When people are learning about online business and all this stuff, there’s a whole lot of “you should” going on. Here’s what I mean…

Lots of people telling you what is right, what you should be doing. All giving their opinions of what is right. And so it leads to situations like somebody I recently talked to…

She had a website that was already getting traffic. Had a respectable email list. And had several products just sitting there ready to sell to an audience who was clearly showing a demand for those things. Yet…

She was spinning her wheels over her branding. Was it right? Should she narrow it down? Is it too broad? Should she focus on this group, or the other one?

She was going in circles. Figure-figuring her way to nowhere.

As I talked to her, it just seemed as if she was chasing the end of a rainbow. A mirage.

I call it the hidden standard.

The hidden standard is when you feel like there’s some line out there in the sand that, when you cross it, you’ve gotten things right. However, you have no idea where the line is, nor what it looks like. So, you spend a lot of time and effort chasing it and you never make it because you’re chasing something that… doesn’t exist.

It is easy to think there is some “right” way to do everything. The “gurus” will certainly lead you to think there’s a right way. Usually their way. 😉 Even better, whatever they sell, that’ll be what they tell you is THE way to do it. 🙂 Those funny guru people…

Anyway, I looked at this lady’s website I was talking to and I saw nothing wrong with it. She had a good thing going and a good foundation to build on, but she didn’t see it because of the hidden standard. So, I simply gave her permission to leave things like they were. And I told her what I would focus on right now to grow her business.

The hidden standard is insidious. It leads to paralysis by analysis. Analysis of crap that doesn’t even really exist. Your forward movement just ceases because you’re busy chasing butterflies.

I know it feels weird sometimes. When you don’t know if you’re doing the right thing, you look to outside indicators of what is right. You look to the people you trust to find out what is right. But realize…

You’re in the driver seat.

Many things in life and business rely on one simply ability…

To make a decision.

True POWER and true progress will be found in the ability to make decisions. Not sit there and twiddle your thumbs looking for outside indicators of whether it is right or not, but just deciding. Just decide!

YOU get to determine your own branding. Your niche. Your approach. And you will never ever arrive at these things with full proof of your “rightness” until you’ve actually done it. Proof will come by actually doing it, getting results, then adjusting based on data. But, if you’re trying to prove the whole thing in advance and looking for outside decision that your thoughts are right or not, then…

… you’re just chasing a hidden standard.

You’re chasing rainbows.

So, stop that.

And make decisions.

The only truly wrong decision is the one you never made. 

In this business, the worst that can happen is that your attempt doesn’t work. I mean, it ain’t like it’s gonna kill you now, is it? 🙂 So, why worry so much about it?

Decide. Do. Test. Adjust as needed.

But, it starts with making a decision and stop chasing hidden standards that don’t even exist.

– David