Chop wood, carry water for your best work

Before Enlightenment chop wood, carry water. After enlightenment chop wood, carry water.

Zen Buddhism quote

I keep a version of this quote in a file I look at everyday.

Even though I don't follow Buddhism, it serves as a reminder to me about effort and what I consider 'best work'.

Ask yourself: is the activity you're doing now going to lead you where you want to go? If it will, will you still be willing and able to continue doing that activity?

If you're doing something that you hate right now, chances are that it won't go away if you become successful or reach whatever goal you have.

You'll still need to chop wood and carry water.

Make sure you enjoy it.

Or find something you do.

For your store, your wood and water could be a complex adtech AI automation or something as simple as helping customers and shipping your products.

My preference is the simpler things done consistently, which is why sometimes I advise Repeat Customer Insights customers to just send a basic personal email to their best customers.

It's simple but such a powerful activity.

In that app, the VIP and Loyal customer segments are perfect targets for this.

If you install Repeat Customer Insights it'll assemble those segments for you, along with 30+ more. Then it's just writing those emails.

Eric Davis

P.S. The full meaning of that quote is much deeper than I give it credit here. I just use the quote as a mental bookmark for my own principles of 'best work'.

Learn which products lead to the customers who spend the most

You can use the First Product Analysis in Repeat Customer Insights to see which products lead to the customers who spend the most. Going beyond best sellers, it looks at the long-term purchasing behavior of your customers.

Learn more

Topics: Habits Marketing Systems

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