Internet Business and Personal Success

Set specific, measurable expectations before proceeding.

It’s a simple concept. It’s easy to follow. So, why this post?

Because it’s exceedingly rare in practice. Oh… and it could mean the difference between success and failure.

People tend to follow the path of least resistance. Me included. Yet, with some quick adjustments, we could be making progress in leaps and bounds, instead of spits and sputters. All you have to do is clarify your expectations before doing something.

This is basically the Law of Attraction on a smaller, but exceptionally important scale.

An example of what I’m talking about…

You just got a great course on Internet Marketing. It has all the promise of taking you away from your day job and allowing you to earn a living from your home office. The first thing you do is open it up, and read interesting sections as you find them. You’re motivated and feeling good. Unfortunately, you do the same thing the next day. Maybe feeling a little less motivated and frustrated that your “study” hasn’t produced any results. This continues, with a few false starts at using the information, until you finally feel that you were ripped off, and cheated by the author.

Truth is, the product may actually contain all the promises that were made on the sales letter. It may truly unlock the “secrets” to wealth and happiness for you and your family. The problem is that you wanted a magic bullet and didn’t have a plan for success.

If your expectations for the course are something like “Learn how to make a fortune online”, then you are sure to fail. It’s like hailing a cab and asking the driver to take you home. Unless you tell him exactly where you live, you won’t get there. Vague goals and directions just don’t work.

On the other hand, if you set precise goals before you first begin the course, you may just hit pay dirt. What if you set your intention to make your first $100 online within a month using the information in the course. Then for each lesson you take notes, and act on the material presented. You set up your blog, website or email autoresponder. If you have questions, you find examples of the techniques in action (from the author perhaps), and dig for the answers. Trust me, you’ll learn a lot more from taking action on something than just reading about it.

After a week you’ll have made considerable progress, and not only feel motivated, but will have actually accomplished much more than ever before. If you can get to $100, you can get to $200, and as you reach each target it will become easier.

Making a bunch of mini expectations/goals has an exponential effect on your overall progress.

You can visualize this in many ways. For instance, take a staircase. If you want to get to the second floor, you’ll need to use it. One or two steps at a time. You couldn’t jump straight to any other floor above you. Your expectation is to move gradually up the stairs until you arrive at the top. If you try to jump in one bound and just “arrive”, you won’t make it.

One more very important point. The order in which you do something is as important as the setting your goals, and direction. You simply can’t start with the chapter on building traffic to your site if you haven’t even built your site yet. You must do things in an order that has a chance of working. Can you climb the stairs by starting on the 10th step, then the 3rd and then the 15th? No, you start at the bottom, and work your way up in an order that makes sense.

Where else does this work? Everywhere!

• When surfing the net (uhhh… I mean when doing “research” on the net–you know…)
• When attending a seminar (don’t let it be mindless entertainment)
• When dating (don’t skip ahead to the marriage proposal!)
• When taking a trip (don’t get lost)
• When performing a function at work
• When Training your pet
• When learning a musical instrument
• <your goals here>

Terry Dean’s post on 8 Steps to Create Your Internet Business is an excellent example of this concept, and was the largely responsible for the idea behind this post.

Now, how will you put this to use? What mind games can you come up with to help? Please share in the comments below.

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Believe it or not, most of the menus I see are full of “worms”. Truth be told, I actually like it that way.

Let me explain…

No, I don’t actually like the worms. And that’s the point! But, the more “worms” there are on the menu, the fewer choices I have among the remaining dishes (the “chocolate”). It makes the choice easy.

Still confused? I assure you that understanding why having a menu full of “worms” is a good thing and well worth your time.

For some reason I grew up disliking a lot of food that other people really like (ok, love). For example, I will gag if I even attempt to eat cheese, or any one of a large group of “condiments” (what I call “goop”). To me, eating them might be similar to you eating live worms. You just wouldn’t do it, and I don’t blame you.

So, when I go to an Italian restaurant, for example, I can immediately eliminate about 80% of what I see without thinking about it. All the “worms” (dishes with cheese…) allow me to narrow the choice down to the 20% that remains (and even that often requires a substitution or two). On top of that, my expectations are often lowered a bit because I only had a few items to choose from, and they may not have been my favorite dishes. This means that I’m often happier overall with the meal.

Having “worms” on the menu makes life much easier. We people like things to be easy.

Contrast this to times when I go to a Sea Food or Chinese restaurant. Everything on the menu is more like “chocolate”. I want it all, and it takes me a long time to decide. To make it worse, my wife doesn’t like sea food, so if I find myself at one of these places, I often want it ALL, because who knows when I’ll have such a selection again.

Having too much “chocolate” on the menu slows things down, and makes life tougher. People don’t like things to be difficult.

