درسنامه اصلی

Decisiveness

Hi, I’m AJ and welcome to this month’s VIP lesson.

Ten years ago, ten years ago I started Effortless English. This is our 10 year anniversary. In fact, this month, end of October actually, so, but right about now, 10 years ago I started Effortless English. And this got me thinking about the history of Effortless English and especially the early days of Effortless English. I’ve told different stories about the early days.

Let’s go back though, to the very, very beginning of Effortless English, before I started Effortless English. Now before I started Effortless English I was working part-time in San Francisco, so I was teaching about 20 hours a week in an English school in San Francisco. And generally I enjoyed it. It was a good job actually, I had a lot of freedom. I fully developed my Effortless English system there where I got to practice lots of techniques. I had the freedom to practice all the different techniques.

And I was thinking that I wanted to do something. I was thinking, you know, maybe I should start my own program. At that time I already had a blog, right, an online blog. So I would write about my teaching ideas. I would write about my teaching experiences and my teaching methods, and lots and lots and lots of students were coming to my website, coming to my blog reading about my techniques, my recommendations, my experiments in my classes and they were very excited and they kept asking me, AJ, do you have any lessons? Do you have a course? I would like to get a course from you.

Of course, because I was getting these requests all the time it got me thinking, ah, maybe I should start my own program, start my own company and sell my lessons online. But I didn’t really know much about business, you know, I had been a social worker in the past and then became an English teacher. I was not a businessperson in the past. So, I thought like, oh what should I do? How should I do it, if I did a business, if I did a course, how would I sell it? What would I do? Maybe I could, uh, maybe I could just sell advertisements. I could sell ads on my website, so when people visit my website and they click the ads then I would make some money. A lot of websites do this.

I though oh, or maybe I could have like a member site where like our VIP Program now, where people pay every month and then I make new lessons. But then I thought, well, uh, or maybe I could just record a course and do the whole course as a one-time payment and I could sell that online. Then I thought, well, how will I do the website because there needs to be a payment system of some kind? And, how do I track the people and how do I send them the files they need for the course? I found lots of different websites and programs and all kinds of different ones.

And I had no experience doing it, so I didn’t know, which one should I do? Should I try this one or this one, this system or that system, each one had different features, different strong points, different weaknesses? Then I thought uh, how do I record? How do I make the course? Should I do video? But I don’t have any money, but maybe I could go find a cheap video camera, I could do that. Or maybe I should only do audio, hmm, I don’t know maybe I could do that. Ah, where should I record it? Like for the best quality audio I should go to an audio studio. But that’s expensive and at that time I had very, very, very little money. San Francisco is a very expensive city. I was not making a lot of money and I was only working half time.

All these questions, and the more I did research the more options, the more choices I had, the more books I read about business and Internet business the more ideas I got and the more choices I had. It was completely overwhelming.

And then I thought, how do I choose I don’t know which one’s correct. I don’t know which is the best one. I had no experience. I was not a business expert. I was not an Internet expert. None of that, the technical stuff, I didn’t know any of it. It was so hard to think, which one, this or that or this, there were like 100 different choices I needed to make and I really, honestly just didn’t know. I really had no idea if this was better than this, if one website was better than another. I had no idea whether selling advertisements was better or trying to sell courses was better. I had no idea if a member site would be better or a one-time payment would be better. I had no idea if I should do video or audio or something else. I thought about doing live personal Skype lessons, right, just talking on Skype to people and doing one-on-one lessons, charge per hour.

That’s also a good idea, some people are doing that now. So, oh my God, overwhelmed by indecision. Maybe you know this feeling. I think most of us have this happen in our lives, especially with things that are important, especially when we’re trying to do something that is important and new, especially when we face problems and we don’t have experience, we don’t have knowledge, we’re not experts. Especially when we have a dream or a big goal, how do we get there? So many choices, so much information, so many possibilities; overwhelming, overwhelming.

Well, a lot of people at this point where I was, at that point right there, they don’t do anything. A lot of people get stuck in that part, that point in the process and they never achieve anything. We have a phrase in English, it’s an idiom. It’s called ‘paralysis of analysis’ or ‘paralysis by analysis’, the ‘paralysis of analysis’, it means that if you analyze a problem or a goal or a plan, if you analyze it too much you become paralyzed you can’t move, you get stuck. There are too many choices, too much information, too many possible problems, too many things can go wrong, too many possibilities and many of us can just get stuck paralyzed, like you can’t move. This happens actually, with many, many people; I would say probably with most people, especially entrepreneurs, people who want to start their own business.

