Can’t Not Do

Published by Matt Church – Founder on 22 July 2021

What is that thing, as a thought leader, that you can’t not do? This double negative is intentional. Try to resist the urge to rewrite it to “can do” or “must do”…leave it as “can’t not do?”

What is that thing that you “can’t not do?”

A partial alternative that might be more accessible is “What is that thing you would do for free, for the rest of your life?” That’s not the whole answer to the “Can’t not do?” question but it is a great starting point. Another angle on the “Can’t not do?” question is, “What is the pattern of your life?” The purest question though is, “What is it that you can’t not do?” Let that question go beyond the locked-in clarity of a well-formed question and let it quietly stir up trouble in the awareness behind your conscious waking state thoughts. This creates a dissonance that should yield revelations of a sort.

What is that thing that you “can’t not do?”

The answer to this becomes the big idea that informs all your clusters and the direction of your practice. When we talk about your big word, your master message, and your unique curriculum, this is what we are referring to. When your Intellectual Development is informed by this lens, you take your thought leadership on an evolutionary journey. You don’t need this to get to black belt. You can hustle your way there but it’s kind of cheating. Not cheating the system in a negative way but more like cheating yourself and the world of the insights, your unique contribution could offer.

We work very hard in the Curriculum to ensure that thought leaders go to market by being relevant. Indeed, the following model shows the hierarchy of value from relevance, through to thoroughness, onto elegance, and only then uniqueness. Trying too hard, too early to be uniquely differentiated can stop you from making progress commercially. That doesn’t mean it doesn’t matter, eyes on the prize and all that.

For this all to work, you have to buy into the idea that you are special, but not better than anyone else. What you have to offer is valuable, but it’s not the only thing of value in the world. Finally, you need to know that some will and some won’t and that that’s OK, because people buy what you are selling, or they don’t.