Too much choice often leads to worry about whether the right one was made. Would I have been better off with one of many other items on the menu? This can often lead to disappointment, and added stress.

What does this have to do with business success?

Everything!

It’s just another example of Information Overload.

Every new online business tactic that comes out and promises thousands of dollars nearly overnight may look like “chocolate”, and instead of picking just one, you want them all. Your focus disappears into a sea of “research” (a.k.a. web surfing), purchases, and distractions. You jump from method to method, because you just know the next one will be better. While you may be busy, you aren’t moving forward. And since time is not standing still for you, you’re really falling way behind.

The trick is to start seeing seeing more things as “worms”. Start seeing them for what they are: distractions and destroyers of your dreams. Sounds easy, but how?!

It’s really easy, actually. You must simply decide exactly what you want before “seeing the menu”!

If you want to make money online, you must first determine what your skills and passions are. From there, you can come up with a plan, and instantly know the “worms” from the “chocolate”. You’ll know which opportunities are in line with your desires, and which will just bog you down.

That’s why setting goals and the law of attraction are so vital to success. Having a clear direction allows you to easily take the shortest path. You’ll also start to see more “worms” on the menu! By now you should see why having worms on the menu is a good thing, and the more the better.

More than half of the complementary “Wrong Action Kills, Right Action Manifests” report is devoted to helping you clarify your goals. It doesn’t matter if you are interested in business, making money, or personal growth, knowing precisely where you want to go will exponentially speed up your progress.

Here are a few tricks that you can use to start seeing more “worms” in your life…

• Decide what you want to eat before you enter a restaurant.
• Make a list before going to the store, and stick to it.
• Keep a prioritized “to do” list, and update it each night before bed.
• Create a “dream board” with your dreams and desires and keep it in a place you see it often.
• Have a written list of tasks you want to accomplish on the computer before sitting down at it. Then follow the list (checking email every minute is probably NOT on your list).
• … I could keep going, but it’s your turn… leave a comment with your own suggestions or ideas!

For a sales and marketing take on “worms”, head over to Ryan M. Healy’s exceptional Business Growth Blog where he has a post titled Improve Sales by Taking Away Their Freedom.

Got a bunch of “worms” on you shelf collecting dust? Clean ‘em up. There’s a good quick post at Internet Business Opportunities called “It’s time to let them go…”

Now, don’t you see how great it is to have lots of “worms” on your menu?

I do.

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Unless I’m at the movies, I try to avoid unnecessary drama. Maybe you do as well. But drama often finds us no matter how much we duck for cover…

• Drama as… business plans gone astray
• Drama as… problems and personalities at work
• Drama as… money troubles
• Drama as… name callers, deceitful business practices, and being lied to or lied about
• Drama as… relationship challenges/breakups
• and so on…

It’s inescapable. It’s also a success jump-starter with few equals. Here’s a definition of drama:

“an episode that is turbulent or highly emotional”

So, we know drama is basically a highly emotional situation. Sales people and motivation experts know that Emotion Sells, and Logic Rationalizes. In other words, emotion leads to action. It should be obvious that action is required for success, and rarely does new action happen without emotion being involved.

How can this realization help you? Well, first think back to any major positive change or success you’ve had…

• It could be business related, like your first sale, a great job interview or the day you quit your day job because your own business surpassed it in income.
• How about your first date, a marriage proposal, or a long overdue breakup.
• Maybe, like me, it’s “getting out of your shell” and making your first public online posts, setting up a blog, interacting with others, and learning to thrive on it–thanks everyone for reading

Did any of those events lack considerable emotion? NO.

Why should the so-called “negative” drama lead to anything different? If you learn to recognize all emotions as rocket fuel to propel you towards positive change and success, you will become nearly unstoppable. In fact they are just what you *need* to make changes that you already know you should make.

As I’ve mentioned before (What Are You Really Doing To Succeed Online), part of the secret is to become more aware of your actions, emotions, and results. If they aren’t useful, move on to something else, and see what happens.

Did you notice the line above: “changes that you already know you should make?” Well, that can be a problem for some. You won’t know what changes you should make if you don’t know exactly what you want and have worked on a plan to get there.

You can find a detailed goal setting plan, and some great ideas on getting to where you want to go in my report Wrong Action Kills, Right Action Manifests Online Success. It doesn’t cost anything. Don’t worry if you aren’t here to make money online, or if you don’t have any interest in setting up an Internet business. The report has worksheets that anyone can use to plan their goals, and some tips on the success process.

I know drama can be anything but easy at times, but combined with a solid plan, it really can move you forward faster than anything else I know.

So.. What are you going to do with your current, or next emotionally charged situation?! Let it keep you awake with doubt, worry or anger; or are you going to use the fuel you are given to propel you in the direction you desire?

Learn from everything, make the right choice, and enjoy your dreams.

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