Internet Business and Personal Success

There’s a saying in my house… the refrigerator is where food goes to die.

It’s true too. If we eat out, invariably the leftovers go to the fridge. Then a week later we notice the “dead” food and toss is out.  The same holds true if we make a bit too much to eat at home. I’m not sure what our aversion to left-overs is, but I have a feeling the reason behind it is a big problem a lot of us face.

You probably think I’m crazy for bringing up dead food. But I noticed a very similar pattern in many other areas.

For instance, as startup internet business owners, we may go out and buy, read and listen to things just because they’re new. We listen once, then move on to the next “big thing”. Never mind that the information we got a year or two ago is still viable, and could help us move closer to our goals. Furthermore, it could be all we really need to truly turn the corner of online success.

Instead we seek something new, easier, quicker and more “perfect” than the last thing, and we don’t move forward because we’re always in study mode. We put the information on the shelf to die.

Contrast this to any of the current and great copywriters, you’ll see that they not only study the teachings of yesteryear, they still follow the same basic structure that was laid out many years ago. They take what still works, add their own flare, test and tweak it, and then repeat.

Sure, in the case of food, it rots and becomes inedible, so the analogy isn’t ideal… But the same kind of food fresh the next week is still yummy and nourishing. The same basic ingredients are there and it’s as tasty/useful as it was the week prior.

Same for most of the information we collect. In fact is you go back far enough you may find that what’s old is new again. Look at fashion, cars, music… It all comes back and becomes the latest thing. Maybe you can find some hidden gold in the knowledge you already have.

So, what’s on your shelf that you could put to use today?

Do you find yourself caught in a self defeating cycle? If you step back and think about what I’ve said, does anything look different to you now?

In…

• your business?
• your relationships?
• your desires?
• your hobbies?
• your music - ok, I’m listening to one of my favorite bands who have a new album out after 16+ years… Was (not Was), and the album Boo! Music is a great example of this concept…

If not, that’s fine. I’m simply passing on something I became aware of, that’s helped me move forward in projects that otherwise might have had me blogged down in the “need for new”. You’ll see (specifically) what I mean shortly, but in the meantime I suggest raiding the refrigerator for new ideas!
Oh,… and please let me know what you find!

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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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I’m fairly certain that you are actually smarter than you act. Sadly, you may be acting stupid, and I’m often in the same boat as you. Without proper focus, you’re doing things. This is not to say that you are stupid, I’d be willing to bet that you aren’t. You’re just doing some stupid things. Just like me.

Why so harsh? There’s an enlightening article in The Atlantic, which basically says that multitasking makes you stupid and slow, and who isn’t multitasking these days?

• The tv’s on in the background while we “work” on a project
• We’re on the phone while driving
• We’re checking email 10 times an hour while writing an article, or performing some vital business task
• The number of web browser windows that are open an awaiting our attention is well in the the double digits
• Chewing gum while walking seems like child’s play–better add a cell phone and a jump rope

It’s a long article, but worth reading if only to scare you straight. I really love the part where a researcher gives hope for multitaskers. He says that people can actually learn to do 2 tasks “at once” as well as someone who does them sequentially. Ah… Hope! Of course, his studies indicate that it takes 2000 times before this is exhibited. So much for the good news.

Computers multi task, and it often slows them down to a crawl. Much of the time, they are responsive. This is usually because they’re doing relatively little in the background. But take your basic machine, and do something like search for all files on the main hard drive that contain the text “internet marketing”. Let it go and find those files. Then start using the machine for something else. Web Browsing. Write an article. Run your virus checker… You’ll likely notice a huge difference in responsiveness of the machine. It’ll take you longer to do what you want to do, and it’ll also take the machine longer to find the files.

This happens for a reason other than the cpu speed. It happens because there’s another bottleneck in the system, the hard drive. Not matter how fast the computer chip can process things, it still needs to access data on the hard drive to accomplish its tasks. The hard drive is extremely slow compared to the cpu, so the cpu ends up waiting around a lot for it to return data.

While I don’t know what the bottleneck in you is, I’m sure at least one exists, and if you are attempting to concentrate one more than one thing at a time, you will slow down, and become stupid. At least temporarily. The easy remedy?

1. Do one thing at a time, and do it well.
2. Focus only on that one thing.
3. Get it done. Finish it.
   
4. Move on the the next thing.

No bottleneck… Just results.How will this work for you?

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