When Was The Last Time You Had Blueberries?

I know what you're thinking. What in bloody hell do blueberries have to do with anything valuable in business?

Well, quite a lot actually. I'll get to that soon. But first, a couple of fun facts.

You see, blueberries are considered one of the world's top super foods.

If Blueberries Are So Good For You, Why Do You Rarely Eat Them?

Just like anything else in life, doing things that are good for you, like eating vegetables, exercising regularly and getting adequate sleep requires discipline.

Adjacent to discipline, consuming blueberries and other super foods on a daily basis also requires focus and intentional improvement.

My good friend Rob Jeppsen introduced me to the idea of daily intentional improvement, and it really works if you commit to it.

The core framework behind daily intentional improvement is the aggregation of marginal gains.

Failures Don't Like To Eat Blueberries

In business (and life) there are common denominators of success, whether we realize it or not.

“The common denominator of success --- the secret of success of every man who has ever been successful --- lies in the fact that he formed the habit of doing things that failures don't like to do.” - Albert E.N. Gray 

The next question of course then would be - what are the things that failures don't like to do?

Of course in a metaphoric sense, eating blueberries is one of them.

But going deeper, it's really about developing good habits.

Buy A New Car Tomorrow, or Own Real Estate in 10 Years?

Land is an appreciating asset. It's much harder to acquire, but more valuable once you get it.

A car is a depreciating asset. Anyone with decent credit can get one almost immediately, but it loses value as soon as you drive it off the lot.

Failures are influenced by the desire of obtaining instant gratification. Their judgment is clouded by following the shortest path to their most shallow desires.

Failures are generally satisfied with the results that are obtained by doing the things they like to do.

Why Are Winners Able To Consistently Eat Blueberries?

It's not hard to eat blueberries every day. Just like it's not hard to obsessively proofread important documents and emails to your prospect before it gets sent.

But you don't always do it. This is what separates success and failure.

Winners are able to do things they don't like to do because they have purpose.

That sense of purpose is strong enough to make them form the habit of doing things they don't like to do in order to accomplish their goals.

In a recent post I wrote about my grandma's powerful influence on my life, I mentioned the importance of doing stuff that sucks.

I wrote a list of stuff that sucks, and I hold myself accountable to doing them.

Do Stuff That Sucks If You Want To Be Successful

Habits are cultivated, whether we realize it or not. If they are not good habits, they are bad habits - there's really no in between.

The only way to change bad habits, is to counter them by forming good ones.

Albert Gray says that success habits in sales can be divided into three main groups:

1. Prospecting habits
2. Calling habits
3. Selling habits

I'd propose a parallel to success habits in marketing as follows:

1. Strategic habits
2. Execution habits
3. Optimization habits

In both scenarios, one habit compliments the next. If just one habit is broken, the rest are likely to fail.

Eat Your Blueberries

I'd urge you to start eating your blueberries (yes I want you to get healthier).

More importantly, I'd urge you to start forming the right habits, and break the bad ones.

It starts with defining your success, and what is required of you to achieve it.

What's The ONE Thing You've Been Putting Off For Too Long?

Start with that one thing and go do it. Nothing crazy, try something small to get some momentum going.

Maybe it's cutting out junk food.

Maybe it's retroactively diving into your CRM and reaching back out to every single lost deal from 6 months or older.

Maybe it's committing to content marketing by publishing 1x per week LinkedIn post every Thursday afternoon (and sticking to it).

Maybe it's achieving inbox zero for the first time in months (I just did and it feels amazing).

Maybe it's a commitment to only take external business calls on Tuesdays & Thursdays so you can spend more time accomplishing deep work.

Whatever it is, figure it out and hold yourself accountable.

If you do the things that failures don't like to do, you'll get the results that failures wish they could have - Me