How to Finally Break Free from the Shiny Object Trap

I want to talk about something that’s been bugging me for a while, something that seems harmless at first but is actually one of the biggest time-wasters out there. I’m talking about that cycle of jumping from one opportunity to the next, never committing long enough to see it through. It’s tempting, it’s exciting, and it trips up so many people, even the smartest folks I know. But here’s the thing: it’s not just about the opportunities. It’s about what’s really going on beneath the surface. Why do we keep chasing the next thing instead of sticking with what we’ve got? If you’ve ever felt stuck in that loop or wondered why it’s so hard to just commit, this one’s for you!

00:43
I’m Igor Kheifets, and this is The ListBuilding Lifestyle. The podcast is for anyone who wants to build a wildly profitable email list working from home. If you’d like to make six figures, travel the world and help people improve their lives in the process, this podcast is for you. I also invite you to claim a free copy of my best selling book, The List Building Lifestyle Confessions of an Email Millionaire at www.igorsbook.com
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01:29
The biggest time wasting activity that I see in this industry is people chasing shiny objects and kind of falling into this pattern of getting the next shiny object and the next shiny object without ever committing to anything. So, the way it usually happens is they come across an opportunity, they really like the opportunity, they get involved with the opportunity, and they might even get going with the opportunity, but before they’ve given this opportunity enough time, effort, energy and resources to make it work, to make a real honest go at it. They go on to catch a glimpse of the next shiny object, that seems different, that seems easier, and therefore is more exciting.

Some of it is fueled by, of course, the fear of missing out, the good old FOMO, because why would I only pursue one opportunity when I can pursue five or ten opportunities and make money with all of these opportunities? Right! Now, however, the vast majority of shiny object seekers, I believe, are guilty of using shiny objects as a means of distracting themselves from taking action, when they know exactly what they need to do, but they’re too afraid to pull the trigger.

03:11
I see it in The ListBuilding Lifestyle all the time. When people get going on the program, they get going with the challenge, or they go through the email intensive, and they hit a point in the training where they’re actually supposed to be doing something . For example, they’re supposed to load an email into their orders or they’re supposed to put some subscribers on their email list. And this requires a decision that might be out of their comfort zone for one reason or another.

For example, they have a low confidence around the fact that they don’t know what to write the email about, or they don’t know the email is actually any good, so they won’t load it into their email sending tool, because they’re afraid of being judged by the people who will receive the email. Or maybe they need to run their first email drop, and they need to put down $50 into generating 100 clicks or something. Well, they’ve negotiated with the email publisher, and now they just have to pay for it and give the publisher a link to send, and they won’t pull the trigger, why? Because they’re afraid that they’re gonna put down the 50 bucks, they’re gonna run the ad and the results will not be satisfactory. So, it’s fear of failure.

So, there’re many different forms of fears and doubts and insecurities that people have, oftentimes, that have nothing to do with the method itself, with the whatever shiny thing that they’re chasing at the time. And I’ve concluded that after many years of watching people, going for like 10 years, 15years, going from one opportunity to another and never actually taking action or succeeding with any of them, which allowed me to conclude that, hey, maybe it’s not the specific opportunity that’s the problem, maybe it’s the person, that’s involved with the opportunity.

And what I’ve concluded is that for many reasons unknown to me, could be a low self image, any kind of personal insecurity, money inhibition habits, maybe they were told that money doesn’t grow on trees, or that making money without working very hard is evil, or maybe they were told that rich people are bad people, or maybe they were told as kids, they maybe they were told that they’re just stupid, and they’re not going to amount to anything in life. There’s a million different things that could have happened. And because of that, these folks find a way to sabotage what they got going on. And one of the means to sabotaging is switching attention completely to a totally different shiny object.

And so, the reason I believe it’s the biggest time waster, is primarily because people end up spending years chasing shiny objects until they find something, where they choose to stick around. However, most don’t! So, what I mean by that is that most people are just, kind of, forever stuck in the shiny object cycle. They buy a program, get going with the program, very quickly find it uncomfortable, because it requires them to make a decision, make a judgment call, put themselves out there, do something that they are fearful of, that’s going to get them judged by other people, or whatever! And then they switch to something else. And then the cycle repeats itself.

This cycle can literally keep someone stuck and unsuccessful for 10 years, 12 years, 15 years, until they find a way to break that cycle. So, that would be the number one time waster, as far as I’m concerned, with regards to what keeps people stuck and what keeps people unhappy in this industry.

07:37
For most people who suffer from the shiny object syndrome, the problem is implementation. And you can’t really say that they’re not hard working. They’re usually very hard working in their jobs, in their day to day life, they’re very hard working. They get their life usually organized, the fence is painted and the grass is cut, which you can’t say about me, I haven’t paid for my fence since I moved into this house, and I hate cutting my grass, I never do it! I let it rise above neck level, until I get to cut it, and then, usually I will just look someone up to do it. I hate shoveling snow, I mean, any kind of work other than being from my computer, I’m just allergic to it, period.

