I used to be the worst at Shiny Object Syndrome, getting 70% of the way through something and then abandoning it for something else.

But if I can overcome it, so can you.  

In this blog, I’m going to share with you the mindset and the reasons behind Shiny Object Syndrome, as well as some practical strategies or steps to help you cure it once and for all.

Watch here or read below.

How To Beat Shiny Object Syndrome In Your Biz Share on X

This isn’t just limited to women. Shiny Object Syndrome is something we all struggle with.

If you’re not quite sure what it is, let me just tell you, it’s the habit that we all have of starting a new thing before we finish the last thing.

It’s specifically a problem with entrepreneurs because we’re constantly trying to chase the Next New Thing, thinking that’s going to be the thing that brings us success.

I’m going to go through the reasons and the things that you can look out for that are probably causing this problem. Then I’m going to talk to you about the solutions.

Make sure to read to the end because I’m going to have a free tool for you as well.

REASON #1 THAT SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME HAPPENS: LACK OF CONFIDENCE

Reason number one is probably one of the sneakiest reasons I’ve found behind Shiny Object Syndrome, and that is a lack of confidence. Sometimes, this can be a lack of confidence in our goals, but oftentimes it’s a lack of confidence in ourselves.

When I say sneaky what I really mean is that it’s pretty unconscious as to why we’re doing this.

What I’ve found in my coaching is that we end up quitting too soon, a lot of times because we’re fearing either failure or success.

So we’re never going to quite let ourselves get to that finish line because we’re worried about what’s going to be there.

Whether that’s good or bad we have ideas, thoughts, or beliefs in the back of our mind saying that there’s probably something bad there. 

Even if it’s success, “what does that mean? What’s that going to do? What’s that’s going to say about us? What’s going to happen in our lives? What are people going to think about us?”

Those are the types of things that will unconsciously have us quitting too soon or going off in another direction.

Shiny Object Syndrome can actually come from a fear of failure or success. We're never going to let ourselves get to that finish line if we're worried about what is there. (Tara Wagner) Share on X

Other times that lack of confidence leads us to just not trust the process long enough to stick with it.

We might call this impatience, but many times, it comes down to a lack of confidence because we’re looking at this path, we’re not seeing the results fast enough, and so we’re saying, “I’m wasting my time. I need to be going somewhere else,”instead of trusting the process, trusting that good things do take time, that there’s oftentimes things that we have to tweak or change or experiment with to really get the momentum, but that we’ve got to keep going and not quitting before we get to that place of momentum or where we really start to see the results of all of our actions.

A lot of people might call this self-sabotage. Click here to read my thoughts on self-sabotage and why it doesn’t exist.  

 I want you to check that out because I want you to take a new perspective on the idea of self-sabotage because calling itself sabotage is not going to be helpful.

This is going to really help you to shift your mindset or the way that you’re looking at something that we might call self-sabotage.

REASONS #2: LACK OF CLARITY

The second reason that I see Shiny Object Syndrome happening is simply from a lack of clarity.

We don’t have clarity on what our business goals are or what our business plan might be.

Having no real business plan means we have no real business direction, and then we end up just throwing noodles at the wall to see what’s going to stick. When nothing sticks (maybe because we’re not trusting the process, or we don’t have a process to trust) we’re going to start throwing something else at the wall to see if something else is going to stick. 

Having no real business plan means we have no real business direction, and then we just end up just throwing noodles at the wall to see what's going to stick. (Tara Wagner) Share on X

This is going to lead to that “squirrel” mentality of running in all these different directions, trying to figure out what’s going to work, instead of sitting down and really creating a plan.

If you don’t have clarity on what’s going to build your business or how you’re going to build your business, if you don’t have that business plan and you feel like that’s really your bottleneck when it comes to Shiny Object Syndrome, comment below with the word “CLARITY”.

REASON #3: LACK OF KNOWLEDGE

The third reason kind of ties into that second reason, and it’s just a lack of knowledge.

When we don’t know what we don’t know, we end up experimenting with a lot of things to try to figure it out and it’s just sort of a long convoluted way to learn and to grow our skill.

Now, there’s nothing wrong with experimenting (I actually think it’s a really important thing as a business owner to go into things with that mindset of experimenting to see what works for you) but you’ve got to have a clear plan for that experiment too, so that you can measure it, you can know when to abandon it, or if it’s actually working for you.

REASON #4: LACK OF BLINDERS

And the fourth reason I see for Shiny Object Syndrome is a lack of blinders; we are too immersed in too many things.

Let’s face it, our world is distracting AF right now.

There are so many opportunities, there are so many things going on, and it’s just feeding that little “squirrel” mentality in our brain and feeding into that distractability.

It’s also creating FOMO (the Fear Of Missing Out), and it’s creating opportunities for a lot of comparisons.

Drop me a comment below with “FOMO” or “Comparison” if you know what I’m talking about.