So many people ask me, AJ, how can I start my own business? What should I do? Can you help me, give me advice? Well, most of them are stuck at that point, ‘paralysis of analysis’, just as I was. Ooh too much, I don’t know what to do, right! And the truth is, it’s uncertainty that is causing the problem. It’s too much uncertainty, you just don’t know, you have no idea what will happen next. You don’t know. If I choose this what will happen? No idea. If I choose this what will happen? No idea. Just like me, I had no idea. What if I had decided to try advertising instead? What if I had tried to make Effortless English an advertising business?

I would do lessons and courses and articles and try to sell ads on my website, would that have been a good decision? I don’t know, honestly, because I didn’t do it. I chose not to do that for, I think I have good reasons I didn’t want to do it, but I really don’t know maybe I would be making more money now. Maybe it would have been a big failure, I don’t know. This is what scares people the, I don’t know; ‘paralysis of analysis’. How did I escape it? How did I get out?

Well, there comes a point where you just have to decide and you just decide, decide and decide. You just start making fast powerful decisions. Fast decisions, fast decisions, fast decisions. You don’t know if they’re good decisions. You don’t know if they’re bad decisions. But let me tell you something, in many areas of life, any decision is better than no decision. A strong decision will beat paralysis. So, in many areas of life and many times in life you just need to decide and act, and that along will increase your chance of success, just by acting, deciding and acting, deciding and acting, quickly again and again and again and again and again will lead you to success and that’s what I did. I didn’t know so I just said okay, enough of this. Enough thinking, I have too much information I’m just going to decide.

You can just flip a coin. You can take a coin out of your pocket and flip it; heads I’m doing this and then just act and do it. Decisiveness gives you so much power! And that’s what you need in these situations. So that’s what I did, I just decided, I’m going to try a member site that was my first decision. I’m going to record my lessons at home in the apartment. I’m going to only do audio lessons. I just decided those things I’m doing it, because I’m gonna act fast. If I have to do a studio the quality will be better, but then it’s super slow. I have to save money. It would take many, many, many, many months. Instead, I’m gonna do my best at home. As a result, what I recorded was the original course and if you listen carefully in the original course you can hear bus noises. Sometimes you can hear the noises of San Francisco in the background, because I recorded it at a desk in my apartment.

Now guess what happened? I tried the member site and actually that decision didn’t work at that time. Ten years ago it didn’t work, I found it too difficult to do it. Because I was still working a job I didn’t, I couldn’t keep making new lessons all the time it was too stressful. So I made a change and I changed to a different kind of website. I changed and I just sold the original course as one, one-time payment, one course. And I switched from one website system to WordPress, which I’m still using now. So all my decisions were not good actually, some of them didn’t work, but it got me moving. I took action. I made decisions and took action and when you do that, when you make a decision and you take action, well, then you get more information, then you can make another decision and your next decision will probably be better.

Maybe your second decision’s still. Well, you’ll get more information, something will happen and then your third decision will have a better chance of success. This is why decisions are more powerful than analysis, than thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking, thinking all the time. Some thinking’s good, but we can do way too much of it and then it becomes a big problem, ‘paralysis of analysis’.

As a result of this, as a result of just deciding, I decided to decide. It’s a little strange to say it but that’s what I did. My number one decision was to be decisive, that’s really the thing that brought me the success I have today, that one decision. I decided I’m not going to be paralyzed, I’m going to be decisive. I decided to be decisive. I’m going to make decisions. I’m going to make them quickly and I’m going to act on them immediately. That’s my strategy. That really was my only strategy. My only true, big long-term strategy was be decisive. Everything else was flexible. But as a result of that, I just started making decisions boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, I just, a ton of action.

You know, I recorded that whole course very quickly. I tried one website, it didn’t work. I switched to a different kind of website. Tried a member program, that didn’t work. Switched to a one-time payment. I tried different kinds of advertising they didn’t work. Tried something else, finally found something that worked boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, so fast. I just kept deciding, deciding, deciding. I did not let myself get paralyzed. I did not let myself stop and think and worry and ohh what should I do next, I don’t know. None of that boom, boom, boom, boom, boom, decide, decide, decide, decide that was my mantra, my incantation that I repeated to myself again and again and again, decide, decide.

Any time I got worried, any time that it was a big problem, any time something didn’t work I just repeated to myself decide, decide, decide. As a result, most of you know this story, as a result, only six months’ later I quit my job. I was making enough money from Effortless English to live. I was making more money from Effortless English than my job, so I, again I decided right. This was another key point. It was another key decision. I was making enough money from Effortless English to pay my bills, our bills, my wife was living with me too.

