This may disturb you a little.
(It’s disturbing to me, and I don’t disturb easy…)
Last week while hanging out with this ER doctor friend, we got to rapping about when she was doing her residency, and how she and her colleagues would work 100+ hour weeks getting barely any sleep at all. (She said she would just sleep in the break room of the hospital for a few hours — wasn’t even worth going home since she’d have to be back in 4 hours anyway).
And no, that’s not the disturbing part.
The disturbing part is:
They would perform surgeries that way!
Can you imagine that?
Right now, there are people in hospitals having surgery performed on them by people who have been working for days with little (and maybe no) sleep at all.
Nice thought isn’t it?
But, here’s the way I see it:
That’s how you get truly GREAT at something.
Anyone can perform tasks when it’s easy.
When there’s no pain involved.
And, when well rested.
But when you’re pushed to your physical, mental and emotional limits… when you’re going on pure adrenaline… when your body is about to collapse and your mind is about to shut down… and you still keep going… that’s when you get truly great at what you do.
It can be for anything, too.
Not just performing surgeries.
But also in business.
In fact, here’s another true story:
The biggest “growth spurt” I had in email was in 2011.
I had this burning desire to be liberated from client work and the path I’d chosen was to do what one of my business partners Rich Bryda had done:
Article marketing.
The plan went like this:
I’d write 1,000 articles in this special SEO way he invented.
He had built a business of $70k per year doing nothing (and I mean literally nothing but play with his kids all day) by throwing up 1,000 or so articles using his method, and those articles closed in on nearly $100k per year (like clockwork) for 2 straight years.
That was without affiliates.
And, without a back end.
Yeah, I wanted in on that!
So, that January I got started.
I was writing up to 20 ezine articles per day for article sites, plus 5 articles per day for the site I was building (unique articles, not the same as the ones I submitted to article sites), plus 5 emails per day to add to the auto-responder I was building (different content than the articles, too)… plus my BenSettle.com daily email, plus writing and editing the Crypto Marketing Newsletter I was selling at the time. Plus, countless numbers of emails and sales letters I was doing for a client who had me on retainer (i.e. I was their bitch) where I wrote over 100 emails for their auto-responder and a crap load of sales letters, video scripts, tele-seminar pitches, splash pages, and the list goes on. (They had just partnered with a celebrity author, and so I also had to create all NEW funnel emails and ads for that guy’s stuff…)
It was nutzo.
I remember going to bed at 1 or 2 am each night.
(If I was lucky.)
Waking at 5 or 6.
And hitting it hard — 7 days per week for almost 2 months.
I’d go to bed with my mind frazzled.
Often, I didn’t sleep at all.
(I went entire consecutive nights without sleep.)
All that writing was playing tricks on my brain making me hear and see things that weren’t there… my eyes were constantly bloodshot with dark circles around them… and, frankly, my health was starting to suffer. (On the bright side I got into kick ass shape, though, as between each article or email I’d bang out a set of 10+ pull ups.)
Did all this work?
Did it liberate me from client work?
Uhm, no.
Not even close.
And you want to know why?
It’s because the very NEXT week when I finished all this work I took a trip to visit my dad to get away… and when I got there, Google did their “slap” on the article directories!
I went from getting 2-3 sales per day to goose eggs.
Articles that were ranked on Google on page 1?
Not even on page 10.
The whole thing just collapsed.
And, needless to say, it sucked.
But, something interesting happened.
When I got back to work, working normal hours again… and getting sleep again… it’s like my writing abilities were genetically enhanced!
I was writing FASTER than I ever thought possible.
And with way less editing.
(Often no editing.)
And, with a much higher quality of work.
My emails and ads also had more “depth.”
They were more entertaining and fun.
And, they made LOTS more sales.
It’s like all that writing and slaving away gave my brain super powers. And even now, I can bang out emails and sales letters in a small fraction of the time it takes everyone else I know in this business. Ideas for content and ads come to me without effort 99/100 times. And, I’m banging out more projects in a month than most people online probably do in a year.
It’s just automatic now.
I don’t even have to think.
If I need to write an email or a new issue of my “Email Players” newsletter or a sales letter or a new kindle book (even an entire novel which I recently finished the first draft of) or an article/email/ad for one of the businesses I joint venture in… it just flows out as easily and effortlessly as lies flow from a politician’s lips.
Anyway, here’s the point:
You want to get GOOD at something?
I mean REALLY good?
Where you’re in the top 1% of performers of whatever it is you do on the entire planet?
Push yourself.
Make yourself do the impossible.
Go longer than possible.
Last longer than possible.
Grow some balls and make it HURT.
Yes, it’ll suck.
And yes, make sure it’s something you like doing.
But the results will speak for themselves.
Just ask my doctor friend. Her and her colleagues don’t even think about it. Performing surgeries is routine. What was once complicated and hard Childs play.
And it’s the same with writing emails, etc.
I don’t know who said it.
But I like this quote:
“Don’t wish it was easier, which you were better.”
Hey, you want to get good (really good) at email?
Blow right past your competition?
Make more sales than you thought possible?
Then I’m your huckleberry, babycakes.
Each “Email Players” issue gives you lots of ideas to start applying day after day. Some issues even include the “short cuts” I had to invent during that time when I was writing like a fiend just to keep up with everything.
Best part:
If you have a good list and offer, you earn while you learn.
Ain’t nuttin’ better.
Here’s where to subscribe:
Ben Settle
