Just call me a softie  (as in soft-in-the-head.)  I was browsing thru Liz Strauss’ blog “Successful and Outstanding Bloggers” (SOB’s for short) and ran across her 2006 article “10 Skills Critical …” and thought to myself, no way. 

I don’t think I could muster all those skills in a lifetime.  It would be nice, but my brain would have a functional and personality meltdown!  My choice — have Scottie beam me back to 2002 or earlier when I at least thought I knew what was going on.

Take a gander at her list of “required” skills:

1. Deep independent thinking and problem solving.
2. Mental flexibility
3. Fluency with ideas
4. Proficiency with processes and process models
5. Originality of contributions
6. A habit of finding hidden assumptions and niches
7. A bias toward opportunity and action
8. Use all available tools, including the five senses and intuitive perceptions in data collection
9. Energy, enthusiasm and positivity about decision making
10. Self-sustaining productivity

These are the skills she says we’ll need going into the 21st century. 

Ouch!  I knew I had a long way to go, but now I have to get out my dictionary and hit a few wiki’s just to figure out what I don’t know.

Now before you assume this is going to be a bashing article, keep a few things in mind. 

• First, I think Liz is an excellent author and communicator.  I don’t know her personally, but I’ve been reading her blog for the past few months.  And have enjoyed her insights and viewpoints.
• Second, I do NOT consider myself an author, or a writer, and I’m probably a lot less than an “average” communicator.  My claim to fame is being able to use spell check most of the time, and I can fix complicated equipment - usually.  So you have to realize I’m speaking from a “shaky” personality base and working with a really limited skill set.

Here’s my problem.  That list of traits seems like an impossibility.  I don’t know if I would ever be able to conjure up the fortitude I’d need to start developing the skills on the list.  I guess this is really a case of being out gunned when it comes to having a large collection of “mental marbles.”  My sack feels half-empty compared to Liz’s 2-1/2 sacks!

I do know one thing.  If you’re going to accomplish anything, no matter what the area, you have to stay focussed.  So, instead of figuring out what I can do to develop the traits listed above, I’ll stay glued to the projects at hand.  At least that way I won’t feel so out-classed.

There’s always been a discusion of the benefits of using short articles vs long articles for web site content.  The assumptions have been that the user would rather view a short article and that long articles require too much time and effort to read (not to mention time to prepare.)

Jakob Nielsen (the “useability guru”) put together a long article that covers the benefits of each style of content.  He explains why  a “mixed bag” could be the best approach.

Read it here.

If you are anything like me, you probably find yourself thinking of new projects, things to learn and items that need to be completed. The process in itself can be beneficial to your business and may be a required ingredient for success. The trick is to know where to draw the line.

The trap I kept falling into was that wasting my time writing new ideas down and then gathering more information on those ideas. And when I ran across something I didn’t understand, I took the time to research it and learn it.

The results were disastrous! By diverting time away from my current project (doing any number of things on other projects) I would be killing my momentum and would stretch simple projects out for months. Obviously, it was a terrible trap. The important project would suffer as I simply ran of time at the end of the day.

At first, I was terrible about time management and was easily distracted by issues that were “urgent” but NOT important. The result, I would get discouraged with the project at hand and would drop it due to lack of results. I even told myself that many of these projects would take too much time to learn and a long time to complete.

Can you see the trap? It gets even worse! If you keep on doing this for long enough, you will actually program your subconscious mind NOT to complete a project EVER. You will forever keep failing. Eventually this character flaw may even filter through to other areas of your life.

The Internet is jam-packed with information. And, there’s a lot of rubbish to wade through. But there is also a lot of valuable information available and a lot to learn, so developing your online business to a profitable stage can take forever. The only solution is to start employing the tremendous power of focus.

Here’s the secret …you must never be working on more than two projects at a time, EVER. Preferably, work on just one project at a time, particularly if you only do your online venture on part-time basis.

Don’t get distracted. Don’t dilute your time. Work on your project, whatever it may be, until completion. The results may not be as you expected and many times they may be disappointing. But you will know, in your heart, that you did your best, and you will improve. Then, and only then, begin working on the next project.

By all means, plan your future. If you want to work on the future ideas, set an hour per week aside for doing just that. And then each week spend that hour thinking about your new projects, write them down. When the time is up, go back to your current project.

If you develop and use the power of focus, your completion rate will get better with each project and you’ll soon become successful. On the other hand, if you keep falling into the time traps of too many projects or too much information, you will get nowhere.