So, I was only making enough, just enough to pay our bills- rent and food. And then I had to decide, do I commit to Effortless English 100%? It was a risk, because what if the business went down? Then I couldn’t pay my bills, so that job was a little extra safety. The paycheck from the job guaranteed that we could pay our bills. So again I had to decide, do I keep the job, but then I’d have less energy for Effortless English or do I cut the job, quit the job and put everything into the business and just take that risk? And that’s what I did. I said job’s done, goodbye, quit my job after six months’, everything. Again, very decisive, I just decided I am committed to Effortless English 100%. This is my life now. This is my passion. This is my mission that’s all. And, I continued deciding and the business just really grew so fast, in the first few years especially, just boom exploded! And here we are today, 10 years later.

Now all of that success, you know, I could tell you about little decisions I made that were really good, but I can also tell you lots and lots of decisions that were not good. I tried so many things I continue to this day to try many things and I’d say 80% of my decisions are not great. You know, probably 20-30% are just total failures, don’t work at all. Another 30-40% or something like that are just so-so. Only like 10 to 20% of them are really good strong successes. But that’s enough, that’s enough, that’s enough in life.

The military, you know, the Army, maybe Air Force, Marines in America, they have a phrase called ‘violence of action’. Another phrase, which George Bush liked to say, is ‘shock and awe’. Now, I’m not a fan of George Bush or any politician, honestly, I’m certainly not for war but, it is good to look at these ideas. Why? Because in the military, fighting, is a very, very, very obviously, dangerous world they live in. It’s life or death. You make a mistake in the Army you can die, your friends can all die. So, very, very, very big decisions that they make, very important, life or death.

And they have discovered, the military, most top military people will tell you that action usually wins. Decisiveness wins. So if you have two, let’s say you have two groups fighting against each other, two units in the military, in a battle. The decisive ones usually will defeat the indecisive ones. If one group is kind of scared and ah, worried, they don’t know what to do, they just kind of hide and the other group is very aggressive and attacks and very decisive, it’s usually the decisive aggressive force that will win, that is victorious.

We don’t want to hurt anybody, but we can use these ideas in our life still that you can see this idea, ‘violence of action’, not, it’s just a metaphor we’re not going to be really violent but what it just means is total action. It means fast, decisive action. It means you attack problems you don’t sit there and worry about them and think about them, you attack problems aggressively. You attack your dream aggressively. You attack your goals aggressively. I see this all the time in health and fitness, health and fitness, another area I’m excited about that I love.

And, I’m reasonably healthy and reasonably fit, pretty good. We can always be better. I have better goals. But, compared to most Americans I’m in very good shape, okay. So, again, a lot of people, especially Americans, asking me oh AJ you know, what should I do? How can I be healthy? What’s the best diet? What’s the best exercise? And guess what happens again? Paralysis of analysis.

So many people who are just very overweight and not fit, you know, they’re weak and they have all these pains and then they, what do they do they waste all their time worrying about, well, which diet is the best? Should I do the paleo diet? Should I be a vegetarian? Should I be a vegan? There’s a primal diet, and they just think and worry, and then they read all these articles, oh, some people say the paleo diets not good. Oh, other people say the paleo diets fantastic. Some people say vegans not good for you, other people say it’s great for you. Oh, I don’t know what should I do? Oh, oh, and they just get paralyzed. And what do they do, they just keep eating junk food and the same garbage and they keep eating too much, and they stay overweight they stay unhealthy.

In fitness same thing. Which exercise should I do? Should I walk? Should I run? Should I lift weights? Should I do body weight? Push-ups, pull-ups, should I do yoga? People go oh no this one’s better, no this one’s better. It’s better if you lift weights. It’s better if you run. No, too much running’s bad for you, on and on and on, and then again people are paralyzed. I don’t know what should I do? And again what happens? They get paralyzed and they do nothing, they just sit on their butt and watch TV all day, and they stay unhealthy.

You want to get healthy? Choose and do something. Decide. It doesn’t matter which one you do, just choose and do one. Choose one of the diets and try it. Do it for 60 days. Do you think paleo sounds interesting? Just do it! Do it! Do it for 60 days, see what happens. If you think being a vegan might be right for you, fine do it! Do it! Do it for 60 days. Just decide and do it. Decisiveness will get you to better health, not eh, what should I do I don’t know which ones the best? You don’t need the best you just need something better. You don’t need the best you need something better.