So what are the solutions to all of these reasons behind Shiny Object Syndrome? The solution is to solve those problems, but I actually want you to do this in reverse order.

STEP #1 TO FIX SHINY OBJECT SYNDROME: PUT BLINDERS ON

The first thing that I want you to do is put some blinders on, and here’s what I mean by this:

Choose 2-3 (or maybe five tops) really good sources of knowledge, of mentorship, of learning, of inspiration, and unsubscribe or unfollow from everybody else.

I especially want you to unsubscribe and unfollow from your “competition”.

I know that this is hard. I get a lot of pushback from clients on this too. They’re like, “I need to stay involved. I need to know what’s happening in my industry.”

There are ways that you can know what’s happening in your industry without getting every newsletter from every competitor out there.

What you’re doing when you’re getting newsletters from your competitors is like, “Oh, maybe I should be doing this. Maybe I should be doing that,” when in fact you don’t know if what they’re doing is even working.

So what you need to do is find a few great sources of great knowledge.

A few good mentors, maybe an industry newsletter, something to keep you in the loop and to keep you learning, but something that’s going to keep you out of that comparison mode, out of FOMO, and is going to help you keep your eyes on your own business.

The most successful business owners out there, the most successful entrepreneurs out there, have their blinders on in their own business.

The most successful business owners and entrepreneurs out there, have their blinders on in their own business. (Tara Wagner) Share on X

They’re creating clear plans, they’re experimenting, they’re tracking their experimentation so they really know what’s working for them, and they’re not worrying so much about what’s working for other people.

Now, you could be in a mastermind and that can be great because you can get some really great insight. But again, you want to narrow down those sources of information or inspiration so that you’re not overwhelmed with information overload, too much input going into your brain, pulling you in too many different directions.

STEP #2: NARROW DOWN YOUR RESOURCES

The same applies to a lack of knowledge. You want to choose just a few great resources when it comes to training or mentorship.

So if you have a really great course that’s going to help you to build your business, if you have a few great books that you really want to lean on or a couple of really great mentors that you can coach with, you want to just focus on those people and focus on those skills.

So for instance, let’s say you’re doing really good in your business. You don’t need an entire business course, but you need a course on Facebook ads, or on YouTube, or on Instagram. Find the best source of knowledge, or the greatest course or book, and focus on your knowledge in those areas specifically and let the other stuff go.

Focus on one thing at a time, allow yourself to master it, and then move on to the next thing.

STEP #3: CREATE A PLAN

The next step would be to create a really good plan to help you to do just that. And if you struggle with Shiny Object Syndrome, what I really encourage you to do is two things, here’s what I mean:

Have your big vision (like where do you want to be in five years), but then just figure out where you want to be in 90 days.

Because those of us that struggle with Shiny Object Syndrome don’t need to be planning a year out.

That’s too much information. We just need to be looking at, “If I can tackle one, maybe two things in the next 90 days that are going to move me towards that long term goal, what would those things be?”

We want to put those blinders on, get the knowledge that we need just to focus on those things, but focus only for 90 days at a time.

It’s much easier to sprint than to run a marathon, but that sprint is going to teach you to run that marathon.

It's much easier to sprint than to run a marathon in your business, but a sprint can teach you to run that marathon. (Tara Wagner) Share on X

Because 90 days after 90 days, you’re going to be making sure that you are still moving towards that goal, that big vision five years from now; that’s the marathon.

You’re going to get there one sprint at a time.

So a really 90-day plan is what you need. Click here to read more about how to create a 90-day plan.

STEP# 4: WORK ON THAT CONFIDENCE GAP AND YOUR MINDSET

And then finally, work on that confidence gap and your mindset.

But here’s the kicker and here’s the thing that I disagree with most mindset coaches on:

Everybody will tell you that mindset needs to come first, that before you do anything else, you need to work on your mindset. I don’t agree with that.

You need to work on your mindset AT THE SAME TIME that you’re working on everything else.

You cannot grow in a bubble. Your life and your business, the things that you’re trying to do that you’re struggling with because of your mindset, those are your stomping ground for personal development.

You need to get onto the playground and practice that mindset. You’re not going to get it perfect, but you need to be doing it at the same time that you’re trying to implement it in your life and in your business.

AND THIS IS WHERE I DO MY OBLIGATORY AND SHAMELESS PLUG FOR BOTTLENECKS TO BREAKTHROUGHS.

This is a free 15-minute video training that is going to teach you the only five things you need to be focusing on as you’re doing this mindset work, building that confidence or growing your business, especially if you have ever felt like mindset work is like, “Where do I even start?” Start here.

It’s absolutely free, and you can get it by clicking the button below or clicking here for more details! 

WHAT ABOUT YOU, BOSS LADY?

Let us know your best tips to beat or cure that Shiny Object Syndrome.

Scroll down to leave your comments!