08:28
But, when it comes to implementation, that matters, because there’s some things we can implement that don’t really matter, and some things that matter a lot. And also, another thing I’ve noticed around these people is that, again, I’m talking only about people who jump from one shiny object to the next all the time, and they’ve never become successful, is that they confuse consuming with implementing, think about it for a second. Consumption, so a practice such as reading a book, watching a webinar like this one, inquiring, researching. Consumption, essentially, is not implementation! It is feeding your brain with good stuff, with good nutrients for success, yes, do you have to do it? Yes, you have to do it! If you’re going through a mentoring program, you definitely have to do some consumption.

But, the people who become successful, especially those who become successful in a big way, they have a habit of implementation. They have very little patience for consumption. They tend to study whatever they study in a very aggressive form, meaning they don’t necessarily go through the whole thing. They pinpoint two, three pieces of action they need to take right now, and they’re very quick to move from consumption to implementation. Consumption and implementation are two different things, and I think most people are big on consumption and not big enough on implementation.

10:17
I have a good friend who’s just a master consumptionist -I don’t know what the scientific term would be- He’s just amazing at consuming information, but he is terrible at implementing. I’ve known him for close to eight years now, and in that time, he’s been reading at least two books a week! That’s over 100 books in a year. And he’s been reading books about everything, poker, dating, losing weight, you name it, real estate, making money, SMS marketing, like there’s no subject matter! Honestly, I’m being critically honest here. There’s no subject matter where this guy is not somewhat of an expert, like if we were to sit down at the dinner table, you could almost randomly pick a subject matter out of an encyclopedia, and he’d be able to contribute to the conversation in a knowledgeable and intelligent fashion.

But in all that consumption that he’s done, he did not implement anything in any area other than dating, because that’s the only area where his comfort zone is so stretched out at this point that he can implement pretty much anything. So, if he picks up a dating related guide or relationship related guide, and he just starts going through it, he will immediately implement whatever that guide is saying, and he will do it very quickly, usually the same day he picks up the resource, and he shared some of these resources with me, especially the ones about relationships, and they’ve really helped me improve my marriage over time. And I really think most husbands should actually follow the practice of improving their relationship skills, you know, long after they got married. And so, I’ve taken the exact same approach. Whenever he would share research with me about relationships, I would immediately put it into action, usually again, the same day I pick up the resource.

But at the same time, the resources he picked up on marketing and business and strategic thinking and promoting his side business that he’s got, losing weight and creating habits for weight loss, all of that is just lots of consumption and very little implementation. And therefore the results, in those areas of his life, they show. Because we discuss this stuff, we meet every now and again, we discuss this stuff, and his outcomes don’t change in those areas. Well, it just tells you, his implementation here is amazing, and here it’s not.

13:29
So, whenever I meet a student, I meet these students all the time, who tell me how much they want to make money online. They tell me how much they want an online business. They tell me how dedicated they are and how they’ve been struggling for the last five years, and they’ve been jumping from one shiny object to another. I already know there’s a good 50% chance at least, they’re just going to use me as another shiny object before they jump on to the next one, because this habit of starting, consuming, not implementing, moving forward, that habit has formed, and it’s very difficult to break.

Now, what’s tragic for me, personally as a coach, is that statistically speaking, it means I cannot help the vast number of students. I could have the best intentions, I could have the best training material, I could have the best methodology, the timing for the market could be absolutely right. They could be, all the stars and moons can align in exactly the way they’re supposed to. But if the student has a habit of starting a program, conserving its content, not implementing, feeling like crap about it, and then shifting attention to another exciting shiny object, just to make themselves feel better. And we engage that cycle all over again, I’m powerless against it! I can’t do anything about it.

And unfortunately, there is no cure that was invented against it, like a pill or whatever, it just was not invented yet, because this is a problem with several dimensions, and the solution requires several dimensions as well, one of them being the courage to act, which most people will only acquire if they go through some sort of really painful experience, like near death experience, divorce, some kind of embarrassing thing, getting fired from work is usually one of those things, maybe a sudden and unexpected health issue that requires surgery, and therefore leaves them unable to act and earn money in the same way they were able to do before they met me, etc. The circumstance for them personally, has to be such that they all of a sudden find the courage to act and feel okay with being judged.

16:19

Thank you for listening to The List Building Lifestyle, get access to the previous episodes, transcript of today’s show, as well as other exclusive content at www.listbuildinglifestyleshow.com. Also remember to claim your free copy of my best selling book at www.igorsbook.com. It explains how I made millions with list buildings starting from scratch, plus I’ll give you $3,000 worth of free bonuses, including my best landing page templates, email swipe files and traffic blueprints. Go to www.igorsbook.com, now to claim your free package!