Archive for motivation tips
Focussing on the “Want To” Not the “How To”
Posted by: | CommentsI’ve had a complaint that, of late, my blog posts have been a bit boring. And if you’re not into the Ed Dale Challenge I can see why that would be. And, even if you are, I’ve not really made them personal. It’s been a bit a of a gallop through as I try to catch up, so I can see there’s not been much of interest.
And that makes me realise I’m trying to catch up so I can write about it on my blog because I’m being mentored by Ed and it’s his thing.
But is it my thing? That’s such an important question to ask yourself. Are your working at something because you want to or because you feel you “should”.
Truth be told, I’m not enjoying writing about the Challenge so far because most of it I’ve covered before and I’m only really interested in the new stuff, and that lack of interest is reflected in my writing. So, I will no longer write because I think I “should” and hopefully things will become interesting again.
While I’ve been busy boring readers with my Challenge renditions I’ve been avoiding writing about the more important stuff that I’ve been grappling with. To tell the truth I’ve been feeling a bit embarrassed about my lack of progress.
The “should” of writing about the Challenge is part of a bigger “should” connected with how I “do” my business. It’s been Ok reporting about my experiences of tackling CFT and the daily grind, as long as I was actually doing it.
I thought I could sustain hours of doing work I really did not enjoy because I was determined to create a successful internet business. But, it’s not working for me. I’m finding the end goal is not sufficient motivation to keep me in the grind.
So, what to do?
I could throw in the towel once and for all and feed the story that I will never be successful at this, or I can shift my focus.
One of the problems with living in the grind is you lose your creativity and things get to look a bit black and white, a bit either/or. It’s easy to get caught up in the details and the “how to” and before you know it you’ve lost touch with the “want to”.
If I change the question I ask from “can I do this?” to “do I want to do this?”, I find my answer is still “yes”.
So, I need to take a step back in order to gain some perspective and reconnect with what it is I really want to do.
As Michael Neill, a widely respected transformation coach says, “if you allow yourself to navigate by your own desire instead of what’s possible you’ll find so much more is possible than you currently think”.
So, I’m going to have a week of paying close attention to what I really want to be doing at any moment and experimenting with what happens when I do.
Jonathan Fields’s Turning Fear Into Fuel Speech
Posted by: | Comments“I cannot resign myself to the notion of living the rest of my life in a vacuum of regret.
I cannot resign myself to the notion that I will have spent time on this earth with never having done anything to actually come alive, out of fear.
And I cannot fathom that in some way, in my action or inaction, I may have taught my daughter . . . to do the same.”
- Jonathan Fields
The 5 CFT Challenge
Posted by: | CommentsLast week Ed Dale challenged his motorees to research, build and initially promote a website, with an eye to selling it 3 to 6 months down the road. No big deal you may be thinking but the twist is that this has to be done within the space of 5 Critical Focus Time sessions.
At first sight this may seem like Ed has joined the “get rick quick/throw it against the wall and see what sticks” brigade but there’s some masterful cunning behind his plan.
Apparently, many of us have been moaning about life in the grind (well, there’s a surprise) so this is one way to add a bit of variety away from our core sites, thus helping us stay motivated.
Secondly, it gives those mentorees who are in full-time jobs, with time for only 1 CFT a day, something to get going quickly on.
Also, it gives us more opportunities to fail in the field and make useful mistakes rather than over thinking things.
But, most importantly, it gives us practice and training at taking action, which will ultimately lead to success.
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So, count me in.
I love the idea of making things happen fast. It’s way too easy for me to get hung up on the details and then stall. With this challenge the focus is on the race against the clock rather than on the end result. More of a “can I get it all done in the space of a CFT block?” rather than “can I get it done exactly right?”.
So “how long is a CFT block?”. Well, Ed works in 30 minute blocks – 25 minutes on and 5 off – but I prefer 1 hour blocks with 45 minutes on and 15 off so that’s what I’ll be sticking with.
Here’s how the challenge breaks down:
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CFT 1
1. Pick Market
2. Find a keyword that works
3. Pick some category keywords
4. Register domain name
5. Write classic beginner draft for first blog post
CFT 2
1. Write draft article suitable for spinning for article directories
2. Create blog
3. Add analytics
4. Edit earlier draft post and upload to blog
5. Do basic bookmarking of post for indexing purposes
CFT 3/4
1. Edit article written previously for spinning and add to Article Marketing Automation (AMA)
2. Set up Google Reader to monitor niche
3. Draft an article to spin and submit to AMA next week
CFT 5
1. Do some by hand backlinking from authority blogs, forums and sites
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Therafter, spin and submit one article per theme keyword, per week until you are ready to sell or develop the site.
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So, that’s it.
Sounds fun to me. I’ll write posts about my progress and add the links here for those who want to follow on. And, if anyone wants to give it ago themselves please leave a comment and let us know how it’s going. Or, if you need a bit of help getting started you can ask your questions here too.
