After I decided to start this blog, one of my first concerns was the name. I figured the name was vitally important, and not necessarily something I should choose on my own, so I asked my promotional team at Steiner Sports to help me come up with one. We set up a Google Doc for everyone to share their suggestions, and within an hour, seven or so people had suggested over 50 names. We had a meeting. More names popped up. Here’s a sample:
What Else? with Brandon Steiner; Blogging and Tackling; No BS with Brandon Steiner; Brandon Steiner Blog; The BS report with Brandon Steiner; BS’ing with Brandon Steiner; Add a little BS to your life; Brandon’s Truths; Steinerisms; First to Market; The Truth According to Brandon; Getting it Right; Brandon Hilton; Brandon’s Blog; Turning dirt into dollars; Brandon Talks Business; Brandon Blogs; Brandon’s Business Blog; More Than Just Balls; Secrets of the Soup; 24 Hour Steiner; Business Playbook Blog; Blogging Business; Winning Ingredients
Naturally, everyone went to the mat for the name they came up with, and they attacked every other name. The meeting went nowhere. Not only did it go nowhere, but a bunch of people left angry. Then I emailed some of my friends, and each of them had a different suggestion. Everyone I asked about the name had good thoughts to add, but taken together, they all canceled each other out.
Pretty soon a whole day had gone by. Not only did I not have a name I was confident about, but I was now insecure about every name, because every name had been criticized. I began to realize that if I kept looking for the perfect blog name, I’d never get to writing a single post!
Choosing a name was becoming a form of procrastination. I was so worried about the blog having the right name, that it was preventing me from having a blog at all!
Besides, the name and the URL are something I can always change later. No matter what the final name is, the blog is going to be tied to me and my company. It’s not like I’m introducing myself from scratch.
When I worked in the kitchen at summer camp as a kid, I learned that you can cook up the greatest dinner ever, but if you serve it half an hour late, people still won’t like it. It was the same thing with this blog.
In other words, there’s no sense in trying to be right about something if doing so prevents you from doing the thing in the first place.
What about you? Is there something at work you’re constantly struggling with, that’s just a way of procrastinating? What about in your personal life?
What are you trying to get right – but just getting stuck on?
