I just wanted to share with you this post from Seth Godin’s blog. The article is basically about the tendency to keep good ideas down in favor of the current status quo. It’s a short little post, but I found it to be motivational.

There’s a myth that all you need to do is outline your vision and prove it’s right—then, quite suddenly, people will line up and support you.

In fact, the opposite is true. Remarkable visions and genuine insight are always met with resistance. And when you start to make progress, your efforts are met with even more resistance. Products, services, career paths… whatever it is, the forces for mediocrity will align to stop you, forgiving no errors and never backing down until it’s over.

The forces of mediocrity

Ever notice that being productive doesn’t always correlate to when you actually think you are going to be productive? When there are small almost trivial tasks they always seem to want to get in the way. For example I have only been writing this article for less than three sentences and I have had the urge to check my email already.

You can listen to a podcast, write a report, instant message people, and drive to work at the same time and barely remember much of it at all. Or you can focus your energy on a project and get closer to your goal. That end result is what really matters for the particular task, and if you produce results that are lacking it will always show.

Have you ever fooled yourself into thinking that you are getting work done when you are actually distracted by so many tasks? Not so long ago, Katie wrote about getting rid of the nagging tasks, and this is doing just that. You have three options.

• Do them.
• Put them off until later.
• Drop them.

Of course which one you choose is ultimately up to you and the results will reflect you personally. What is the importance of each task? Will it be there tomorrow? Are you going to hurt or help your brand by neglecting or doing this task immediately?

So, are you ready to get some work done today?