I was having a mentoring session with Paul during the week, and as we were talking about his struggles to get a writing routine happening, inspiration hit. So, in the middle of the conversation, I interrupted and said, ‘I’ve got my blog topic for the week.’ He laughed and we kept talking about the book that he was writing. What was that inspiration? It was simply, to keep it low-key. So, what does that mean?

One of the issues I find many people have, as they aspire to write a book, build a business, get in shape or improve an area of their life, is to make way too big a deal of it. I speak to many people trying to lose weight or get in shape, and they feel like they have to empty the cupboards, give up everything they enjoy, train seven days per week and turn their lives upside down. Wrong, they just need to keep it low-key. I work with many authors and aspiring authors, and many of them feel like they can’t write their book unless they have hours of spare time, they have cleared the decks and there is silence in the house. Wrong again, they need to keep it low-key!

Think about something you are working towards achieving right now. Are you struggling with it because you think; it takes too long, is too hard, or that you are worried you don’t have what it takes? If that’s you, you are seriously overcomplicating success, in any area. The secret is to keep it low-key. Stop making the achievement of success a bigger deal than it needs to be. It truly is not the end result of sacrifice, sweat, blood, tears, knowledge, talent, hours of time or sleepless nights. It’s about a relaxed and low-key approach.

I said to Paul, as he was struggling to squeeze time into his busy life to write his book; ‘Mate, you are over complicating it. Just sit down for a few moments and just throw some words on the page. Do it each day. No mess, no fuss, no sacrifice. Just keep it low-key.’ Then I said, ‘If you miss a day, no biggie, just get back on track the next day.’ The issues start happening when we build success up into something massive that causes stress, puts pressure on us and starts the negative self-talk cycle. So, stop that stuff and keep it low-key.

The reality is that the world is actually a pretty forgiving place. The problem maybe you are not so forgiving of yourself, because you put so much pressure on yourself to perform. When you miss a day writing, making phone calls or attending to the thing you committed to, the world doesn’t collapse around you. You are way too hard on yourself, right? Be kind to yourself, get over it, keep it low-key and just get up the next day and; focus on what you want, eat breakfast, go for your walk, do some writing, hang with your kids, make those calls or whatever else you need to do. No pressure, no stress, and no biggie… just, low-key!

I had an amazing conversation on my podcast this week with Australian Netballer and Commonwealth Games Gold Medalist, Bianca Chatfield. Bianca’s main message in the podcast, as she discussed her wonderful success and the things she had overcome, was to, pretty much, keep it low-key. In her words, it was more around being flexible and adaptable. In other words, don’t stress about stuff, just look for alternatives, keep it low-key and keep moving forward. To listen to my conversation with Bianca, click here.

My goal in this blog is for you to feel happy, relaxed and optimistic about anything and everything you are working towards. It is true, you need to have a clear vision of what you want. Sure, you need to do the work, Yes, you need to be consistent. Of course, you will have to be flexible, adaptable and solution-minded. However, just know, it’s the simple things you do on a low-key basis that will add up over time and create the incredible success you will enjoy in your life.