Be the Long Tail and define your Fulfilment

11 April 2010

I made a decision about a week ago that involved me taking a flight in approximately 9 months to go to the African continent to climb Mount Kilimanjaro. I had previously considered doing this a few years back, however what held me back was simply the fact that I felt I wasn't fit enough to do it.

Today I realised that reason I gave myself was total bullshit. The real conversation my unconscious mind was having with my conscious mind, was something on the lines of, "it's a difficult hike to take, and I'm not prepared to put in the effort to train to get fit for it, because I do not value that time as well spent".

Wow, now I bet we all have these conversations all the time, however for a good part of the time, we'd rather not admit that to ourselves because it's much easier to believe that we aren't good enough.

Truth of the matter is, we are all good enough.

In internet marketing, there is a term called the Long Tail keywords. The Long Tail refers to the statistical property that a greater share of people sits within the tail of a probability distribution than observed under a 'normal' or Gaussian distribution. In recent times, this has gain notoriety as a retailing concept describing the niche strategy of selling a large number of unique items in relatively small quantities usually in addition to selling fewer popular items in large quantities.

In internet marketing, it's known as targeting the longer keyword phrases to find more highly targeted choosers (those who are actively searching for that term), in order to be able to more accurately fulfil their search requirements and sell more products which are laser targeted to that search.

In simpler terms, it's about being clear as to what you are trying to get out of whatever it is you are looking for.

Putting this into practice is however a seemingly more difficult thing to do.

I speak in terms of happiness and fulfilment. The long tail in this area, are those things in life that we can commit to do that are absolutely clear and concise, and would produce laser targeted vats of memories that are timeless and ultimately priceless. Such things are also known as your dreams. That dream vacation to Fiji, Mount Kilimanjaro, that ideal job or relationship you are seeking.

We are however fighting on a daily basis to weigh up this option with the barrage of short term, or perhaps short tailed diversions which deliver immediate hits of joy, but which in total do not remain memorable or even contribute to your overall fulfilment in life.

We all know what these are, the quick fix entertainment choices of a society overrun with addictive entertainment activities. People are constantly looking to other people/services or things, to provide the joy to them in small enough digestible doses that they keep going back for more. Does this sound familiar?

People are making that choice and then fall into the trap of looking for the Bigger, Better, Deal, aka the grass is greener on the other side.

Whatever happened to that long tail dream you had when you were a child?

As children when we say we want to be something or do something, we had no concept of it being impossible. In fact we completely and utterly believe it's possible, until our dreams are drowned out by the barrage of people telling us that it is no longer possible for one limiting reason or another.

The point I'm trying to make is about making those real decisions that actually matter in your life. Choose to commit to things that will be of higher value for you in the rest of your life and open your eyes to look further into your own future and start building your future today.

The decisions you make today will shape the future you live in tomorrow.

Coming back to this decision I made with going to Kilimanjaro. I sat and thought to myself whether there was any excuse I could come up with that would prevent me from going, and kept asking myself "Why Not?".

I couldn't come up with an answer, in fact, I couldn't even believe that I was weighing up the value I'd get from the experience, the stories, memories and experience for the rest of my life, with what might be the total cost of the trip being a few thousand pounds.

What an idiot. Those experiences are priceless, there was no comparison at all, yet we all do this every day of our lives. We weigh up the long tail ultimate fulfilment with the short term addictive hits, and for much of the time, long tail loses out, because it's seems too intangible.

Here's my tip to living life on purpose and living your dream, start making committed decisions towards your real dream goals, and never let the "Why Not" excuses get in the way.

Practice makes perfect, so if this is something that's scary and new to you, start by making smaller committed decisions. Get into the habit of being decisive, and sooner or later, you'll find it getting easier, and easier to make those decisions for your "long tail" dreams, and one day you'll look back and realise how easy it really is to live the life of your dreams and achieve those goals that bring you forever fulfilment.