This article is written by Udemy instructor Emilie Schrevens-Wester and is part of The Entrepreneur Masterclass.
I first heard of Shiny Object Syndrome (SOS) while taking one of Bryan Guerra’s courses. Before that, I had no idea what this feeling I had was.
It is vital that you recognize SOS and learn to avoid it, because falling into shiny object syndrome could mean resetting all your progress. Shiny object syndrome is an idea that turns into an obsession, and then turns into an addiction.
In life, it’s not always easy to make choices about where you’re gonna spend your energy, money and time. If you are running your own company and invest your time, energy or money into the wrong thing, it could have a lot of consequences.
I’ll explain it with a graph I made in Microsoft Paint in less than 3 minutes:
In green, you see the “normal” curve of someone learning how to master a skill overtime. It may have some ups and some downs, some moments where motivation is not the same, but generally, the trend is going up.
In red, you have the curve of someone learning to master a skill, but this person is the victim of Shiny Object Syndrome. Every 2-3 months they encounter a better way to do things, a new method, a new way to market their skill, a new whatever. It’s shiny, people say it works, they WANT IT.
Poof, you focused your attention somewhere else and did a reset of your current progress. Guess how this will make you feel after a few resets? “I’m never gonna make it” “other people do it better” “why can I not focus” “this entrepreneur's life is hard”, etc…
You need to find the balance between updating your knowledge with new trends, new tips and tricks that seem to work, new tools, new methods, but you cannot suddenly shift everything towards that new thing.
You can find shiny object syndrome everywhere in life: “traffic on this other lane looks faster, let’s switch lanes” “mh the cashier looks less busy there, let’s change queue”, and many more.
You need to master your main skill first. After that, you need to master two sub skills that will help your main skill. Examples:
You are a graphic designer, this is your master skill. Learning marketing and personal finances could be your two sub skills.
You are an online teacher, your main skill is French. Learning how to master video and audio editing, maybe learn to animate your videos, and marketing them should be your sub skills.
You are a lawyer. Learning to promote your presence online and learning soft skills while talking to people at fancy dinners could be your sub skills and will help to get new clients.
If you are new in this entrepreneur's life, it is completely normal that you will start following new trends that seem to work better. It’s like the flu, it comes in cycles. One year, crypto is the best way to make money, next year it’s NFT’s, oh now dropshipping is back in the charts, and it goes on and on.
Now you know how to recognize Shiny Object Syndrome, but knowing about it won't always save you. Here’s a few tips I gathered from other entrepreneurs and from my personal experience:
1) Set SMART goals
If you’re not sure where you’re going, it’s easy to get distracted by shiny things. Set SMART goals in order to stay focused.
In summary, SMART goals go like this:
SPECIFIC, MEASURABLE, ACHIEVABLE, RELEVANT, TIME-BOUND.
Did you see that? It spells out smart :D Amazing right? It’s actually a known concept that has helped a lot of people. Try setting one on your own and things will go much better.
For example, you could write: “Take course number 24 and summarize notes by Friday afternoon”. It’s specific, you’re taking this specific course, since the course is 2 hours long, it’s achievable, it’s divided in 10 lessons, so it’s measurable, taking notes is relevant to make sure you got everything you need, and you gotta do it by Friday, which is your time-bound point.
You need to set goals that keep you tied to reality as much as possible. When setting smart goals, you may even be specific on the time, on the place where you’re planning to work, who you’re doing it with, etc…
Even if you are frustrated with your current goals, don’t give into shiny object syndrome. Re-make your plan, think about the deadlines again, redefine your goals. This will help you reorganize without losing your current progress.
2) Tell that voice in your head to STFU
Many, many times, we trust this voice in our head that says “five more minutes in bed”, “I’ll do the dishes tomorrow”, “my fridge is full but I’ll order pizza anyway”. While this voice is sometimes the right instinct that tells you “this is not a good idea”, “this is not safe”, “this person is sus”, it’s also the voice of certified wrong decisions.
When you encounter something shiny and new that seems to work better than whatever you’re working on, take a step back, tell yourself no. Look at that new thing again, evaluate it. Maybe, in rare cases though, it is actually much much better than what you’re doing because your initial idea is really shitty. Then you could try to switch majors and go for something else.
Give yourself 10 minutes to research it, see if it really works (could be a scam after all), and decide. If 10 minutes were not enough, say no. If you don’t get the basics of how this new shiny thing works in less than 10 minutes, then you’re not qualified enough to do it and learning it from scratch will reset your progress.
3) Exchange with others, but don’t compare
It is vital as an entrepreneur to make a network of competent people around you. Some people will make money through dropshipping, some will do through real estate, some people just resell car parts and make money on this. You’ve all succeeded in different ways, help each other but do not compare your areas of success.
Learn to know the difference between shiny object syndrome, and just listening to a friend telling you “hey you should really try this”. Use the 10 minute rule. Listen to your friend for 10 minutes, if you don’t understand or don't like how the money is made, just skip it.
Ask yourself what result you want to achieve with the opportunity and understand the time requirement. Also, look at the financial investment required.
Focus on your current priorities to ensure you don’t overload your to-do list.
4) Try to avoid putting yourself in shiny object syndrome situations
This means looking away from too good to be true ads about a new method to make money, looking away from a book that just came out about “making your business better in only 30 minutes with this new method”. Instead of letting yourself be led to the sales pages of those methods, simply use the “google the author” technique. If you end up clicking on their sales page, you will be even more drawn to this new idea and could fall into the pit of shiny object syndrome.
It can also mean deleting cookies, resetting ad data (from your phone) to make sure all the ads you see are not personalized. At least you’re not exposed to potential distraction through ads.
If you’re really tempted to buy a product or service that supposedly will change your life forever, check the reviews. They could be paid reviews, or simply generated by bots. If you find out something is a scam, let the others know and share your opinions on website-rating sites.
If you do find something that’s truly amazing, save it in your favorites or keep the tab open for later. Tomorrow, you might think “I didn’t need this at all”.
After some time, you will detect potential money wasters and you will be able to fight your brain saying “I HAVE THE URGE FOR THIS SHINY THING”.
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