Archive for commitment
Preparing To Fail the 2010 Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsIn Day 4 of “Ed Dales The Challenge” Ed talks about setting expectations and making a commitment to completing the challenge. But saying you’re committed and actually making a commitment are 2 very different things. When my internet marketing coaching clients tell me they’ve made a commitment to something I ask them how they know that for certain. For example, if they haven’t blocked out time on their calendar, it usually shows me that the commitment has not been fully made. You never really know you are committed to something unless you take action that demonstrates that and continue taking action. A good first step, after allocating time on your calendar is to complete the “preparing to fail” exercise.
This exercise starts from the premise that most of the time we know in advance what is likely to trip us up and prevent us from being successful. We make our excuses and prepare our stories, in advance, even if only at the back of our minds.
Getting those excuses out of your head and onto paper gives you the opportunity to confront them and decide whether or not, this time, you’d like to do things differently.
In the case of the 2010 Challenge ask yourself:
If I fail to complete the 2010 Challenge what will be the reason?
What else?
What else?
Keep asking yourself “What Else”? until you have come up with all the possibilities you can think of.
Here are some 7 common excuses that people use when starting something new:
- I don’t have the money – Ed has pretty much ruined this one since the Challenge is free.
- I don’t have the time – Again, the fact that it’s only 30 minutes a day makes this one hard to sustain.
- I don’t know enough – Well, that’s the point of the Challenge – to teach you how.
- Other people will stop me.
- I don’t have enough energy, don’t feel well, feel too stressed.
- I’m not clever enough.
- I don’t want it enough.
If you’ve been reading my blog I bet you can guess what my personal favourite is. Yep. That’s right. ”It’s too boring”, closely followed by number 7. But knowing that in advance meant I was forearmed and when I truly made the commitment to growing an internet marketing business (remember I’ve been playing around in this arena for years) I followed a strategy that would minimise their effect on me. Namely, joining Ed’s mentoring program and taking on a personal coach, paid for upfront.
As far as the 2010 Challenge is concerned you probably don’t need anything quite so dramatic but you DO need to do something to demonstrate to yourself that you are truly committed to this.
You could try the above exercise, join a team as recommended in the forum and make yourself accountable, make a public announcement by leaving a comment here, or whatever works for you. Doesn’t matter what it is but just saying you’re committed is not enough. You need to demonstrate that commitment.
Take action now and, if you start to falter, feel free to skype me on challenge.100 and I will help in whatever way I can.
Ed Dale’s The Challenge – Day 4
Posted by: | CommentsDay 4 of the pre-Challenge is all about setting expectations.
As we know, the focus of The Challenge is on building the foundations of a successful internet business and making your first dollar. In any business the people who are successful are those who do what is necessary on a daily basis.
In the 2010 Challenge that means “Testing a niche and looking for that right combination of factors that tell you to move forward. Testing your actions from each of the modules and measuring your results. . .
The most crucial thing to get from the entire Challenge is to just stick to it. To put in those thirty minutes a day, for those seven days, for those seven modules. Turn up and be prepared to work, spend that thirty minutes a day, take the action required each day. That momentum adds up to taking you a step closer each time to being successful online.”
Ed is convinced that, more than for any previous Challenge – effort will be rewarded.
And, having grappled with the “whole turning up and getting the work done” thing I can confirm that eventually, if you just keep at it, the right work habit will begin to form. My early days of applying critical focus time were tough and, if I hadn’t signed up for the mentoring, I wouldn’t have stuck at it. But now I get the work done much faster and with less moaning and I am transforming myself into a person who can run a successful business.
One thing I find very useful when I start a new venture is to complete a “preparing to fail” exercise which works on the assumption that most of the time we know, in advance, what’s likely to prevent us from being successful. Read my next post “Preparing to Fail the 2010 Challenge” for more details.
Be The Change You Want To See
Posted by: | CommentsIt’s 8.30 a.m. and I’m already in my favourite cafe ready to go. I’m amazed at how busy it is. I’m often still in my dressing gown at this time of the day!
I’m here so bright and early because I wanted to write a blog post after my coaching session yesterday and recognised that I was unlikely to do it at home or in the co-working space I use. It feels a bit of a challenge and, as I mentioned in my creating a my productive environment post, my best strategy for overcoming my resistance is to take myself off to a caff and work there.
I had a great session with my coach yesterday afternoon. We explored the conflict between my desire to build an internet marketing business and my lack of drive to do so. It feels like I am constantly having to haul myself back onto the path. Constantly fighting resistance and constantly turning it into more of a drama than it really is. But, that’s OK. I’m new at this.
And when I say “this”, I don’t mean internet marketing. I’ve been playing around with that for years. By “this” I mean being truly committed to making a go of it. To really treating it like a business and connecting with it, rather than speaking the words and not acting on them. And when I say “acting on them” I don’t mean simply taking action but taking the right action. Taking the action that someone who was truly committed to building an internet marketing business would take.
The main takeaway from the session was what I’ve advocated on this blog, a number of times, namely, to connect what you are doing with why you are doing it. I keep forgetting to do this. Talk about “you teach best what you most need to learn”!
But there’s a bit of a twist for me. As you know by now, it’s not just about the money. It would be great to be in a financial position whereby my partner could give up his job, but that’s not enough to keep me at it.
I also want to coach and am not clear how that would actually look.
Because I want a successful internet marketing business whilst also wanting to coach, the purposes behind my sites have got a bit blurred. It’s a bit of a struggle to try and get traffic to this site using SEO because internet marketing is a saturated market, filled with experts. So, I need to return to where I started and treat Internet Marketing Coaching Year, primarily as a place where a story is told.
Then, my other sites, become “grist for the mill” for that story.
So what exactly is that story?
It is the story of someone who has been involved in internet marketing for 7 or 8 years without ever making a full-time living from it who is turning it around, not with strategies and tactics, but by transforming herself.
And that is the nub of my coaching. If you are currently unsuccessful at internet marketing, and you’ve been at it for a while, no amount of “better” strategies and tactics will change that. YOU have to change. You have to be the change you want to see.
At the start of each day, rather than asking yourself “What am I going to do today?” ask yourself “Who am I going to be today?” and then act accordingly.
