Ever make an embarrassing mistake then a few days later repeat it all over again?

I have to confess I have. Even though I write full-time, I still make the same “dumb bunny” mistakes over and over again. The difference now is that I catch the worst ones before they get published or mailed. Thank God.

How about you?

I’m sure you’ve done the same.

Maybe you wrote an article or blog post and then came back to read it in a day… and found it riddled with typos. Or maybe you keep on burning your toast every morning. Same difference.

Anyway, here’s my theory about this. I believe we have certain “patterns” or “default settings” we follow without thought. After all, as human beings we’re creatures of habit. And I think this really holds us back at times. Because let’s face it, in writing sales copy or in life… it doesn’t take much to throw your results off track.

Another example of this would be the guy who exercises every day and then “pigs” out all night. He never really gets in shape because his patterns of behavior are holding him back.

You could call it a BOTTLENECK because it’s the narrow point that all of our actions funnel through.

You see, we all have “bottlenecks” in our lives. They’re our “defaults” our “patterns” of behavior and they’re holding us back from being truly great.

And a really simple way to break out of these “patterns” is to simply write them out on index cards and place them near your workplace. Before you do any work (or writing) at all, simply pick them up and read through them.

You’ll find it gets easier to avoid repeating your mistakes again… and all of the sudden the results you’ve been struggling to get… flow naturally.

It’s like a bow and arrow. Your arrow could be sharp, straight and fletched with golden plumes but if your bow is crooked you’re NEVER going to hit your target.

Fix the bow and all of the sudden it feels like something MAGICAL happened…

You hit the target.

To the outside observer it looks like success came instantly or “OVERNIGHT.”

Of the course the truth is a little harder to accept. Because all the luck and practice in the world won’t bring you success overnight if you’re shooting with a broken bow.

Your obvious friend,

Courtney James
Obvious

P.S. Does any of this make sense to you? Let me know what you think and leave a comment below if it pleases you.