Fight Your Inner Neanderthal

There was an interesting article about global defeat in the June issue of Psychology Today. It seems we’re hardwired to give up easily. Thousands of years of cutting our losses rather than risk death by saber-toothed tiger make us more inclined to run for cover than stay and fight.

“Today, an overwhelming sense of helplessness is a blunt instrument, less necessary for survival than it once was because our options are vastly more numerous,” the article says. “Nonetheless, we still carry within us the tendency to feel easily trumped when we believe we’re in a high-stakes gambit.”

I found it oddly comforting to know that I could blame my overwhelming self-doubt and paralyzing aversion to risk on my genes. I was already picturing myself blithely saying, “Hey, I can’t help it. Blame it on the rate of evolution.”

But, as those darn psychologists are wont to do, the author proposed some reasonable solutions to this crippling compulsion. They apply to all facets of life, including overcoming the all-too-common condition, marketingdoesntworkitis. With budgets contracting like This malady is hitting epidemic proportions.

Here, Kitty, Kitty

Plenty of clients come to us with symptoms of marketingdoesntworkitis, which include pinched expressions, fists tightly clutched around limited marketing dollars and a Sisyphean look in their eyes. “My marketing wasn’t working,” they choke out in frustration. “And now I don’t know where to pick it up – or even if I should. What’s the point?” Our job is to lead them out of the cave and say, “See? No tigers.”

Here, based on the author’s suggestions, are Five Ways to Overcome Marketingdoesntworkitis:

Accept Your Caveman-like Tendencies: Stare down our evolutionary legacy and move past it. Remember – no tigers.

Set Objective Goals: If you’re already running a  business, you’re no stranger to goal setting.  Do the same thing with your marketing plan. Set objective goals and work to reach them, one at a time.

Don’t Go Global: Focusing too much on defeats and applying them to your entire marketing plan makes you feel helpless and will nudge you into a state of useless inertia.

Build Some Marketing Muscles: You will learn just as much from your marketing mistakes – if not more  – than you will from your successes. And there will be successes – if you keep trying!

Go Widescreen: Setbacks are temporary. Take a step back and look at the big picture to maintain a realistic, less dramatic perspective.