Life In The Grind
Posted by: | CommentsLife in the Grind was the subject of last week’s webinar. Apparently, there are a few mentoring students moaning about the boring work they’re doing. And, I have to admit, I’m one of them. Dull, dull. Endlessly dull.
The good news is I’m keeping at it. I’m plodding on and, for the most part, not being diverted. So that’s a success. Hoorah!
Before my 1:1 call with Ed Dale last week, I made a hasty dash to complete my CFT file. I’d been slacking a bit. Not wishing to gloss over the truth my last entry recorded:
21.4.10
45 mins 3 by hand comments
45 mins Faffed around
45 mins Faffed around
Fundamentally, I was struggling from a lack of variety. And, a lack of not noticing exactly what I’d achieved. Oh yeah, and from impatience.
Ed wrote a great blog post about this topic earlier in the week – How Farmville holds the secret to online success or something. In it, he explains that in the computer game World of Warcraft, apparently paid for and played by 11.5 million people per month, players (Oops, sorry, gamers) talk about “grinding”, i.e. getting to the next level. How soon they do that is a function of time spent playing the game, i.e. DOING stuff.
The equivalent in internet marketing is what you do in your Critical Focus Time which, as we know, consists of stuff like creating content and building back links.
So, considering the fact that most people who have a go at the internet marketing game don’t get very far, and faced with a bunch of moaning mentees, Ed poses an interesting question – given that millions are willing to grind away at games such as World of Warcraft everyday where there’s no monetary reward, where as in internet marketing being willing to work means you end up with actual cash -
“What’s different, what makes one form of grinding a game loved by millions and one seem like dreary work?”
Two things jump out at me in answer to that:
1. Implicit in the build up to the question is the assumption that people are “doing” internet marketing purely for financial gain. Now, admittedly that’s what most people would say they are doing but, in my experience as a coach, it’s never about the money. It’s what you think the money will buy you that’s what you’re really after. And if you don’t know what that is it’s hard to keep going when the going gets tough. If you can connect your end goal to your daily grind then you will find it easier to stay motivated. But just saying you want to make money isn’t sufficient.
2. The words “seem like dreary work” are an interesting choice. The fact is, no work is, in and of itself, dreary. Only your thinking makes it so. So, as I mentioned in ‘How To Manage Boring and Repetitive Tasks‘ if you keep telling yourself what you’re doing is boring then you’ll be right. Your work will be boring. (Note to self – please remember this and adjust voices in head accordingly!)
By making the daily grind into a bit of a game you can begin to play with ways of making it more interesting. For ideas on how to do this read the “boring and repetitive tasks” post. I would add to that the strategy of mixing things up. So far my focus has been on this website and building traffic to this website. Now that is ticking over I am ready to add a bit of variety and will be revisiting my old websites to see what might be done with them. Do I work on them and sell them? Do I just sell them? Do I work on them and keep them? Not sure.
The key thing is to accept is that the daily grind is a part of setting up an internet marketing business, that cannot be avoided. (At least in the beginning). So you might as well accept it. Then you can free up the energy, currently used in complaining, and use it on experimenting to find the ways that will make this process less painful for you. And, who knows? You might even find yourself enjoying it!
How To Manage Boring and Repetitive Tasks
Posted by: | CommentsWe established in Once The Shiny Wears Off that one of the challenges in the early stages of setting up an internet marketing business is the necessity to consistently complete tasks that, for most of us, are boring and repetitive.
So, here are 5 ways to help make these early days a little less onerous:
1. Know Why You Are Doing It
If you know what you want to achieve from having an internet marketing business you can remind yourself of this when the going gets tough. The more specific you are the better. Don’t just say I want to get rich. Get clear about how much you want to earn on an anuual basis and then spend some time thinking about why you picked that amount.
Pay particular attention to what you are waiting to create in the the furture that you could do/have in some form now. Then don’t wait. Do it now.
2. Don’t Keep Giving Yourself Negative Messages
Don’t keep telling yourself how “boring” it is – or whatever your particular moan is. Don’t talk about it, either to others or in you head. Just get on with it.
The human brain is a magical biocomputer. It sends us energy when we send it something inspiring and it slows us down when we send it something negative or depressing.
The important bit to understand is that we are the ones who are sending the thoughts to the computer. Life doesn’t send the brain anything. We do by how we interpret what life offers and the story we tell ourselves about it. For example we might say “These tasks are dull and boring and I don’t want to do them” or we could say “This process is a necessary step along the way that is taking me closer to what I want and it won’t be like this forever”. Both are interpretations and stories. BUT, one sends energy and enthusiasm and the other frustration and fatigue.
3. Break Your Work Down Into Manageable Chunks
Don’t work on any one task for longer than 45 minutes. And break up the work with something that requires you to move your body and get away from the computer. ( See my Critical Focus Time post for more on this).
