This article raises an interesting question no matter what you do for a living. It brings up the difference between motivation and follow through.

You know you have to do a blog post, update your Linkedin profile or develop your company social media program. You need a better web site, capabilities brochure, sales development program and you’re really, really psyched! In other words, you’re motivated.

But now it’s six months down the road and all of the things you were motivated to do in September are still at the starting gate. So the problem isn’t motivation, it’s follow through- there’s always so much to do and no time to do it that we get overwhelmed and wind up looking at our computer screens like deer looking at headlights.

The “White Socks” Solution


The article uses a workout metaphor, but it can really work for just about any follow through problems you have. The most important thing for me is to create an environment. Start small- my workout environment creation is very basic: if I put a pair of white socks in the morning I’ll go to the gym, if I don’t I won’t. It’s really simple but it also really works.

The article goes into more tricks like this, but the solutions are are very straightforward and easy to implement.