing or will be me promoting my upcoming book on the power of unexpected connections…

Until we meet again Internet, it’s time for me to take off.