4. Celebrate Your Successes
Rather than focussing on what you still have to do make a record of what you’ve done. For example, I’ve found it motivating to have a chart on my wall that I colour in every time I write a new article. I also have one for number of articles submitted. Watching the numbers increase shows me that I’m achieving something, even if the anticipated results of my work, in terms of visitor numbers, rankings etc. have yet to arrive and this helps me stay motivated.
Another example is recording exactly what you’ve done in your CFT.
5. Learn Something New
Whist your daily work is still at the stage of boring and repetitive it’s worth making the time to learn something new. This may or may not be work related. However, DO NOT do this, until you’ve completed your CFT activities.
Research shows that the brain actually adds physical capacity (similar to the way an exercised arm adds strength) when you learn something new. It doesn’t just add the information, it adds “learning strength” by way of dendrite growth in the physical brain that can actually be measured.
When you learn a new language, or a musical instrument, for example, your brain actually grows smarter and more capable of solving problems. So keep your brain healthy by balancing out the monotony with something new and stimulating.
Whatever you choose to do, there is no getting away from the necessity to develop discipline and keep repeating the essential tasks in your critical focus time blocks, if you want to make a success of your online business. Hopefully the 5 tips above will make your efforts a little easier so, before you know it, you can outsource this stuff and spend more time on the things that are most inspiring to you.
Creating a Productive Work Environment
Posted by: | CommentsI’m feeling pretty proud of myself for actually managing to put pen to paper today. It’s the first day back to work after the Easter break and I’m having a great deal of trouble cranking up the energy, not least because it’s a beautiful, sunny, spring day.
But these are the times when it’s especially important to keep your agreements with yourself. The longer I let things slide the harder it is to get going again and the longer it will be before I see results that will help to motivate me further. And, in the meantime, there’s the little boost in energy I always feel, when I’ve kept my agreements, especially when it took some effort to do so.
So, here I am in my favourite cafe, treating myself to a cappuccino and writing. And of all the “tricks” I have for developing my writing habit this one is my favourite. I find it very hard to write at home. It’s the same with any task I’m resisting. There are just too many distractions – too many excuses. But taking myself off to an environment I enjoy being in works a treat.
I find that even when I’m really struggling to write I will always produce something when I’m in the cafe. Even if it’s not particularly good. I also enjoying writing in the public library (reminds me of happy college days) and on a bench on the prom overlooking the beach.
A productive environment is an important factor in relation to motivation so I recommend experimenting with what works/doesn’t work for you. It’s not just about physical space either. I find I can’t write, for example, if there are songs playing in the background. Classical music I can manage but anything with words I can hear and I just can’t concentrate.
Sometimes I find lighting a candle on my desk helps me to tackle tasks I’ve been putting off. No idea why. There’s just something I find comforting about it.
So, I encourage you to experiment with different places and environmental conditions and build up a selection of circumstances that help you feel more motivated to work on those tasks you have been procrastinating over.
Internet Marketing History Shows A Lack Of Internal Motivation
Posted by: | CommentsI first tried my hand at internet marketing back in 2005, when adsense fortunes were being made practically overnight. I was instantly hooked by the ability to create a site and start earning money within 2-3 days. It wasn’t really the money that hooked me in though, although I was unaware of this at the time, it was more the excitement of the numbers. Of being able to see things change (pages indexed, adsense earned etc.) almost instantly.
But the easy money adsense days came to an inevitable swift end and I then spent years in the web marketing wilderness trying to recreate that buzz. I tried Underachievers, Ultraunderachievers, Jeff Johnson’s Coaching Club, Perry Marshall’s Adwords Course, Traffic King Pro, PLRPro’s 90 day challenge, the 30 day challenge, The Lazy Affiliate, PPC Kahuna, authority loophole, and numerous seminars etc. etc. But all to no avail. Until this year, I never managed to create a decent IM income again.
Looking back I can see that all my previous attempts at setting up an internet marketing business were externally motivated. I was focussed on the money I thought I would earn and the tactics that would get me there. I never stopped to question why I was really doing it or what I was hoping to achieve, beyond the dollars. I just blindly started, but rarely finished, one project after another.
And I am not alone. Thousands of people have spent thousands of dollars chasing the internet marketing dream but relatively few have succeeded. In some cases this is simply due to a lack of skills but more often than not it is due to a poor understanding of what it is we are really after. We find ouselves chasing a dream that’s not really ours and focussing on purely external goals. When these goals aren’t connected to our internal motivation then it’s easy to get distracted and give up when the going gets tough. So we adandon what we’ve been trying and move on to the next shiny, new toy.
So, this time around, I’ve taken the time to consider why I am trying internet marketing again and what my internal motivation is. This has allowed me to define success on my own terms rather than in purely monetary ones. Instead of blindly chasing the “get rich” dream and making money the goal I have set up the game so I can play it by my own rules and measure success in a way that is meaningful to me. So now when the challenges come they will be worth making the effort to face because the reasons I am doing this are now connected to my internal motivation.
