"How To Be An Early Riser" ... and Self Discipline

I came across the following blog post and found it interesting !!!

http://www.stevepavlina.com/blog/2005/05/how-to-become-an-early-riser-part-ii/

Steve Pavlina talks about "how to be an early riser" and I am definitely going to try out his ideas. I especially like what he says about self-discipline:

If you can’t get yourself out of bed when your alarm goes off, this is likely
due to a lack of self-discipline. If you have enough self-discipline, you’ll get
out of bed no matter what. Motivation can also help, but motivation is short
lived and may only last a few days. Discipline is like a muscle. The more you
build it, the more you can rely on it. Everyone has some discipline (can you
hold your breath?), but not everyone develops it. There are a lot of ways to
build discipline — I’ve written a whole chapter on this topic in my upcoming
book. But basically it comes down to taking on little challenges, conquering
them, and gradually progressing to bigger ones. It’s like progressive weight
training. As your self-discipline gets stronger, a challenge like getting out of
bed at a certain time will eventually become trivially easy. But if your
self-discipline has atrophied, it can seem an almost insurmountable hurdle.

Definitely looking forward to his upcoming book !

Dave Wheeler

Marketing VS. NCAA Tournament .... a great analogy

Shotgun marketing blog has an interesting post that draws an interesting analogy between the NCAA [basketball] tournament and Marketing.

Click here to read it.

I would add one more analogy....

"March Madness" is what they call the exciting action provided by the NCAA basketball tournament.

"Market Madness" is the [unbridled? unrealistic?] enthusiasm brought on when you start to believe your own marketing hype.

Any other ideas ???

What's Important to your customers?

Seth Godin's post today (click here to read it) got me thinking.... His premise is that there is a "life cycle" of authenticity. Some things are "more authentic" than others, such as Starbucks vs. Dunkin Donuts. Click the link below to see his graph example.
http://sethgodin.typepad.com/seths_blog/images/authentic.jpg

The real question though is ... what is important to your customers?

Some may value authenticity while others value consistency. (Not that the two should be mutually exclusive ... as the best companies often show us.)

Some customers value modern, cutting-edge art while others like the classics. Different things for different people.

No news there.

The key point to remember is that authenticity can make your brand STRONGER and it is usually better to have it than not. Even if "consistency is your thing", you should strive to keep it authentic! If you don't then your brand starts to dissipate and lose its cohesiveness and eventually its meaning.

What do you think? Am I nuts? Leave me a comment !

Dave Wheeler