I read an article once about a neuroscientist who discovered he was a psychopath.
He was conducting a study and examining a bunch of brain scans.
Some of normal people, some of known psychopaths.
Murderers…
Rapists…
Successful Internet marketers.
And then, I think by accident, he also looked at his own brain scan, which was there on his desk as part of another study.
The verdict was clear:
The parts of his brain responsible for empathy and morality showed “significantly decreased activity.” He was a clear-cut psychopath.
“Whaddya know?” he said, and went on with his life as usual.
Well, I had an experience like that a few days ago.
I was doing research on a market that involved a lot of business opportunity seekers, AKA “shiny object junkies.”
These people tend to fly from opportunity to opportunity, never completing a project, always believing that the next course or seminar they buy will finally set them on the path to “financial freedom.”
And while I was reading the various stories and testimonials of these unfortunate souls…
I had an unfortunate realization myself.
I might be a shiny object guy.
Not in everything, of course. I’ve made it work with copywriting, and I’ve been successful in several other areas in my life.
But with business stuff… the promise of the 4-hour work week… the magical idea of passive income… well, there I keep flitting between different projects, getting enthusiastic about the next new idea, and abandoning what I already have.
Maybe that doesn’t sound familiar to you. Or maybe it does. The point is I (and maybe you) can’t keep doing this.
The fix is simple.
You pick a project, build an asset (like a website), and let it accrue value on its own. But you have to build it up to a certain point rather than simply jumping to the next shiny thing.
Awareness of the problem is a good first step.
For example, the neuroscientist psychopath didn’t actually go on with his life as usual. I made that up. In reality, he decided to make a conscious change:
“I’ve more consciously been doing things that are considered ‘the right thing to do,’ and thinking more about other people’s feelings. At the same time, I’m not doing this because I’m suddenly nice, I’m doing it because of pride — because I want to show to everyone and myself that I can pull it off.”
So if you’ve got shiny object addiction, it’s ok. You can choose to move past it consciously. If for no other reason than to prove everybody wrong.