Internet Business and Personal Success

Even though I have a list of things to write about (even if that’s no obvious from my recent lack of activity), I was struck by a thought this afternoon. A simple thought, but one which bares repeating, and study.

It has to do with “knowing verses doing”, and how valuable experience truly is.

Backtracking a little bit… I’ve been a programmer, and computer guy since *before* the public Internet, before hard drives were common (get this: I remember the launch of the first 5 megabyte hard drive under $1000!), and even back to punch cards (don’t ask). Computer knowledge usually sticks to my brain without effort. Each time I do something new on one of these machines, I learn a bit more about them, and how the code was written behind the fancy graphical interface.

Every bit of this knowledge helps me solve new problems in much less time than I would otherwise.

Big deal, right?

YES! It is a big deal!

Why?

Because…

Reading about something does not make you an expert at it.

Studying, and passing a test does not make you competent to handle real world situations.

ONLY doing something, and refining your hands-on knowledge will bring you success in any en devour you choose.

My recent experience configuring a computer device reminded me of this. The manual was almost worthless the user interface was worse, and there were few clues as to why the desktop computer wasn’t talking to the device. If I’d been a regular computer user, I’d be completely stuck.

Google searches and the manufacturer website were useless, and wasted time.

I had to defer to a few brain cells which held priceless information on how things worked inside the computer to come up with a solution. This information came by way of more hardware and software installs than you’d care to imagine. Not the easy ones, either.

My point is…

• if all you do is read about things
• if you already know everything you read
• if you just need more things to study (need more info to continue)
• if you just have to find the *perfect* situation

You will never move forward. Book knowledge is a great start, but is nowhere near enough for success… You actually have to take action and do something to acquire the tools for success. Think of it this way, after reading a manual, and studying, could you competently:

• swim?
• drive?
• perform surgery?
• poll vault?
• program a computer?
• play a musical instrument?
• write a song?
• write great sales letters?
• design a website?
• find financial freedom?
• find your soul mate?

Do you get the basic idea behind this? You have to take action, and learn from those actions to succeed. There is no other way. It’s simple, too… just start experimenting, and performing. You can make it a game if you want.

Just get the experience somehow! NOW!

Quit waiting for the perfect time (it never will). Think back to any time you may have spend not-doing something. Then think about what might have been if you’d just done something, anything, to progress your hands-on experience. Where might you be now instead?

Uh huh. It will probably be an eye opener.

I’m curious what are you prepared to do.. OR any experience you’ve had with the above thoughts… Just drop me a note in the comments section below.

Be well,

Tim

PS. Check out Jeannette’s site at http://goodvibeblog.com/ for some more great thoughts on life success. I recently became acquainted with her blog, and highly recommend it.

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In my relatively recent article “Have you been six-packed by your thinking” I talked about how your self talk could be hurting your chances of success–and even attract more of what you don’t want.

It seems simple. It seems obvious. We might say “yeah, that’s true”, but unless we start actually experimenting with, and changing things that aren’t working, we’ll keep getting the results we have programmed ourselves for.

So, it’s been a couple of weeks since the volleyball realization that my self-comments may be keeping me from playing better. What happens when I purposely change those thought patterns?

This past weekend, I played volleyball for the first time since that post (3 weeks). Knowing that my self talk is probably a habit worth changing, I caught myself every time I was about to make a critical remark about my play (and boy, I could’ve made a few comments). Instead, I chose to move on, and tell myself that I will do better next time, and that I’d learn something about this specific experience.

Sure as ____ (well, you know)… The next time, I *did* play better. I passed, hit, or served better. I improved 1000% over that previous dud of a play. Better yet, I acknowledged it, and congratulated myself on how I’d improved. As the games progressed, this became a self fulfilling mechanism where I’d continue to play better and better. Instead of a downward spiral of self defeating talk, I’d progressed upward in a self promoting whirlwind.

It was most obvious.

It was clear in how I played, how I felt about my play, and the outcome.

My positive encouragement and thoughts attracted positive results. I have no doubt that the outcome of these games would have been different if I’d continued my negative attention.

How does this relate to success in other areas? Well, first you must identify things that bring up your own negative self talk. They could be anything. It’s easiest to pick obvious areas so that you can better observe your progress, like my volleyball example. Later, you can move to more ingrained and meaningful situations such product creation, blog posting, etc… Choosing something simple first will allow you to observe the dramatic change that will occur, and really “get” the results. This will prime you for the bigger and more important projects at hand.

What methods will you use to change your self talk? Please share!

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