How To Know If You Have Shiny New Program Syndrome

An impassioned intervention for you and me. Read with a thick skin.

I was watching a video today by a guy named Kyle Cease. It was a 12 minute preview for his course called “The Entrepreneurial Shift.”

Underneath the video was a link that said “Get the Entrepreneurial Shift Now.” In under 60 seconds, I clicked the link. $200 for the 21 day course. “No big deal.” I thought.

Except, it’s a huge fucking deal.

It’s a huge fucking deal because at about 8 minutes in, Kyle offers an exercise. “Write down everything you’re thinking for 30 minutes.” He explains that when you do this, you discover all kinds of ideas, truths and thoughts that you’re not even present to because you’re trained to discard ‘unrealistic’ ideas. “Your billion dollar idea is in there. You’re ignoring your passion and calling by burying it under thought.” He says.

You know what I said? “30 minutes is too long. I’ll do it later. First I’ll buy the course.”

LIKE HELL YOU WILL, Vanessa!

The high you get from clicking “Buy now” on a course, webinar or online program is no different than the high an addict gets from picking up a bottle. False hope.

Hope in this form is toxic.

An addict is not going to find their spirit in a bottle and you’re not going to discover your spirit from half-consuming another online course that you don’t finish, half-ass the exercise and put it down the moment another program promises to help you with the part you got stuck in on the course you just picked up.

I know this because you haven’t even done the exercises in the FREE videos!

The reason I am so fired up about this for you and for me is because each time you buy a course and don’t finish it, you half blame the course, but you also fully blame yourself. “Maybe I just can’t do this.” Your dream gets further away, harder to reach and you get consistently more disappointed in yourself. THAT is why spending that $200 is such a huge deal.

The things that are stopping you from doing the exercises in the free videos are exactly the same things that will make the course useless once you buy it.

Resistance. Fear. Effort.

No matter what you are creating, these three things will show up in a range of intensities.

If you’re creating or trying to up-level, or change in any way, you’re at your edge.

Life at the edge is scary. You’re forced to push up and past your upper limits, limiting beliefs, personality prison that you’ve created for yourself (“I can’t…I’m an introvert”) AND it’s hard! It takes effort.

But effort is gold.

Signs you have Shiny New Program Syndrome (SNPS):

• Looking at a sales page, you glance at results and then skip right to the price.
• You click “buy” without having read the page.
• This is the first you’ve heard of this person. You haven’t even watched anything else of theirs.
• You’ve watched the videos but have done none of the exercises.
• As you consider purchasing, you’re filled with complete hope that ‘THIS is the solution.’
• You’ve tried 3+ other programs / relationships / diets this year (and it’s only March) to solve this problem.
• You have 4 other tabs open right now on other programs.

Recovery:

• Don’t buy a program until you’ve read everything and done the free work. If you’re not willing to put the effort in there, you’re not likely to do it once you own the program. Money is only one form of investment. Time and effort are the two that matter most.
• Close the tab, wait a few days. If you still want it, buy it.
• Can’t afford it this minute? Put down your credit card and start saving. Decide how much you can set aside each month until you can afford it.
• Not willing to wait? Don’t buy it.
• Go back to the courses you already have and be honest with yourself about where you did and didn’t really put in effort. Where are you blaming the program for your lack of creation? *Challenge: Create the money for the new course from the one you have!

Finally, if you’re completely stuck, full of fear and resistance but feel like you’re putting in a TON of effort, then it’s time to hire a coach. Sometimes we truly have taken ourselves as far as we can go ourselves.

I’m not saying that so you hire me. I want you to find the perfect coach for you. But I know you can’t read the label from inside the jar. Hiring my coach was top 3 one of the greatest decisions I’ve ever made (second to marrying my husband and quitting the corporate path to become a coach myself).

I haven’t needed another course yet, deepened and integrated everything I’ve already learned and reinvested with him for another year, 6 months before our contract was ending.

Remember that success, creation, change, and self-evolution take patience, intention, tenacity and effort.

And no one can give those to you.

The only course guaranteed to create results its a course of action.

I’m off to go do that 30 minute free exercise. I’ll let you know if I discover my billion dollar idea!