Same with fitness. Should I walk, should I run? Do one of them, just choose which one sounds interesting to you. Walking sound good, fine, get out there walk every day 30 minutes, one hour, whatever. You think doing kettle bells, you know, which are a kind of weights? That looks cool to you, just do it, it doesn’t matter. It doesn’t matter if it’s the best exercise it’s better than sitting on your butt. So choose one and do it or choose two and do it, just choose, decide, do it! That action that decisiveness will get you to your goal of great health, great fitness much faster than sitting and worrying and trying to figure out the perfect exact best way.

You don’t need perfect. You don’t need best. You just need better than now. That’s all you need

In life, think of it this way. You can have a mediocre plan. Mediocre means so-so, not great, not terrible, just eh. You can have a mediocre plan, but be decisive. So mediocre plan and decisive will almost always beat a great plan but hesitant. Hesitant means you wait, you’re slow, you’re indecisive. So a mediocre so-so plan usually is going to beat a great plan, but indecisive so you don’t need a great plan. You don’t need the best. You need to decide and take action that’s with anything in your life, you’re relationships. If there’s a problem in your relationship, well, just decide what, just think, what’s the first thing you can think of? The first thing? What could help my relationship? Boom! You should have at least one or two ideas pop in your head, pick one, do it. That’s it. You don’t need to read 100 books. You don’t need the perfect plan. Pick one, do it. That’s it. Then, if it doesn’t work doesn’t matter, what do you do the next day? Another idea, try it. Do it. That’s all. That’s the secret of success in life. I’m telling you the big secret. I know it doesn’t seem like a big secret. People don’t really write books about this right. Everybody’s looking for the perfect plan and the exact formula for success in everything, but truthfully this is really the ultimate success formula, if you will, and it’s just, be decisive.

Certainly in any competitive area decisiveness will lead to victory. See, the world is full, looking outside the window right now at the world and the world is full of indecisive, fearful worrying people. The world has been trained this way. Most people have been trained to be passive by school systems. Ninety-nine percent of the people in the world they go to school, they go to government schools, they’re trained to be passive, indecisive, waiting to be told what to do. They’re trained by the media, by the television, even by the Internet to be fearful and to worry and oh, I’m not good enough. And so you’ve got a whole world out there, billions of people who are indecisive worriers.

That’s why the decisive ones are so successful. Because while everybody else is waiting, you are deciding and acting, deciding and acting, deciding and acting. You don’t really have to be great, you just have to be decisive and you will be successful.

Look again at me. I have become the number one English teacher in the world, in terms of influence, in terms of how many people know me, individual English teacher. There’s bigger companies, but in terms of an individual English teacher, I have become the number one English teacher in the world, the most influential, well-known in the whole world. I did it just by myself, I don’t have a big company, just me. How did I do it!? Why me and why not others? Because, all the others were sitting around waiting, hesitating. They could have done it, but they didn’t they just sat around waiting and I acted and acted. I decided and acted, decided and acted, I was super decisive, I moved so quickly and I built this whole huge international community online. That’s why I became the number one English teacher in the world.

They, all the other ones waited, and then finally they saw me being successful. And then later they tried to copy me and there’s bunches and bunches, lots of them out there trying to copy me in different ways. They may have a little success, but none of them are as successful as I am. And it’s not because I’m a super genius and that they’re stupid, no. It’s because they were hesitant they waited. They were indecisive. They were unsure. They worried too much, and I just decided and acted very quickly again and again and again. I moved faster, that’s why I became number one. That’s the main reason.

You can do it too in your life and that’s what I want you to do this month.

As you know you always have a action, a call to action we call it. I’m giving you a call to action right now. At the end of each video every month. Well, this is your call to action. This is what I want you to do this month. You have a dream. You have a big goal. You have something in your life that’s important to you. You’ve dreamed about it. Maybe you’ve pushed it away and forgot about it. Maybe you worried about eh, or maybe you have just a really big problem, but either way something that’s there that you’ve been worrying about, I know, you’ve been fretting and worrying about it and thinking about it. Enough!

This month you decide. Just decide on a plan. Just say I’m doing this. It doesn’t have to be good. It might be a really bad decision it doesn’t matter. Decide and act and this month, all month you’re going to act, act, act. Decide and act, decide and act, fast, fast, fast, fast, fast. You’re going to attack this problem. You’re going to attack this dream. You’re going to attack this goal. Violence of action, super decisive. Forget being good. Forget being great. Forget being perfect. Forget making good decisions, you’re just going to act decide, decide act, act decide, decide act, it’s an endless cycle… decide act, decide act, decide act, as fast as you can this month. That’s all.

Attack your goal. Attack your dream. Tell me about it on Twitter or Gab.

See you next month, bye for now.